Alabama Advisory Opinions July 20, 2018: AGO 2018-041 (July 20, 2018)

Advisory Opinion Text

Honorable Susan H. Shorter

Barbour County Judge of Probate

303 East Broad Street

Room 101

Eufaula, AL 36027

Newspapers - Legal Notices -Publications - Advertising - Voter List

A newspaper that has not been in circulation for 51 weeks is ineligible to run legal notices, including the list of qualified voters.

Only a newspaper that is capable of meeting all of the requirements of section 6-8-60 of the Code of Alabama may publish legal notices.

Dear Judge Shorter:

This opinion of the Attorney General is issued in response to your request.

QUESTIONS

(1) Is a newspaper eligible to run legal notices, including the list of qualified voters, when the newspaper has not been publishing under a publication class postal permit for 51 weeks immediately prior to publication of the legal notice?

(2) If not, what is the earliest that a legal notice would be published in the newspaper?

FACTS AND ANALYSIS

Your request states that one family owned a local newspaper from 1915 until 2017. You further state that, in early 2017, the family sold the paper to a third party. The third party continued publication of the paper for only a few months. The last issue of the paper was in May 2017. The paper was subsequently reacquired by the original owners in 2018. This local paper was not in circulation for approximately ten months. The first edition of the reconstituted paper was on April 5, 2018, which represented to its previous readership that it would be extending subscriptions for eight months. It appears that the prior established subscription base is automatically receiving the newspaper. This Office understands that the newspaper did not have a publication class postal permit until recently.

The probate judge is required to publish the voter's list pursuant to section 17-4-1 of the Code of Alabama. Ala. Code § 17-4-1 (2006). This Office has determined that the list required pursuant to section 17-4-1 must be published in a newspaper that meets the requirements of section 6-8-60 of the Code of Alabama. Opinion to Honorable Harry D'Olive, Judge of Probate, Baldwin County Courthouse, dated August 6, 1982, A.G. No. 82-00494. Section 6-8-60(b) states as follows:

(b) All publications required by any law, mortgage, or other contract to be published in a newspaper must be published in any newspaper printed in the English language which has a general circulation in the county, regardless of where the paper is printed, if the principal editorial office of the newspaper is located within the county and which newspaper shall have been mailed under the publication class mailing privilege of the United States Postal Service from the post office where it is published for at least 51 weeks a year. The newspaper shall, without additional charge, also upload legal notice publications to a statewide website established and maintained by an entity having the capacity and ability to receive and upload notices from a majority of newspapers in this state. Any newspaper which also publishes a website in its own name shall also post legal notice publications on an Internet website published by the newspaper without additional charge.

Ala. Code § 6-8-60(b) (2014) (emphasis added).

This Office has determined that in order to be a newspaper of general circulation, the newspaper must have been published for the prior 51 weeks. Opinions to Honorable Joe R. Carothers, Jr., dated May 6, 1987, A.G. No. 87-00169; Honorable Sandra Lasseter, Chairman, Board of Registrars, dated August 24, 1995, A.G. No. 95-00301; Honorable Wallace Wyatt, Probate Judge, St. Clair County, dated September 15, 1981, A.G. No. 81-00568 (stating that section 6-8-60 requires a newspaper to publish for at least 51 weeks a year before it is eligible to publish legal notices); Honorable Sherrie Phillips, Covington County Probate Judge, dated August 11, 1995, A.G. No. 95-00286. Further, the newspaper must be mailed through the publication class rate, the usual newspaper rate. Cobbs v. Patterson, 275 Ala. 84, 152 So.2d 151 (1963); Lasseter.

This Office understands that, in the present matter, the publication permit was expedited and authorized as of May 3, 2018, by the United States Postal Service. The effective date of the publication permit, however, is April 4, 2018, one day before the opening issue of the reconstituted paper. Previously, this Office has determined that a pending publication permit for a newspaper that had been in circulation for 51 weeks was not sufficient to meet the requirements of section 6-8-60. Opinion to Honorable Jack Venable, Member, House of Representatives, dated July 2, 1996, A.G. No. 96-00250. Similarly, although a publication permit has been issued, the current paper has not been in circulation for 51 weeks. Instead, the publication has been in circulation for less than one-half of that time. Accordingly, it is the opinion of this Office that the local newspaper does not meet the requirements as set forth in section 6-8-60.

Next, you question when a newspaper as described in your facts may be eligible to publish legal notices. Only newspapers that are capable of meeting all of the requirements set forth in section 6-8-60 may publish legal notices. As such, the family-owned newspaper herein described must be in circulation for a minimum of 51 weeks before it may obtain legal notices.

CONCLUSION

A newspaper that has not been in circulation for 51 weeks is ineligible to run legal notices, including the list of qualified voters.

Only a newspaper that is capable of meeting all of the requirements of section 6-8-60 of the Code of Alabama may publish legal notices.

I hope this opinion answers your questions. If this Office can be of further assistance, please contact Monet Gaines of my staff.

Sincerely,

STEVEN T. MARSHALL Attorney General

G. Ward Beeson, III Chief, Opinions Division