Request By:
Hon. J. Thomas Soyars
County Attorney, Christian County
Planters Bank Building
Hopkinsville, Kentucky 42240
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; Joseph R. Johnson, Assistant Attorney General
This is in response to your letter dated December 14, 1978, in which you inquired whether the Commissioner of Insurance may hold license plates suspended by the court until such time as the owner secures the insurance coverage required by KRS 304.39-080(5).
We apologize for the delay in responding to your letter. However, as I notified you in my letter dated January 23, 1979, I was under the impression that administrative regulations were in the process of being promulgated to cover this situation.
The penalty section for subtitle 39 of KRS Chapter 304 states as follows:
KRS 304.99-060(1) -- The owner of any vehicle which fails to have in full force and effect security required by subtitle 39 of KRS Chapter 304 and who does not have any sticker or emblem affixed to the vehicle shall be fined not less than fifty ($50) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500) and shall have the license plates thereof suspended for a period of thirty (30) days or until such time thereafter as proof, in a form satisfactory to the commissioner, is furnished that such security is then and will remain in effect.
(2) The owner of any vehicle which fails to have in full force and effect the security required by subtitle 39 of KRS Chapter 304 and who has affixed to a vehicle a sticker or emblem which he knows was not in full force and effect at that time shall be fined not less than fifty dollars ($50) nor more than five hundred ($500) and shall have the license plates of such vehicle suspended for a period of ninety (90) days or until such time thereafter as proof, in a form satisfactory to the commissioner, is furnished that such security is then and will remain in effect.
(3) The owner of any vehicle which fails to have in full force and effect the security required by subtitle 39 of KRS Chapter 304 who has affixed to the vehicle a sticker or emblem which he knows is fraudulent or counterfeit shall be fined not less than five hundred dollars ($500) nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) and shall have the license plates of such vehicle suspended for a period of one (1) year or until such time thereafter as proof, in a form satisfactory to the commissioner, is furnished that such security is then and will remain in effect. (Emphasis added).
In OAG 78-763, we concluded that KRS 304.99-060 was very specific in stating that the license plates shall be suspended for each respective determinate term and thereafter for an indefinite period of time until the statutory requirements have been met. That is, the license plates must be suspended for the determinate period set forth in the statute or until such time as the vehicle owner obtains the required security whichever is longer. The statute places the onus on the Commissioner of Insurance to determine if the vehicle owner has satisfied the due proof requirement in order for suspension to be lifted.
In our opinion, the statute intends that upon suspension, the license plates should be sent by the court which entered the suspension order to the Commissioner of Insurance. It is then incumbent upon the vehicle owner whose license plates have been suspended to demonstrate to the Commissioner of Insurance that he has obtained the required coverage. Upon being notified by the Commissioner that the owner has complied with the statutory requirements, the court must lift the suspension, if the determinate period has already past, whereupon the license plates must immediately be returned to the owner.