For further reference to the Oklahoma Vehicle Code see the 1929 case
RIGGS v. LEININGER
The first license tax on automobiles was levied by chapter 105, Session Laws 1910-11. This act created the State Highway Department and provided for the appointment of a State Highway Commissioner. His duties were limited almost entirely to matters relating to plans for the building and maintenance of improved public highways and collecting the $ 1 license fee provided for in section 7 of the act, and gathering statistics relative to the cost of building and maintenance of improved highways.
16 By article 4, chap. 173, Session Laws 1915, the amount of license tax was increased. The duty of collecting the tax was still placed with the Highway Department. All owners of motor vehicles were required to verify their applications for license, and file same, by mail or otherwise, in the office of the Department of Highways, or with its agent. This is the first mention in the law of an agent of the Highway Department and the first provision for filing with such agent the application for license. No specific authority was provided for the appointment or designation of such agents, nor were their duties specifically defined. No power or authority was conferred upon the Highway Department to maintain or construct, or contract for the maintenance or construction of highways.
17 The registration law was again amended by chapter 290, Session Laws 1919. The duty of collecting the license tax remained with the Highway Department. The owner was required to sign and verify the application for license in duplicate, and file same by mail or otherwise with the Highway Department, or its agent. Again an agent of the department was authorized to receive the application, and no specific authority was given to appoint such agent. No authority was conferred upon the Highway Department by this act to maintain or construct highways.
18 By chapter 211, Session Laws 1919, the position of certain clerks, bookkeepers, enforcement officers, certificate writers, and card writers were created, and it was provided that no fee or charge should be made for swearing to applications or affidavits. Certificates of registration could, at that time, be issued only out of the office of the Department of Highways. No agent could issue such certificates.
19 By chapter 48, Session Laws 1923-24, a State Highway Commission of three members was created, and the Department of Highways was, for the first time, given power and authority to construct and maintain highways, and the state highway construction and maintenance fund was created.
20 Certificates of title were first provided for by chapter 221, Session Laws 1923. This certificate was required to be furnished by the vendor of new vehicles, and was called an abstract. Before application for renewal of license, the owner was required to exhibit the abstract, or certificate of title, to the Highway Department or to the clerk designated by the department. In case the vehicle had no title, due to the fact that the act was not in force at the time of the original purchase thereof, the owner was required to present two witnesses to the Highway Department, or said clerk designated by the department, who were required to write across the first sheet of the abstract the fact that they knew the party to be the owner of the vehicle. The title sheet to be made out in the presence of the said witnesses. If the Highway Department was not then authorized to appoint or designate some person as clerk, other than the regular clerks in the office of the department before whom the owner could produce such witnesses, then every owner of a motor vehicle which had been sold by a dealer prior to the enactment of that law would have been required to appear personally before the department with his two witnesses in order to renew his license. This would have required many thousands of motor vehicle owners at great expense to travel many hundreds of miles to the State Capitol with their respective witnesses. Such was certainly not the intention of the Legislature. It must have intended the department should have power to designate clerks as agents throughout the state before whom the witnesses might appear. Otherwise, with approximately 200,000 automobiles then in the state, some 600,000 persons would have been required to appear in person before the department in Oklahoma City, in order that the owners of the motor vehicles then in use could renew the registration.
21 By chapter 43, Session Laws 1925, official certificates of title were first provided for, and the duty of issuing same was placed upon the Highway Department.
22 By subdivision "h" of section 1 of the act, the term "authorized agent or agents," as applied to that act, was defined as "any clerk of this state designated by the Highway Commission to act as said agent for the Highway Commission." By this act no certificate of registration or number plate can be issued or furnished "by the Highway Commission or its authorized agent," unless the applicant shall at the same time make application for and be granted a certificate of title, or present satisfactory evidence that such certificate covering such vehicle has been previously issued to the applicant. Section 2 of the act provides in part:
"The Highway Commission, or its authorized agent, shall use reasonable diligence in ascertaining whether the facts stated in such application are true, and if satisfied that the applicant is the lawful owner of such motor vehicle, or otherwise entitled to have the same registered in his name, shall thereupon issue an appropriate certificate of title, in triplicate over his signature and code word authenticated by an official seal. The original copy shall be delivered to the applicant, a copy to be mailed forthwith to the Highway Commission, and the third copy to be retained by the issuing officer."
23 This act certainly contemplated the appointment or designation of persons as agents of the department other than clerks at the State Capitol, otherwise there would be no occasion for the provision in section 2 for mailing a copy of the certificate to the Highway Commission. It will be observed that either the Highway Commission or its agent is given authority to issue the certificate, and where it is issued by such agent, he is required to retain a copy thereof.