Request By:
Mr. Jim Lyon
Clerk
Odell & Howard
Attorneys at Law
171 North Upper Street
Lexington, Kentucky 40507
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your office requests an opinion as to whether a district court can order execution of judgment on real property. You refer to KRS 24A.120(1) and 25.060 (repealed) .
KRS 24A.120(1) reads:
"District court shall have exclusive jurisdiction in:
"(1) Civil cases in which the amount in controversy does not exceed one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500), exclusive of interest and costs except matters affecting title to real estate and matters of equity; however, nothing herein shall prohibit execution levy on real estate in enforcement of judgment of district court; and"
Under the literal language of KRS 24A.120(1), the district court has no jurisdiction over matters affecting title to real estate or matters of equity, regardless of the jurisdictional amount. However, the subsection specifically provides that the district court, assuming it had jurisdiction over the subject matter of the litigation, may order an execution levy on real estate in enforcement of the judgment of the district court. The district court's civil jurisdiction extends to cases in which the amount in controversy does not exceed one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500), exclusive of interest and costs, except matters affecting title to real estate and equity, as we said above.
While KRS 25.060 provided that land shall not be sold nor levied on under execution from a quarterly or justice's court, or any court of similar jurisdiction, that statute was repealed in the Acts of 1976 (Ex. Sess.) Ch. 14, § 491, effective January 2, 1978.
In connection with levy of execution on real property, see KRS Chapter 426.
Here we think the courts would rule themselves bound by the plain and literal meaning of KRS 24A.120. H.O. Hurley Co. v. Martin, 267 Ky. 182, 101 S.W.2d 657 (1937).