Pennsylvania Advisory Opinions October 12, 1916: AGO 196

Advisory Opinion Text

IN RE CERTIFICATES OF EXAMINATION OF MINE INSPECTORS.

The certificate given by the Board of Examiners to candidates for Mine Inspector evidencing their qualifications should be filed with the County Commissioners to the proper district.

Sir: Your favor of the 4th inst. is at hand. You ask to be advised whether candidates for the office of Mine Inspector in the Anthracite Coal Region shall file certificates issued by the Mine Inspectors Examining Board with the County Commissioners or with the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and you state that the Commissioners of Northumberland County have refused to accept for filing the certificate of qualification of Mine Inspector B. I. Evans, claiming that it should be filed with the Secretary of the Commonwealth, inasmuch as the Mine Inspector is a State officer.

There is no difficulty about this question. The Act of June 8, 1901, P. L. 535, provides in Article II, for the examination, by a Board of Examiners, of candidates for the office of Inspector and further provides that such Board of Examiners shall give to each candidate a certificate showing that he has passed a successful examination.

Section 7 of that Article provides for the election of Mine Inspectors and Section 8 provides:

"Candidates for the office of mine inspector shall file with the county commissioners a certificate from the mine examining board, as above set forth, before their names shall be allowed to go upon the ballot as provided by the county commissioners for the general election; and the name of no person shall be placed upon the official ballot except such as has filed the certificate as herein required; and no persons shall be qualified to act as such mine inspector unless such certificate has been previously filed with the county commissioners of his county."

The Act of June 1, 1915, P. L. 648, amending Section 7 of the Act of May 3, 1909, which in turn amended the Act of June 8, 1901, above referred to, also provides that when a new district is erected the Judge or Judges, in whom is vested the power of appointing a Board of Examiners for that district, shall appoint a qualified person as inspector, but that

"Said appointee shall be one of the persons who shall have filed with the commissioners of that county, in the judge or judges of whose court is vested the appointing power for that district, a certificate from the Board of Examiners of said district showing that he has passed a successful examination before the said Board, and is qualified for the position of Inspector."

The plain letter of this statute requires the certificates given by Board of Mine Examiners to be filed with the Commissioners of the proper county. The mere fact that a Mine Inspector is a State officer is no justification for setting aside the plain letter of the law. The law must be followed. If it is necessary to file an additional certificate with the Secretary of the Commonwealth for the purpose of certifying the name of an inspector upon the official ballot, that may be done, but the certificate which the statute requires to be filed with the County Commissioners must be filed there.

I, therefore, advise you that the Commissioners of Northumberland County should not refuse to accept and file the certificate of qualification of Mine Inspector B. I. Evans, if he belongs in that district.

Very truly yours,

WILLIAM M. HARGEST, Deputy Attorney General