Request By:
Mr. F. E. Hodges
Director
Division of Driver Licensing
Department of Transportation
State Office Building
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You request an opinion as to who may sign the application of a divorced minor for a Kentucky driver's license pursuant to KRS 186.470. Your specific question is whether the custody of and responsibility for a divorced minor reverts to the parents such that they could sign for the minor under KRS 186.470. Under KRS 186.470 the application of any minor under the age of eighteen (18) for an operator's license, motorcycle operator's license or any instruction permit shall not be granted unless the application is signed by a parent or legal guardian of the applicant. Regardless of which parent signs the application, both parents shall be responsible as provided in KRS 186.590. If the minor has no father, mother or guardian, an operator's license or instruction permit shall not be granted to the minor unless his application is signed by a person willing to assume the obligation imposed by KRS 186.590 upon a person signing the application of a minor. Under KRS 186.590 any negligence of a minor under 18 who has been licensed upon an application signed as provided by KRS 186.470, when driving any motor vehicle upon a highway, shall be imputed to the person who signed the application of the minor for the license.
The purpose of someone signing for the minor was to give the plaintiff an additional source of recovery for damages sustained. Sizemore v. Bailey's Adm'r. Ky., 293 S.W.2d 165 (1956) 168.
Emancipation by marriage of an infant does not remove disabilities of infancy. See 43 C.J.S., Infants, Section 116, p. 382. Parental emancipation removes the infant from parental control and negates the common law right of the parent to the services of the child, but it does not render an infant sui juris. Turner v. Turner, Ky., 441 S.W.2d 105 (1969) 107.
Since the parents no longer have parental control, the custody of and responsibility for the divorced minor does not revert to the parents. The emancipated status of a minor who marries will not be affected by the minor's subsequent separation or divorce. 67A C.J.S., Parent & Child, Section 8, p. 184. Thus the divorced minor will have to get some adult, other than the father or mother, to sign as provided in KRS 186.470, if neither parent will sign. The marriage of an infant ward, however, does not discharge a guardianship. Hudson's Guardian v. Hudson, 160 Ky. 432, 169 S.W. 891 (1914) 894. Thus the legal guardian of the divorced minor, if the minor has one, may sign the application provided in KRS 186.470.