Missouri Relief From State Law Obligations During Active Duty

Section 41.950 is Missouri's own servicemembers relief statute and it is more detailed than most. It applies to a resident of Missouri who is a member of the National Guard or any reserve component, or a member of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps or Coast Guard, or a Public Health Service officer detailed for duty with a branch of the armed forces, who is engaged in active duty in a military conflict in which reserve components have been called to active duty, for any period of thirty days or more. It applies to qualifying service performed on or after August 2, 1990. Eleven reliefs follow, and the useful thing about the section is how specific they are. Motor vehicle financial responsibility is suspended. A person performing such service who owns a motor vehicle is not required to maintain financial responsibility under section 303.025 until the service is complete, unless someone is operating the vehicle while the owner is away. A driver's licence not renewed during the service can be renewed within ninety days after completing the service and reestablishing residence in the state without taking the complete examination required by section 302.173. A motor vehicle registration that expires during the service may be renewed within sixty days of completion without a delinquent registration fee, though the vehicle must not be operated during the service unless the registration is renewed. Professional licences get sixty days. A person enrolled by the Supreme Court of Missouri or licensed, registered or certified under chapters 168, 256, 317, 324, 325, 326, 327, 328, 329, 330, 331, 332, 333, 334, 335, 336, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 344, 345, 346, 375, 640 or 644, and interpreters licensed under sections 209.319 to 209.339, may renew within sixty days of completing the service without penalty. That list covers teachers, geologists, most health professions, real estate, accountancy, engineering, law enforcement training and insurance. Corporate, franchise tax and other secretary of state filings get one hundred twenty days. Traffic summonses get one hundred eighty days: no nonappearance sanctions until 180 days after completion. Financial disclosure reports are not required during the service and are due within 180 days after it. State income tax and property tax on personal or real property get an extension until 180 days after completion of the service or continuous hospitalisation resulting from it, for the member and for a spouse filing a combined return or owning property jointly, and the tax may be paid without penalty or interest inside that window. Interest on an overpayment runs at six percent per annum from the original due date or the date paid, whichever is later. A catch-all in subdivision (10) stops any state agency, board, commission or administrative tribunal from taking administrative action for a failure to act or meet an obligation not already covered, until 180 days after completion, with discretion to extend further. And subdivision (11) stays any disciplinary or administrative proceeding before a state agency, board, commission or administrative tribunal in which the member is a necessary party, until sixty days after the end of the service. The one procedural requirement is in subsection 2: on completing the service the person must provide the agency, board, commission or tribunal an official order from the appropriate military authority as evidence of the service. Nothing in the section is automatic against a body that has not been given the order. Note the gate. This is not available for every period of active duty. It requires a military conflict in which reserve components have been called to active duty, and a period of thirty days or more.