OAG 40-22.

• Case Date: July 23, 1940
• Court: Oregon

Oregon Attorney General Opinions 1940. OAG 40-22. 27OPINION NO. 40-22[20 Or. Op. Atty. Gen. 27]Payment was made at the increased rate provided by an amendatory act, of bounty on seals killed in the Columbia river prior to the effective date of that act; claims for such bounty and scalps of such seals were presented and payment made after said effective date. Held that the transaction became past and closed upon approval and payment of the claims by the state fish commission and the secretary of state, and no procedure should be instituted to require repayment of such increase of bounty.July 23, 1940.Mr. M. T. Hoy,Master Fish Warden. Dear Mr. Hoy: By your letter of July 19, 1940, you state that pursuant to the provisions of chapter 88, Oregon Laws, 1939, which became effective on June 13, 1939, you have since said date paid a bounty of $10 each on forty-six scalps of seals killed in the Columbia river, the bounty for which prior to the passage of said chapter was $5 per scalp; it develops that such seals had been killed prior to the effective date of said chapter 88 increasing the bounty on such scalps, and that the representative of the State Division of Audits has indicated that you should have paid only $5 for each of such seal scalps. You request my opinion whether or not you were authorized to pay a bounty of $10 each for said scalps after said chapter 88 became effective, or whether you were only authorized to pay $5 each therefor on account of their having been killed prior to such date. You further request that in the event my opinion is that you should have paid only $5 per scalp and that some $230 should be recovered, as indicated by the auditor, I advise you as to the procedure for such recovery. Said chapter 88 amends section 3 of chapter 58, Oregon Laws, 1935. Said chapter 58 provides for a bounty for killing or otherwise exterminating seals in the waters of the Columbia river. Section 3 thereof authorizes the State Fish Commission to use such fund as it deems best for the hunting, killing, capturing or exterminating of seals either by paying bounty or employing seal hunters, and as amended contains the provision:

"That the fish commission shall pay as a bounty the sum of not less than $5 nor more than $10 to any person who delivers a scalp of a seal proven to the satisfaction of the commission or master fish warden to

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