Request By:
Mr. Morris Butler
Attorney at Law
202 West Court Street
Greensburg, Kentucky 42743
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
From your letter it appears that commissioners have been appointed to reapportion Green County into magisterial districts. Their report has been prepared but has not been filed. If the commissioners file their report on March 5, 1977, and considering the fact that the next regular term of county court will fall on March 14, 1977, you ask whether such filing of the report would be proper and appropriate under the time schedule scheme established by KRS 25.700.
KRS 25.700 provides in part that "At the next regular term of the county court commencing not later than ten (10) days after the filing of the report, any citizen of the county may file exceptions, and the court shall fix a day not later than ten (10) days after the filing of the exceptions for the trial thereof. On the trial the court shall dispose of the exceptions and, by order entered of record, establish the boundaries of the districts."
While the language of this statute is not too clear, it is our opinion that under the facts you have given, the filing of the commissioners' report on March 5, 1977, would be proper within the time schedule scheme established by KRS 25.700. While the county judge has the authority, within his judicial discretion, to reject the report if it is not in conformity with the statutes, it is our view, from the facts furnished, that the report, if filed on March 5, 1977, would properly accomodate the time schedule scheme outlined in the statute. See Pinson v. Hughes, 305 Ky. 372, 204 S.W.2d 329 (1947).