Request By:
Mr. Vic Hellard, Jr.
Director
Legislative Research Commission
State Capitol
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of May 14 in which you relate the following facts and question:
"KRS 132.227 was enacted by Acts 1978, Ch. 371, section 5, to become effective January 1, 1981.
"However, KRS 132.227 was amended during the 1980 Regular Session of the General Assembly in Senate Bill 44, section 6.
"Since Senate Bill 44, with the exception of section 1, becomes effective on July 15, 1980, does KRS 132.227 become effective on that date?"
Our response to your question would be in the affirmative. We first wish to point out that KRS 132.227 as amended in 1980 by S.B. 44 [effective July 15] reenacts in effect this statute and at the same time merely changes the wording to provide that the clerk shall file a lien as provided in Section 2, subsection (2) of S.B. 44 instead of as provided in KRS 134.145 which was repealed by the 1978 act also effective January 1, 1981.
We believe that the 1980 amendment, which obviously was enacted subsequent to the '78 act creating KRS 132.227 [though not effective until January 1, 1981] would govern as to the effective date as well as to the change in the language of KRS 132.227. The general rule of statutory construction is that the later enacted statute on the same subject generally prevails if there is any conflict.
Head v. Commonwealth, 165 Ky. 603, 177 S.W. 731 (1915).
Under the circumstances, we are of the opinion that the 1980 amendment to KRS 132.227 enacted as part of Senate Bill 44 becomes effective on July 15, 1980.