Montana Attorney General Opinion 16-210

Opinion No. 210. County Commissioners-Poor, Con- tracts for Burial of-Embalmers and Undertakers. HELD: In letting a contract for the burial of the county poor the County Commissioners are not limited to the acceptance of a bid of a li- censed embalmer or undertaker. Dec:cmber n, 1935. Mr. Fred C. Gabriel County Attorney Malta, Montana In your letter of Decembcr 7 you asked substantially whether the Coun- ty Commissioners of Phillips county may let a contract for burial of the county poor to a person other than a licensed undertaker and you re- ferred to Sections 4525 and 4526, amended by Chapter 50, Session Laws of 1933, I gather from your letter that in response to the Board's invitation for bids, no licensed undertaker made any bid. It is our opinion that the Board of County Commissioners need not con- cern itself with the question whether any person contracting to defray burial expenses in accordance with Chapter 50, Laws of 1933, is a licensed embalmer or undertaker; for instance, such a person so contracting might have a licensed embalmer do the ac- tual work of preparing a body for burial and interring it. Compliance with the laws, rules and regulations relating to licensing of embalmers and undertakers is the obligation of the person doing the actual work of em- balming and burial and not an obli- gation of the County Commissioners. Of course, in any event, if it is ab- solutely impossible in any given case, to secure the services of a licensed undertaker, the obligation is still upon the board of County Commissioners to see that the dead are buried (R. C. M. 11034).