Request By:
Miss Mary G. White
City of Cadiz
Cadiz, Kentucky 42211
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of December 30 in which you, on behalf of the city council, relate that there exists a question as to whether or not the person about to be employed for the office of clerk-treasurer possesses the residential qualifications to hold the office pursuant to KRS 87.160 requiring all officers to be residents of the city for one (1) year next preceding the date of their election or appointment. With respect to the individual in question, you relate the following facts:
"The man who is being engaged for the office is unmarried, and his family home is in the City of Cadiz. However, he was for a period of approximately two and a half years living in a trailer in the City, and then about six months ago moved from this location to another trailer just outside the city limits, this one being owned by a man whose work had moved him elsewhere. There he stayed until the owner sold the trailer, which was a period of about six months. He is now back in the city.
"Would that period of occupancy outside the city limits make it impossible for him to hold the office until another period of one year has elapsed?"
The question of legal residency is often difficult to determine. It is based on intent and factual evidence such as would indicate that the individual resides within the city. See Nunn v. Hamilton, 233 Ky. 662, 265 S.W.2d 526 (1930). He may maintain a home in the city and live elsewhere temporarily and still retain legal residency in the city. See Elam v. Maggard, 165 Ky. 733, 178 S.W.2d 1065 (1915).
The fact that the individual in question is unmarried and his family's home is in the city though he lived in a trailer within the city for approximately two and one-half years would indicate that he is a legal resident even though he moved outside the city for six (6) months, on the assumption that the time he resided outside the city was merely temporary. Additional evidence that might be considered in determining whether he continued to maintain legal residence within the city would be the fact that he is and was during such absence a registered voter within the city.
Thus, if his intent was to maintain his legal residence within the city during his absence and the related facts support this intent, we believe that he would possess the residential qualifications required by KRS 87.160.