Request By:
Mr. James E. Story
Attorney at Law
Box 216
Eddyville, Kentucky 42038
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General interpreting KRS 186.050(9) which reads, in pertinent part, as follows:
"Motor vehicles having a declared gross weight in excess of 18,000 pounds, which are used exclusively for the transportation of coal from the point at which such coal is mined to a railhead or tipple, where such railhead or tipple is located at a point not more than 50 air miles from the point at which such coal is mined, . . . shall not be required to pay the fee as set out in subsection (3) of this section, and in lieu thereof shall pay 40 percent of the fee set out in subsection (3) hereof. . . ."
As a factual background to your question you state:
"Truckers to Marshall County plants are unloading within 50 air miles from the mines and they have never had it questioned but that an unloading spot is a tipple within the meaning of the statute, but apparently the state police has issued tickets on the basis that 'tipple' means a particular apparatus. "
We gather from other information sent with your letter that the trucks involved deliver coal from the mine to plants where the coal is consumed, that the coal is unloaded at the plant as the ultimate destination rather than being unloaded at a point where it is to be reloaded for further transportation; that if the unloading point at the plant is considered to be a 'tipple' that the license fee for the truck is $330 instead of $840 as would be the fee if the coal were transported more than 50 air miles from the mine. You argue that the unloading point at the plant should be considered as a 'tipple' and that the truckers should get the benefit of the 40 percent commercial tag and in support of your argument you cite the definition of 'tipple' in Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (1977) as follows:
"la: a place where or an apparatus by which cars (as for coal) are loaded or emptied, b: a coal-screening plant, 2: a place where tippling is done."
We think that the dictionary definition is useful in interpreting a statute (KRS 446.080(4)) but that the spirit and intention of the legislature in enacting the statute is of greater importance. The interest of the Commonwealth in allowing a reduced fee for transporting coal within the limit of 50 air miles from the mine is the limited use of the highways as over against an unlimited use of the highways in the transportation of coal. We cannot see any reasonable interest of the Commonwealth in what happens to the coal after it is unloaded -- whether it is reloaded for further transportation or consumed at the point of unloading. The main point in allowing the reduced fee is that the truck leaving the mine is not to transport the coal more than 50 air miles from the mine. A truck with such a limited tag should never be used to go beyond the limit, not even one trip.
The interpretation of a statute carrying a penalty should be interpreted toward lenity. Commonwealth v. Colonial Stores, Ky., 350 S.W.2d 465 (1961).
It is our opinion that KRS 186.050(9) allows the transportation of coal from the mine to an unloading point within 50 air miles of the mine whether the unloading point is a railhead, tipple, plant, barge or any other location which is no more than 50 air miles from the mine where the coal was dug.