Request By:
Mr. William E. Davis
Director
Administrative Office
of the Courts
403 Wapping Street
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You request the opinion of this office as to whether, in connection with the reimbursable actual and necessary expenses of a jury commissioner, such reimbursement would include money spent for secretarial help, the cost of computer printouts used in compiling master jury lists, and travel.
Under KRS 29A.030(3) each jury commissioner, in addition to the compensation of $25 per day of ordered service, shall be reimbursed "for his actual and necessary expenses" incurred in the performance of his duties under KRS Chapter 29A. (Emphasis added).
KRS Chapter 29A was enacted in the Extraordinary Session of 1976 [H.B. 23, Ch. 22]. Under Section 79 of H.B. 23, the pertinent sections relating to the jury commissioners became effective September 1, 1977. As Mr. William Thurman, your staff attorney wrote, that was for the obvious reason of providing the jury commissioners with a period [prior to January 2, 1978] in which to get ready for the duty of providing jury lists for both circuit and district courts. Section 79 of H.B. 23 also provides that the sections relating to the jury commissioners in Chapter 29A until January 2, 1978, shall be held and construed as ancillary and supplemental to KRS Chapter 29, although jurors called for service under KRS Chapter 29A may not serve until after January 2, 1978.
The statute [KRS 29A.030] does not define "actual and necessary expenses. " (Emphasis added). Therefore the legislative intent must be found according to the common and approved use of the language employed. Further, the statute must be construed with a view to promote its object and carry out the intent of the legislature. KRS 446.080. A reading of KRS Chapter 29A indicates an intent to upgrade the jury selection process.
In connection with "actual" expenses, this means real expenses, existing in fact. Drury v. Franke, 247 Ky. 758, 57 S.W.2d 969 (1933) 982; and Mason v. Hart, Cal., 295 P.2d 28 (1956) 32.
In connection with "necessary" expenses, this means expenses which are of fundamental importance in the jury commissioners' carrying out of their statutory duties. See definition of "necessary", Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, p. 564. "Necessary expenses" means those expenses necessary in the jury commissioners' carrying out of their statutory functions. See Maricopa County v. Biaett, Ariz., 518 P.2d 1003 (1974) 1007.
Bearing in mind that the statutes establish no definition or criteria relating to "actual and necessary expenses" and establish no categories or examples of such expenses, it is our opinion, under this rather broad language, that the jury commissioners may be reimbursed for secretarial help, cost of computer printouts used in compiling master jury lists, and for travel, provided that their documentation of such expenses reflects that the expenses were actually incurred and paid in the carrying out of their statutory functions under KRS Chapter 29A. If the Department of Finance and Administration desires some specific restriction placed on the term "actual and necessary expenses, " they should take this up with the legislature. It seems reasonable to anticipate that providing the jury lists, and selection of names for the wheel etc., for the two court systems [circuit and district] will, if the job is to be performed adequately, inevitably require secretarial help, the cost of obtaining computer printouts and some travel. Under KRS 29.055 jury commissioners in courts of continuous session may select a typist to assist them. KRS 29A.030, however, presents a broader statute which was obviously designed to embrace all actual and necessary expenses reasonably incurred in the performance of their statutory duties. The statute must be interpreted literally.
Next, you ask: Who pays for this? Since the jury commissioners are a part of a state agency, the state court system, and since KRS 28.180 explicitly provides that the circuit clerk shall pay the compensation of the jury commissioners, it is our opinion that implicit in KRS 28.180 [and 30A.110 on and after January 2, 1978] is the provision for paying any actual and necessary expenses of such jury commissioners. We are speaking of the imprest fund provided the circuit clerks on the direction of the Executive Department for Finance and Administration. Further, KRS 28.180, 30A.110, and 29A.030(3) must be considered in pari materia, since they deal with the same subject matter, i.e., pay and expenses of jury commissioners. Such statutes should be considered part of a connected system. Dieruf v. Louisville & Jefferson County Bd. of Health, 304 Ky. 207, 200 S.W.2d 300 (1947). If the Department for Finance and Administration finds this liberal policy unworkable for any reason, it could ask the legislature to reduce the reimbursable expenses to explicitly named categories.