Nevada State Press Ass'n v. Fax, Inc.

• Decision Date: 13 February 1963
• Docket Number: No. 4552,4552
• Parties: NEVADA STATE PRESS ASSOCIATION; Southwestern Publishing Company, Inc., a Nevada corporation; and Las Vegas Sun, Inc., a Nevada corporation, Appellants, v. FAX, INC., a Nevada corporation, Respondent.
• Court: Nevada Supreme Court

Page 674

378 P.2d 674

79 Nev. 82

NEVADA STATE PRESS ASSOCIATION; Southwestern Publishing

Company, Inc., a Nevada corporation; and Las Vegas

Sun, Inc., a Nevada corporation, Appellants, v. FAX, INC., a Nevada corporation, Respondent.

No. 4552.

Supreme Court of Nevada.

Feb. 13, 1963.

Ralph L. Denton, William Singleton and Rex A. Jemison, Las Vegas, for appellant.

Cornwall & Nitz, Las Vegas, for respondent.

McNAMEE, Justice.

The question in this case is whether The Daily Fax published by Fax, Inc., the respondent, is a daily newspaper of general circulation qualified to publish legal notices.

N.R.S. 238.030 provides that 'Any and all legal notices or advertisements shall be published only in a daily, a triweekly, a semiweekly, a semimonthly, or a weekly newspaper of general circulation and printed in whole or in part in the county in which the notice or advertisement is required to be published, which newspaper if published: * * * (b) Daily, shall have been so published * * * during the period of at least 1 year * * *.'

N.R.S. 238.040 provides that no newspaper shall be competent as the means for the publication of any legal notices or advertisements unless such newspaper shall have and maintain in force a second-class mailing permit issued by the United States Post Office Department.

It is conceded that The Daily Fax is a daily publication published in North Las Vegas, Clark County, has been so published for more than a year, and has obtained a valid second-class mailing permit. Appellants contend, however, that it is not a newspaper of general circulation.

The contents of The Daily Fax are confined to information taken from the public records of Clark County, Nevada, on a daily basis, such as the recording of deeds and trust deeds, the filing of various types of legal actions, the issuance of building permits and licenses, and new construction news. The paid circulation is approximately 150 without any appreciable circulation in the residential areas. It is not available at downtown newsstands except at the Clark County Courthouse newsstand and at the newsstands in the Las Vegas and North Las Vegas post offices. The subscription list of The Daily Fax includes 71 different professions, trades, and callings.

Although the Nevada statutes relating to the publication of legal notices in newspapers have existed since 1897 and were amended as recently as 1960, at no time has the legislature defined the phrase 'newspaper of general circulation.' Thus, we must be guided by case law.

The primary purpose for the printing of legal notices is to give the widest publicity practicable. Continental Lift Ins. Co. v. Mahoney, 185 Ark. 748, 49 S.W.2d 371. Even though it is devoted to the interests of a particular class of persons and specializes in news and intelligence primarily of interest to that class, a publication may nevertheless be a newspaper of general circulation if, in addition to such special news, it also publishes news of a general character and of a general interest, and to some extent circulates among the general public. Annot., 68 A.L.R. 542 (1930).

A copy of one issue of The Daily Fax is contained in the Record on Appeal. It appears to be mimeographed rather than...