South Dakota Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in South Dakota, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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When a Box Elder City Councilperson resigned mid-term and the council appointed a replacement under SDCL 9-13-14.1 'to serve until the next annual municipal election,' did the appointee have to run for retention at the 2016 annual election or at the next regularly scheduled Box Elder election in 2017 (Box Elder's terms were staggered, so no full election was scheduled for 2016)?
The 2016 annual election. The statute said 'next annual municipal election,' not 'next regularly scheduled election.' SDCL 9-13-1 sets an annual election each second Tuesday of April; even if Box Elde…
After SD enacted SDCL 12-19-1.2 in 2013 requiring 46 days of absentee voting, does that 46-day rule apply to municipal (city) elections, or do the smaller 15-day and 7-day periods in SDCL 9-13-21 still control for municipal absentee voting?
The 15-day rule (and 7-day rule for runoff secondary elections) in SDCL 9-13-21 continues to control for SD municipal elections. SDCL 12-1-2 expressly says Title 12 election provisions yield to statut…
If the Lead/Deadwood School District received Deadwood gaming proceeds in January 2003 for the 2002 calendar year, but did not qualify for state school aid during 2002 and only qualified for partial aid in January-June 2003, could the Department of Education and Cultural Affairs offset the entire gaming payment against the partial 2003 aid? How far across fiscal or calendar years could that offset reach?
Yes to the offset, and the offset was not capped by the year boundary. The AG read SDCL 42-7B-48.2 literally: gaming receipts reduce 'any general state aid otherwise payable' dollar-for-dollar, with n…
If a South Dakota homeowner lives in one unit of a duplex or triplex and rents out the others, can the property still qualify for the 20 percent owner-occupied property tax credit? What about a single-family home with a rentable basement apartment?
No to both. The AG read SDCL 10-13-39 as covering only houses, condominium apartments, townhouses, townhomes, and manufactured or mobile homes assessed as a single unit. Duplexes and triplexes are by …
When a South Dakota city is closing its old sanitary landfill and building a new solid waste transfer station, can it pay for the transfer station by issuing utility revenue bonds under SDCL 9-40-1, or are those bonds limited to traditional sewage systems?
Yes. The 1993 SD AG read SDCL 9-40-1's phrase 'sewage and other domestic, commercial and industrial wastes' broadly to cover solid waste, not just sewage that flows through sewer pipes. Limiting the l…
If South Dakota law requires one of the trustees of a county hospital to be a 'legally-qualified physician or nurse,' does that person have to hold an active medical license, or does an inactive license satisfy the rule?
An inactive license is sufficient. The 1993 SD AG read the statutory phrase 'legally qualified' as different from 'licensed.' A physician or nurse who has met the licensure requirements of SDCL ch. 36…
If a South Dakota drainage district was formed in the 1910s or 1920s under the old drainage laws and is still functioning, does it have to file its vested drainage rights with the register of deeds before the 1992 deadline, or are the pre-1985 districts exempt?
No filing required. The 1991 SD AG concluded that a drainage district that was functioning or making assessments in the three years before July 1, 1985, and is therefore preserved under SDCL 46A-10A-4…
Can the South Dakota State Board of Medical and Osteopathic Examiners discipline a physician for sexually harassing prospective employees and having sex with a patient, even though SDCL 36-4-30 does not specifically list those behaviors? And can the Board's investigators access patient medical records under SDCL 36-4-22.1, which only specifically mentions drug records?
Yes to both. SDCL 36-4-29's general grant of authority over 'unprofessional or dishonorable conduct' is not limited by the specific list in SDCL 36-4-30; the listed examples are illustrative, not exha…
South Dakota passed two bills in 1975 that both addressed state-employee sick leave: HB 625 removed the accumulation cap, and SB 102 added a five-day personal-emergency provision but did not touch the accumulation cap. They reach the governor's desk a few days apart. Which one is the law on July 1?
Senate Bill 102 prevails, even though it appears more limited. Under *Nord v. General Life Insurance Company* (S.D. 1945), when the legislature passes inconsistent acts on the same subject at the same…
Can a South Dakota school board buy group insurance that pays its employees a wage substitute when they are out with a disability or sickness, or is that off-limits because the board's enabling statute only mentions 'health' insurance?
Yes. Mydland concluded that wage-protection insurance for disability or sickness fits inside the statutory definition of 'health insurance' in SDCL 58-9-3, so SDCL 13-10-3 authorizes school boards to …
A candidate for Aberdeen mayor had lived in Aberdeen for 25 years total, but had spent about two years living and registered to vote in Sioux Falls before moving back. The statute said a city commissioner must have been 'a resident of the city for at least two years prior to his election.' Did the two-year residency have to come immediately before the election, or could it have been at any earlier time in the candidate's life?
It had to be immediately before the election. The AG ruled that reading the statute to allow any two-year residency from any point in the candidate's past would lead to absurd results (a person who li…
When a husband and wife held twenty acres or more of South Dakota land as joint tenants, were they both considered 'landowners' under Chapter 303 of the 1965 Session Laws and therefore both entitled to vote on watershed district issues affecting the land?
Yes. Both spouses voted. The statute defined a 'landowner' as a South Dakota resident owner of not less than ten acres of land, evidenced by register-of-deeds records. Joint tenancy is an estate in la…
Can Hyde County levy a 1.5 mill 'courthouse, office, or jail building' tax to buy an existing privately owned building to use as a library, and if not, can the county commissioners buy the building anyway?
The 1.5 mill levy was off limits because libraries are not 'courthouses, offices, or jail buildings' within SDC 12.2303. But the commissioners could still buy the building using regular county funds u…
South Dakota's 1963 law paid a state quarters allowance to National Guard enlisted members with dependents during the 'annual active duty training period' if they weren't getting the federal allowance. Could a guardsman get multiple payments in a year? Did the payment cover service schools, basic training, or advance/rear detachment service? Or only summer camp?
Only one quarters payment per annual training period, and only for the formal annual training (commonly called Summer Camp, Summer Field Training, or ANACDUTRA). Service schools, basic training, and t…
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Attorney general opinions in South Dakota are written by the South Dakota Attorney General's office in response to questions from state agencies, legislators, and prosecutors. They are not binding like court decisions, but courts and agencies treat them as persuasive guidance on how state law applies. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original text.