STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA
OFFICE OF
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

December 16, 1970

Don Burton, Secretary-Treasurer
South Dakota State Plumbing Board
Rapid City, South Dakota 57701

OFFICIAL OPINION NO. 70-52

Plumbers or plumbing contractors must register as such after July 1, 1970. No exemption from registration granted by grandfather clause. Ch. 222, Laws of 1970 (SDCL 36-25)

Dear Mr. Burton:

You have requested an opinion in regard to certain provisions of SDCL 36-25 which became effective July 1, 1970. This Act creates a State Plumbing Board and provides for the regulation and licensing of plumbers in this state.

Section 12 of said Act states:

No person shall engage in or do work as a plumbing contractor, plumber or plumber's apprentice in any municipality of over 1500 population as shown by the last federal decennial census unless registered to do so by the board; provided, that any person may do plumbing work which complies with the provisions of the minimum standards prescribed by the board on property owned and occupied by him, or on premises where he may be employed in full time maintenance work.

Section 13 provides that any person, firm or corporation violating any of the provisions of this Act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and subject to a fine not exceeding $100.00, or imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed 30 days, or by both such fines and imprisonment.

Section 5 provides for the registration and issuance of a permit to applicants who have successfully qualified for such permit under the provisions of this Act and payment of proper fees. Section 6 details the method of applying for such plumber's permits, and provides such expire on December 31 of each year, but may be renewed upon application not later than the following January 31.

Section 8 provides:

All persons who, within eighteen months after this act becomes effective, shall furnish satisfactory evidence to the board that they were actually engaged in the business of a plumbing contractor or as a plumber on the effective date of this act in this state, shall be entitled to receive a permit as such plumbing contractor or plumber without examination upon the payment of those fees herein provided for.

The question you have submitted is whether or not a plumber or plumber contractor may engage in such occupation after July 1, 1970. It, in unmistakable, uncompromising language, states that after such date it is illegal to engage in the business of plumbing as a contractor, or plumber, without registration under the Act, unless such work is done on premises owned and occupied by him, or are done as a part of full-time maintenance work employment, and complies with the minimum standards for plumbing prescribed by the Plumbing Board, and such is done in a municipality of over 1500 population. This illegality is further strengthened by Section 13, which makes such action, without registration, a misdemeanor.

Section 8, which is a peculiar "grandfather clause," does not say that existing plumbing contractors or plumbers may wait an eighteen month period for registration, but rather says that within a period of eighteen months after the effective date of the Act, a plumbing contractor or plumber, giving satisfactory evidence that he was engaged as such on the effective date of the Act (July 1, 1970) may be registered and issued a permit without examination, but upon tender of the proper fees. This section implies that 1f a person engaged as a plumbing contractor, or plumber on July 1, 1970, fails within such eighteen months period to apply for certification and payment of proper fees, he must submit to and successfully pass a plumber's examination as a condition of being issued a plumber's permit. It does not grant an eighteen month exemption from being licensed.

Respectfully submitted,

Gordon Mydland
Attorney General