Request By:
Mrs. Beulah DuVall
Executive Director
Research and Legislation
Jefferson County Clerk's Office
Courthouse
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You have enclosed a copy of an affidavit supporting vehicle license application form [TD 96-191] which is used in the motor vehicle division of the county clerk's office. See KRS 186.050 and 186.130. On numerous occasions, attorneys representing the owner of the vehicle become furious when your office will not permit them to sign for a client without the power of attorney or court order.
Your question is whether or not an attorney, in the absence of a power of attorney, can sign an affidavit in support of an application for motor vehicle license and registration. The answer is "no".
In 72 C.JS., Powers, § 3, page 403, we find this statement: "Generally speaking, in the absence of any statute otherwise providing, powers or authorities may be created to do any act which the donor himself might lawfully perform; . . ."
"The general rule, . . . is that to create a power of appointment words clearly indicating that intent must be used, and a power is not created unless the intention to do so is expressed or clearly implied." McCuddy v. Citizens Fidelity Bank and Trust Co., Ky., 505 S.W.2d 766 (1974) 767. In KRS 186.130 it is the owneer of a motor vehicle who must apply for licensing or registration. Thus if the legal representative of such owner is to actually sign the affidavit and application for licensing and registration, it is necessary that the owner execute a power of attorney to his attorney in order to properly create such a power. See KRS 382.300. It is our opinion that your office was correct in not accepting such applications by the owners' lawyers in the absence of a properly executed power of attorney.