Opinion No. 19-2282
May 27, 1919
TO: Las Cruces Citizen, Las Cruces, New Mexico.
New Publication Act Does Not Require That Legal Notices Be Published in Spanish Language.
OPINION
Your letter of the 24th instant, addressed to Mr. Askren, has been received at the office during the Attorney General's absence.
You request an opinion from this office as to whether it is necessary to publish in a Spanish edition of a newspaper a summons in a case where one of the parties is a Spanish-American ,a publication having been had in an English newspaper, and referring to Senate Bill No. 50.
An examination of Senate Bill No. 50 shows that no change has been made in the requirements regarding the publication of legal notices in English or Spanish editions of newspapers. Section 1 of the act designates what is a legal newspaper, and states that the same "shall be in a daily, weekly or other newspaper now being published in the English or in the Spanish language, or both, in the State of New Mexico, and that publication shall be made therein at intervals not less frequent than once each week."
There is nothing in the act which provides that legal notices shall be published both in Spanish and in English, this provision being contained in sections 4647 and 4651, Code 1915, and there being no change therein, as above intimated, the old law would govern in the matter of the publication of the summons enclosed with your letter.
Senate Bill No. 50 does not in our opinion affect the publication of legal notices insofar as the requirements of the law requiring the publication of such notices in Spanish or English, or in both languages, are concerned.