Request By:
Hon. W.E. Quisenberry, Jr.
McLean County Attorney
P.O. Box 262
Calhoun, Kentucky 42327
Opinion
Opinion By: Frederic J. Cowan, Attorney General; Ross T. Carter, Assistant Attorney General
You have asked the applicable fine for a corporation convicted of a class A misdemeanor.
KRS 534.050 is the statute generally applicable to fins against corporations. Subsection (1)(b) authorizes a $ 10,000 fine for a class A misdemeanor. Some confusion may arise from a recent amendment to KRS 534.040, which also sets out the amount of fines for misdemeanors. Until recently KRS 534.040(3) stated, "This section does not apply to a corporation." In 1990 the General Assembly changed that subsection to read, "This section shall apply to a corporation." Both statutes are now facially applicable to fines against corporations, leaving the possibility that the amendment to KRS 534.040 repealed KRS 534.050 by implication.
In our opinion the 1990 amendment simply augments the $ 10,000 fine imposed by KRS 534.050 with the $ 500 fine imposed by KRS 534.040, leaving a maximum total fine of $ 10,500. We do not believe that the amendment repealed KRS 534.050 by implication. The law does not favor repeal of a statute by implication.
Hallahan v. Sawyer, Ky., 390 S.W.2d 664 (1965). Furthermore it is not reasonable to conclude that the legislature intended to reduce corporate fines from $ 10,000 to $ 500 and chose to do so by the implied repeal of an adjoining section of the criminal code.
The act that made KRS 534.040 applicable to corporations also amended subsection 2 of the statute to provide that the fine imposed by that section is "in addition to any other punishment . . . ." Acts 1990, c. 497, § 7. We find the legislature's intent quite clear in establishing KRS 534.040 and 534.050 as complementary statutes that together establish the fines that may be imposed on corporations.