Montana Attorney General Opinion 17-3

Opinion No.3. Elections-Canvass, Publication of- County Commissioners, Claims- County Commissioners-Pow- ers-County Printing, Of- ficial Returns Are Not. HELD: There is no authority for the publication of official returns of a county as county printing. December 7, 1936. Mr. E. P. Conwell County Attorney. Carbon County Red Lodge, Montana Dear Sir: You have requested my opi?ion whether or not the county prmter may print official returns for the pri- mary and general elections and collect for such printing as county printing. The county printer in your county pub- lished the official returns on N ovem- ber 13th of this year, without being ordered to do so. He was under the impression that such printing was man- datory, and now seeks to recover for the publication as county printing. You have expressed your opinion that the claim is not a proper charge against the county. With that opinion we agree. It seems superfluous to state that the county printer had no au- thority to charge the county with printing which has not been ordered and which does not come within the terms of his contract. The printing under consideration here was not or- dered. Whether it comes within the terms of the contarct for county print- ing we are not informed. For the pur- pose of this opinion we shall assume that the Board of County Commis- sioners ordered the printing or in- cluded the printing of official election returns in the contract for county printing. The result is the same. The principle is firmly established in this jurisdiction that the Board of County Commissioners may exercise only such powers as are expressly granted it by statute and such as are necessarily implied from those ex- pressly granted. (Lewis v. Petroleum County, 92 Mont. 563; American Surety Co. v. Clarke, 94 Mont. 1.) The authority of the Board of Coun- ty Commissioners, then, to order the printing of official election returns and to pay for such publication from county funds, must be found in the laws of the State of Montana or it cannot be said to exist at all. A close reading on our part of the pertinent provisions of our codes does not dis- close the existence of the particular power sought to be exercised in this instance. (See Volume 2, Official Opin- ions of Attorney General, page 6, which is overruled as to the subject of the second division of the syllabus.)