Montana Attorney General Opinion 16-220

Opinion No. 220. Motor Vehicles-Licenses-Dealers- Non-Resident Dealers-Interstate Commerce. HELD: A non-resident automobile dealer cannot be required to pay a dealer's license before being permitted to solicit business from residents of Montana. December 27, 1935 Mr. A. B. Middleton Registrar of Motor Vehicles Deer Lodge, Montana You have submitted the following: "Can a person, firm or corpora- tion who are residents of a foreign state enter this state, either them- selves or by an agent, to solicit busi- ness from the residents of Montana for the purchase of automobiles which would be delivered to the resi- dents of this state? The picture is as follows: "A party living in Williston, North Dakota, which is some thirty odd miles from the Montana line, has been and is intending to again operate in 1936 as an automobile dealer in this state but retains his OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL 229 place of business in Williston. The different automobile dealers in the northeastern part of the state ob- ject to an outside party contacting the automobile owners of this state and endeavoring to sell automobiles without the payment of any license fees." On August 8, 1933, in an opinion to George L. Knight, Chief, Division of Horticulture (Op. 294, Vol. 15), this office rendered an opinion concerning a similar situation, in which we held that a state could not impose a tax or license fee upon non-residents. The reasons given and the authorities cited therein are fully applicable to the question you have propounded. I am, therefore, of the opinion that a non- resident automobile dealer cannot be required to pay a dealer's license be- fore being permitted to solicit busi- ness from residents of Montana. The Act is not broad enough to require such license and if it did, it would be unconstitutional and void in that it would be an attempt to impose a re- striction upon, or regulate interstate commerce in 'violation of the com- merce clause of the Federal Constitu- tion. (See also Volume 14, Opinions of the Attorney General, page 275.)