Request By:
Mr. Roger Coldiron
Branch Programs Director
Boone Regional Emergency Medical Services Systems, Inc.
160 East Reynolds Road
Lexington, Kentucky 40503
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Elizabeth E. Blackford, Assistant Attorney General
You have stated that the Rockcastle Fiscal Court has ordered the Rockcastle County Ambulance Service not to take individuals who have failed to pay their ambulance bills to Small Claims Court to expedite collection of those bills. Apparently the ambulance service is not funded by or regulated by the Fiscal Court. However, most of the employees are paid with CETA funds. You wish to know whether the Fiscal Court's order is proper.
It is not. The Fiscal Court is a court of limited jurisdiction and may act only as prescribed by statute. Burns v. Moore, 307 Ky. 167, 209 S.W.2d 735 (1948). The Fiscal Court may not exercise powers in excess of those given under the Constitution. Fiscal Court v. City of Louisville, Ky., 559 S.W.2d 478 (1977). The impact of the Fiscal Court's order is to deny the ambulance service access to the Small Claims Court. In so doing, this order thwarts KRS Chapter 24A wherein the General Assembly, pursuant to the power given it by Kentucky Constitution § 113, has defined the jurisdiction of and who shall have access to the Small Claims Court. Furthermore, in making this order, the Fiscal Court has usurped the power granted the General Assembly pursuant to Kentucky Constitution § 113. Therefore, the order is void and the action of the Fiscal Court is a nullity. City of Louisville, supra.
However, this does not mean that the ambulance service may take any and all delinquent bill payers into the Small Claims Court. Pursuant to KRS 24A.240, collection agents and collection agencies are foreclosed from bringing actions therein in furtherance of their business. And, no individual or business may file more than 25 claims in the Small Claims Court during a calendar year. KRS 24A.250. Any party filing a claim must sign an affidavit stating it has not exceeded the statutory limit. Ibid. Subject to these limitations, the ambulance service may use the Small Claims Court.