Request By:
Mr. George Gleitz
Assistant County Attorney
431 1/2 East 10th Street
Bowling Green, Kentucky 42101
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your question, concerning Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement Support actions under KRS Chapter 407, reads:
"In cases filed under the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement Support Act, (KRS 407) in which the petitioner is seeking the enforcement of support arrearages in the excess of fifteen hundred dollars, does district court have jurisdiction to proceed or must these matters be heard in circuit court?"
Pursuant to KRS 407.170, any suit involving duties of support, including the duty to pay arrearages, may be brought "in the circuit or district court." (Emphasis added). KRS 24A.120(1) provides in part that the district court shall have exclusive jurisdiction in civil cases in which the amount in controversy does not exceed one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500), exclusive of interest and costs, etc.
Since KRS 24A.120 deals with the general subject of civil jurisdiction as relates to district court, and since KRS 407.170 deals with the specific subject of enforcement of duties under the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act, it is our opinion that the specific should control over the general.
The Supreme Court of Kentucky, in Heady v. Com., Ky., 597 S.W.2d 613 (1980), in dealing with the matter of a specific as contrasted with a general statute, wrote this at page 614:
"The common thread woven into each of these statutory cloths was isolated by the court in
Goodloe v. Parratt, 8th Cir., 605 F.2d 1041 (1979). Simply put, the specific statute controls a more general statute. This rule of statutory construction is firmly established in the law of the
Commwealth. City of Bowling Green v. Board of Education, Ky., 443 S.W.2d 243 (1969);
Morton v. Auburndale Realty Co., Ky., 340 S.W.2d 445 (1960). It is the general rule as well. See
Brown-Forman Distillers Corp. v. Mathews, W.D. Ky., 435 F.Supp. 5, 13 (1976); 73 Am.Jur.2d Statutes Sec. 257."
We conclude, for the above reason, and based upon the above authorities, that in cases filed under the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act (KRS Ch. 407) in which the petitioner is seeking the enforcement of support arrearages in excess of fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500), the petitionor may, as an option, file the complaint in the district court, pursuant to KRS 407.170 and 407.180. In applying KRS 407.170, the amount of the arrearages to be sued for is not relevant as to jurisdiction.