Request By:
Mr. I. C. James, III
Mercer County Judge/Executive
Courthouse
Harrodsburg, Kentucky 40330
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By Alex W. Rose, Assistant Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of May 19, 1982, in which you requested an opinion regarding the legal effect of a quietus issued by the Commonwealth on the statutory lien created against the real property of a sheriff pursuant to the provisions of KRS 134.230 in view of the 1920 Kentucky Supreme Court decision
Mason v. Cook, 187 Ky. 260, 218 S.W.2d 740 (1920).
The Court in Mason v. Cook, supra, ruled that a quietus issued by the Commonwealth does not release the statutory lien created on the real property of a sheriff for the performance of the sheriff's tax collection duties. It should be noted, however, that this decision was based on Section 4130, Ky. States., the statute in force at the time the decision was rendered. That statute provided, in pertinent part, as follows:
"The Commonwealth, the county and taxing district shall have a lien from the date the sheriff begins to act upon the real estate of the sheriff therein secured or afterward acquired by him, which shall not be discharged until the whole amount of money collected by the sheriff or collector, or for which he may be liable to them respectively, shall have been paid, and the same lien shall exist upon the real estate of a usurper of the office of sheriff or collector, or a de facto sheriff or collector, or any person who may act as sheriff or collector. " (Emphasis added)
Section 4130, Ky. Stats., has been amended several times since the decision in
Mason v. Cook, supra. The lien provisions were enacted in their present form during the 1964 Session of the Kentucky General Assembly. See Kentucky Acts 1964, Chapter 131, Section 1. The current law, KRS 134.230(4) and (5), provides, in pertinent part, as follows:
"(4) The state, county and taxing districts shall have a lien, from the date the sheriff begins to act, upon the real property of the sheriff then owned or that may afterwards be acquired by him during his term as sheriff or special tax collector. The same lien shall exist upon the real property of a usurper of the office of sheriff, a de facto sheriff or any person who acts as sheriff.
(5) The lien referred to in subsection (4) above shall not be discharged until four (4) years have elapsed from the expiration of his term of office without any action having been commenced to assert the lien, or until a quietus from the state, county and taxing districts has been filed and recorded in the office of the county clerk for each of the tax periods during the sheriff's term, whichever of these two (2) events shall first occur." (Emphasis added)
By enacting the above-quoted statute the General Assembly has effectively overruled the Kentucky Supreme Court decision in
Mason v. Cook, supra.
Consequently, the statutory lien for any particular year against the real property of a sheriff is released when a quietus is issued by the state, county and other applicable taxing districts and filed in the office of the county clerk. The lien is automatically discharged after four years from the expiration of the sheriff's term if no action is taken to enforce the lien.
It should also be noted that during the 1982 session of the General Assembly House Bill 500 was passed and signed into law. This bill repealed the statutory lien provision of KRS 134.230. Consequently, there will be no statutory lien on the real property of sheriffs taking office subsequent to July 15, 1982, the date on which House Bill 500 becomes effective.