Attorney General Opinions and Advisory Letters

Opinion No. 15-1633

September 2, 1915

BY: H. S. CLANCY, Assistant Attorney General

TO: Ray Motor Sales Company, Roswell, New Mexico.

Automobile dealers' licenses.

OPINION

{*205} I am in receipt of your letter of the 30th ultimo in regard to the issuance of licenses to dealers in motor vehicles, and about which you ask for the opinion of this office.

Section 384 of the codification of 1915 provides that a dealer in motor vehicles may, instead of registering each vehicle, as provided by Section 382, apply to the Secretary of State for a dealer's {*206} license, and shall pay for such license the sum of $ 12.00 per annum. It will be observed that Section 382 provides for the registration of each vehicle, and further provides that all licenses issued by virtue of such registration shall expire on the 31st of December of each year, providing that any application received and registered after July 1 of any year shall pay one-half of the fee fixed by law. This section of the law in regard to registration has nothing whatever to do with Section 366, which deals only with licenses issued to those engaged in manufacturing or dealing in motor vehicles, and the words in that section, "The fee for a dealer's license shall be $ 12.00 per annum," means twelve months from the date of the issuance of the license, and has nothing whatever to do with the calendar year referred to in Section 382. There is nowhere any provision for the payment of one-half of such a fee so that you will readily see that a dealer is to pay $ 12.00 for his license which is good for twelve months. A legal definition of the words "per annum" is by the year or for the space of a year. The words "per annum" are used in our statutes referring to the issuance of licenses to real estate, collection and insurance agents, and keepers of hotels, inns, restaurants and livery stables who are required to pay a license tax of so much per annum, and it never has been contended that these words had any reference to the calendar year, or that they meant anything except twelve months from the date of the issuance of a license.