Request By:
Mr. Michael R. Moloney
Geralds, Cassidy & Moloney
605 Court Square Building
107 Cheapside
Lexington, Kentucky 40507
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
On behalf of several deputy sheriffs in Fayette County, you request an opinion of this office regarding the eligibility of those deputies to receive a mileage allowance pursuant to KRS 64.095.
You gave us these pertinent facts:
"Each of the deputies involved, when they became deputies, were required to purchase an automobile with their own funds to use in connection with their duties as a deputy sheriff. The automobiles in question were licensed in the name of either the Fayette County Sheriff's Office or the Fayette County Fiscal Court. The purpose of licensing the automobile in the above names, was to enable the vehicle to be issued an official license plate in order to enable the deputy who drove the vehicle to use the vehicle in connection with his duties without having to be concerned with parking meters and the like while attempting to serve process, or otherwise to fulfill his duties.
"All maintenance on the automobiles was paid for by the deputies in question, and all gasoline expenses and insurance premiums were paid for by the deputies. "
Your specific question reads as follows:
"There is some concern on the part of the individuals involved, that the licensing of the vehicles in the name of the public offices above listed, might preclude payment of mileage allowance. "
KRS 64.095(1) and (2) reads:
"(1) Each sheriff, deputy sheriff or constable in each county executing a notice, subpoena or summons shall be paid his expenses in the service of such papers through the payment of miles traveled by such sheriff, deputy sheriff or constable at the rate per mile paid state employes for official travel in privately owned vehicles, as established by regulation of the executive department for finance and administration.
"(2) The sheriff, deputy sheriff or constable shall be paid the mileage by the litigants in any criminal or civil action at the time of the delivery of such notice, subpoena or summons. "
Assuming the facts given above to be true, it clearly appears that the possession of these vehicles and the legal ownership are in the various deputy sheriffs. See 73 C.J.S., Property, Sections 17 and 18, p.p. 210-214.
It is our opinion that the mere licensing of the vehicles in the name of public offices is irrelevant in terms of the eligibility of deputy sheriffs to claim mileage fees due under KRS 64.095. That statute is designed to reimburse the sheriff, a deputy sheriff or constable, for expenses in the service of various papers or process. The reimbursement is based upon a mileage factor, as set out in the statute. Here the actual expenses were paid for by the deputies. Since the legal possession and ownership of the vehicles are in the deputies, and since the actual expenses were borne by the deputies, the fact that the vehicles are registered in the name of public offices is not relevant in applying the statute. See Funk v. Milliken, Ky., 317 S.W.2d 499 (1958) 509. The mileage rate is stated in the statute to be the rate per mile paid state employes for official travel in privately owned vehicles. Even if the statute might be deemed to suggest private ownership of the vehicle on the part of the sheriff or his deputies, the facts relating to the deputies' possession and ownership meet that criterion.