Oregon Advisory Opinions January 01, 1945: OP 1

Advisory Opinion Text

The provision that on December 31, 1945, all balances in the motor vehicle accident fund shall be transferred to the general fund is mandatory.

December 4, 1944 State Industrial Accident Commission Gentlemen: I have your letter of November 27, 1944, in which you state that the Secretary of State desires to defer the reissuing of any operator's licenses which expire on June 30, 1945, to June 30, 1947. Your question concerns the effect of this contemplated action upon your duties under chapter 402, Oregon Laws 1943.

The motor vehicle accident fund cre­ated by chapter 402, Oregon Laws 1943, derives its revenue from a charge of 25c made to each operator of a motor vehicle securing an operator's permit. You state that the reserve now in the fund is suf­ficient to pay all estimated future claims accruing against the fund to June 30, 1947. However, under section 2 of the act, on December 31, 1945, the balance in the fund as of June 30, 1945, is to be transferred to the general fund. You state the following question:

"The Commission desires a ruling as to whether or not the Actuary of the Commission can estimate the claim cost of the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund to June 30, 1947 and the Com­mission withhold that amount in the reserve, in which event no amendment to the law is necessary."

In other words, whether the date for transferring the balance may be ad­vanced from December 31, 1945, to December 31, 1947.

I am of the opinion that if, for any reason, it should become necessary or desirable to change the date of trans­ferring money from the motor vehicle accident fund to the general fund an amendment to chapter 402, Oregon Laws 1943, would be necessary. Section 2 of that chapter provides in part as follows:

"On December 31, 1945, and on December 31 of each second year thereafter all balances in the motor vehicle accident fund on June 30th immediately preceding said date, after deducting valid claims against the fund accruing on or before said June 30th but paid subsequent thereto, shall be transferred by the state treasurer from said motor vehicle accident fund to the general fund of the state of Oregon." (Italics supplied.) The statute states in substance that on December 31, 1945, all balances in the fund on June 30, 1945, "shall be trans­ferred" to the general fund of the state of Oregon. "Shall be transferred" on December 31, 1945, is equivalent to "must be transferred" on December 31, 1945. In Opinions of the Attorney General, 1936-1938, page 56, we quoted with ap­proval a general rule of construction from Volume 4, Words and Phrases, Second Edition, page 558, as follows: "The presumption is that the word 'shall' in a statute is used in an im­perative, and not in a directory, sense. If a different interpretation is sought, it must rest upon something in the character of the legislation or in the context which will justify a different meaning."

I find nothing in the statute which would justify any other conclusion than that the time specified for the transfer of funds is a mandatory provision.

GEORGE NEUNER, Attorney General, By Grace L. Bottler, Assistant.

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