Request By:
Mr. William J. Kathman, Jr.
Attorney at Law
20 South Main Street
Dry Ridge, Kentucky 41035
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Alex W. Rose, Assistant Attorney General
In your letter to the Attorney General you ask if the departments of a city may each bring the maximum 25 suits in the Small Claims Division of District Court or if the city as a whole is limited to 25 suits.
KRS 82.081 states that a city is a corporate body and may sue or be sued. The city is thus entitled to bring suit in the Small Claims Division of District Court. The question then concerns the nature of a department of a city.
In 62 C.J.S. Municipal Corporations § 550, it is stated that, generally, a department is considered an agency of the city. See Brownlee v. Dalton Board of Water, Etc., Commission, 1 S.E.2d 599 (Ga., 1939); L.C. Eddy, Inc. v. City of Arkadelphia, Arkansas, 303 F.2d 473 (8th Circ., 1962). As an agency, a department has no authority to sue or be sued separately from the city.
Therefore, unless the department is created as a separate corporate body by statute, it is an agency of the city and the city as a whole is limited to 25 suits in the Small Claims Division of District Court.