Request By:
Representative N. Clayton Little
Route One, Box 407
Virgie, Kentucky 41572
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Joe Johnson, Assistant Attorney General
In your letter to this office, you set forth the following legal problem:
The Interim Joint Committee on Transportation recently met with officials of the Transportation Cabinet on motor vehicle registration. During the 1982 session of the General Assembly, the legislature adopted the concept of birth-month auto registration. Since that time, a problem appears to have surfaced in regard to vehicle transfers.
The Transportation Cabinet has opted for a system by which citizens would lose valid registration time upon transfer of an automobile. For example, a citizen whose birth date is in October transfers his automobile in June to a person with a March birth date. The Transportation Cabinets' policy is to prohibit transfer of the unexpired time from June to October and force the new owner to register from June to March. We do not argue that the current policy is valid; however, we believe that other systems may be just as acceptable.
For instance, in the example above, could the Transportation Cabinet permit the new owner to retain the unexpired time (June to October), and then pay a pro rata share of the registration fee from October to March? The birth-month registration statute KRS 186A.035, is silent on the transfer of vehicles; however, subsection (6) allows prorated fees. In addition, KRS 186.051 does not establish specific procedures on vehicle transfers.
The questions the committee needs to have addressed are the following:
(1) Is the Transportation Cabinet bound to a statutory policy with regard to registration fees being assessed on vehicle transfers?
(2) Could the Transportation Cabinet adopt as its policy the procedure set forth in the third paragraph above without violation of the existing statutes?
This office is of the opinion that the Transportation Cabinet must assess registration fees on vehicle transfers in accordance with statutory requirements and that the Cabinet may not credit the new owner with the unexpired time on the registration plate.
KRS 186.190(2) states as follows:
No person shall purchase, sell or trade any motor vehicle without delivering to the county clerk of the county in which the sale or trade is made the current registration receipt issued on the motor vehicle and the bill of sale.
A transfer of ownership of a motor vehicle entails a transfer of registration.
KRS 186A.035(1) provides for a system of year-round registration based on the owner's birth month. A registration year begins on the first month of a calendar year and expires on the last day of the last calendar month in a registration period. In fact, a registration year may be less than twelve (12) months depending upon the registration period. KRS 186.051(1). In this sense, the terms registration year and registration period are synonymous. The registration year is, therefore, determined by the birth date of the owner.
It is obvious that the legislative intent is that a registration period or year must commence on the birth month of the owner. Therefore, when there is a new owner, a new registration period begins, based on the birth month of the new owner.
In arriving at legislative intent, the primary rule in statutory construction is to ascertain the intention from the words employed and not to guess what the legislature may have intended but did not express. Gateway Construction Company v. Wallbaum, Ky., 356 S.W.2d 247 (1962). Resport to extrinsic facts or aids is permissible only when the literal meaning of the language of the statute is absurd or unreasonable. First Industrial Plan v. Kentucky Board of Tax Appeals, Ky., 500 S.W.2d 70 (1973) and not when the words of the statute are clear and unambiguous. Griffin v. City of Bowling Green, Ky., 458 S.W.2d 456 (1970).
Therefore, based on what this office perceives to be the clear and unambiguous intent of the General Assembly, the termination of a registration period is marked by the occurrence of either one (1) of two (2) contingencies whichever happens first: the birth month of the owner of the vehicle or the transfer of ownership of the vehicle. Under this interpretation, the new owner is not entitled to be credited with the unexpired time of the previous owner's registration.
If we can be of any further assistance, please let us know.