Request By:
John Paul Blair
Clerk, Pike County Court
Pikeville, Kentucky 41501Attention: Ms. Lillion Pearl Elliott
Deputy Clerk
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By William S. Riley, Assistant Attorney General
In your recent letter to the Attorney General it is stated that the Federal Internal Revenue Service seized a motor vehicle and sold it to the highest bidder. Form 2435, Certificate of Sale of Seized Property, was presented to your office as a basis upon which to issue license to the purchaser of the vehicle.
The question is, can such form be a basis for the licensing of a motor vehicle without the certificate of registration or title without knowing where or by whom it was last registered or if there were prior liens recorded?
There has also been an instance where the certificate of sale of seized property has been issued on a vehicle which was last licensed in Pike County and which, according to the license receipt, had a recorded lien.
The question is whether such vehicle can be registered in the county under these circumstances.
We are enclosing a copy of OAG 64-22 which goes into some detail concerning the validity of this type of seizure by the Federal Government of motor vehicles. It is pointed out on page 3 of the opinion that a sale for delinquent taxes discharges all security interests subordinate to the Federal tax lien and the purchaser takes title free and clear of such interests. Upon presentation by the purchaser to the county clerk of a properly authenticated certificate of sale of seized property and certificate showing the date of the recordation of the tax lien, the clerk has a duty to make a transfer of the vehicle free and clear of all liens subordinate to the Federal tax lien. The clerk must have sufficient evidence on presentation of the certificate of sale to make a perfunctory determination as to which liens are subordinate in time to the tax lien.
Therefore, if the certificate is supported with evidence as to the date of recordation of the Federal tax lien, the county clerk has no recourse but to register the vehicle.