Request By:
Hon. James S. Secrest, Jr.
Assistant County Attorney
Allen County
Box 35
Scottsville, Kentucky 42164
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Joseph R. Johnson, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of this office whether the District Judge can suspend the license plates of a motor vehicle when the former owner of the vehicle has traded or sold the vehicle prior to his court appearance. The answer is no.
KRS 304.99-060(1) states as follows:
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 dollars ($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.
The above statute consists of two (2) separate provisions which have different objectives -- one punitive and the other primarily preventive. The punitive provision provides for a fine from fifty dollars ($50) to five hundred dollars ($500) to be imposed against a vehicle owner who has failed to provide the required insurance coverage on his vehicle. The preventive provision requires that the license plates must be suspended for thirty (30) days or until due proof is demonstrated to the insurance commissioner that the required security covering the vehicle has been provided. The objective is to assure that an uninsured motor vehicle is not driven on Kentucky's public roadways. The objective is not primarily to punish the vehicle owner although obviously the provision will punish the owner as an incidental effect.
Once the motor vehicle owner has divested himself of all incidents of ownership in the motor vehicle by selling or trading the vehicle, the former owner cannot be required to maintain insurance coverage on that vehicle. KRS 304.99-060(1) provides that the license plates must be suspended as against the owner. However, the vehicle owner no longer has an insurable interest in a vehicle he no longer owns. Once the former owner has sold or traded his vehicle, the suspension provision cannot be imposed as against him although an appropriate fine may still be levied against the former owner.
This is not to say that the state does not still have an interest in suspending the license plates of the uninsured vehicle should the new owner not obtain the required insurance coverage. KRS 186.190 states that whenever a motor vehicle changes ownership, the license plate must remain upon the vehicle as a part of the vehicle until the expiration of the registration year. Should the new owner be found guilty of failure to maintain the required security, a suspension order may be imposed as against him forthwith.