Request By:
Honorable Bremer Ehrler
Secretary of State
P.O. Box 718
Frankfort, Kentucky 40602-0718
Opinion
Opinion By: Frederic J. Cowan, Attorney General; William B. Pettus, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested this Office for an Attorney General's Opinion pursuant to KRS 15.025 concerning an interpretation and application of KRS 423.010. Your April 2, 1990, letter states that the Office of the Secretary of State is responsible for issuing certificates to persons qualifying as notaries public. KRS 423.010 requires that applicants seeking appointment as a notary public submit a written application to the Secretary of State with a fee of $10.00. In some instances, the tendered check is dishonored after the Office of the Secretary of State has issued the certificate of appointment for notary public. Your letter poses two questions. First, your letter asks whether the payment of the $10.00 statutory fee is a condition precedent "to the filing of the application for Notary Public by the Secretary of State under KRS 423.010." Second, your letter asks whether the Secretary of State may void applications when checks have been dishonored. Your letter refers this Office to Manly v. Manly, Ky., 669 S.W.2d 537 (1984) and OAG 89-94.
KRS 423.010 states in part as follows:
The secretary of state shall give to each notary appointed a certificate of his appointment under the seal of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in lieu of a commission heretofore required to be issued to said notary by the governor of Kentucky, and receive a fee of ten dollars ($10) for the certificate.
KRS 423.010. [Emphasis added.]
This statute places a mandatory duty upon the Secretary of State to receive the $10.00 fee for issuance of each certificate of appointment as a notary public. It is the opinion of this Office that the payment of this statutory fee is a condition precedent to the issuance of said certificate. Written applications received by the Secretary of State without an accompanying $10.00 fee may be filed, but no certificate of appointment may be issued until the $10.00 fee is received.
If the certificate of appointment as a notary public is issued by the Secretary of State and then it is later discovered that the personal check tendered with the application will not be honored, then the Secretary of State should and is authorized to notify the county clerk and the applicant that the certificate is void for failure to pay the $10.00 statutory fee. The applicant may then submit another application accompanied by the $10.00 statutory fee if the applicant desires to be issued a second valid certificate.
The opinions expressed herein are consistent with the reasoning contained in Manly v. Manly, Ky., 669 S.W.2d 537 (1984) and OAG 89-94. I trust that this satisfactorily addresses the issues and problems raised in your letter.