Request By:
Mr. Carroll M. Redford, Jr.
Barren County Attorney
Courthouse
Glasgow, Kentucky 42141
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your question concerns the responsibility of the coroner for the safekeeping of personal property of a deceased or accident victim at the scene.
Your letter contains these facts:
"Many times jewelry items including valuable diamonds cannot be removed from the body of a decedent because of swelling, etc. of the victim. The Coroner ordinarily photographs these items on the body before the body is turned over to ambulance or other emergency personnel. On occasion the items have thereafter been missing from the body and families turn to the Coroner for the property.
"The only other thing the Coroner could do would be to cut the items off the body at the scene but many times this is a problem."
Where the coroner conducts an inquest pursuant to KRS 72.020 or 72.030 he should take possession of any objects or articles on or near the body "which may be helpful in establishing the cause of death. " (Emphasis added). In case of a criminal prosecution, the coroner should retain possession of such articles, subject to the requirements of the prosecuting attorney and orders of the trial court. If there is no criminal prosecution and if the deceased is unknown, the coroner having possession of items of personal property of the decedent must deliver them to the county judge in ten days. KRS 72.100.
Where the coroner has jurisdiction over the body in an inquest situation, we believe the coroner by implication has authority to take possession of money or other valuables found upon the deceased's person, though not helpful in determining the cause of death, and hold the same until the property can be turned over to the person legally entitled to the body. This would include any money, jewelry or other items of value in the pockets of deceased or found upon his person. Where the jewelry or other personal property cannot be practicably removed from the deceased's body, we do not believe the coroner is a guarantor of the security of such personal items. At the most he is a gratuitous bailee, and it is uniformly held that the bailee is obligated only to the exercise of slight care and is answerable only for gross neglect or bad faith.
Hargis v. Spencer, 254 Ky. 297, 71 S.W.2d 666 (1934) 669. Here the bailment would apply only to personal property actually taken into the physical custody of the coroner.
In the case of a known deceased, and where no criminal prosecution arises, any such items of personal property in the coroner's custody should, upon the coroner's filing his report with the circuit clerk and upon the coroner's relinquishing jurisdiction over the body, be turned over to the person legally entitled to the body.