Request By:
Joan Brookes-Smith
Director of Micrographics
Kentucky Historical Society
P.O. Box H
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; Mark F. Armstrong, Assistant Attorney General
We are in receipt of your letter in which you ask our opinion of whether it is lawful for you to remove the official seals from land warrants.
These land warrants were issued by the Commonwealth of Virginia prior to Kentucky's admission into statehood. It is beyond the scope of this opinion to discuss the various types of warrants which were issued. The interested reader is referred to W. Jillson, The Kentucky Land Grants, pt. 1, 1-12 (1971 reprint) for further information. Suffice it to say that the person to whom the land warrant was issued was authorized thereby to enter "Kentucky County," to survey the number of acres specified in the warrant and to take possession of the land. On each warrant, there appears a wax seal impressed with the design of the Virginia Land Commission.
The Secretary of State and your office have undertaken a project to preserve these land warrants. The method of preservation involves encasing each warrant in plastic laminate. Thereafter, each laminated page is inserted into a binder. A problem has arisen in that the bulk of each wax wafer presses down upon the page or seal beneath it. The result is a distortion of the underlying page or seal. One solution to this problem is to remove the wax seal. Whether these seals may be lawfully removed is the issue to which this opinion is addressed.
These land warrants are in the official custody of the Secretary of State of the Commonwealth, see KRS 56.320. As such, they are public records, see KRS 61.870(2). The wax seal on the warrant is a symbol and proof of an official act of sovereignty, see 68 AM. JUR. 2D, Seals, §§ 1 and 10. Indeed, official acts of the Governor of the Commonwealth are still required to be sealed by the Secretary of State, KRS 14.040. Further, if a seal is missing, the Secretary of State is authorized to supply the omission, see KRS 56.280.
Therefore, it is apparent that the land warrants in question here are public records and the seals are an integral part of the document. Further, through operation of KRS 56.280 which allows the Secretary of State to supply missing seals and KRS 56.320 which limits access to the records in the Land Office, 1 there is a manifest legislative policy to preserve and protect these warrants and seals.
It is necessary to remove the wax seal to render the land warrants suitable for lamination. As long as the wax seals are then replaced so that the warrant is restored to its original condition with the exception of the intervening sheet of plastic laminate, the removal and subsequent replacement of the seal is legally permissible. To hold that the removal and replacement constitutes an unlawful alteration of a public record under KRS 519.060(1)(b) would render the restoration impossible. Because this literal reading of KRS 519.060(1)(b) would defeat the legislative policy of preserving these warrants, it cannot stand to prevent the temporary removal of these seals and the subsequent replacement, cf. Newbolt v. Bd. of Educ. of Berea Ind. Sch. Dist., Ky., 409 S.W.2d 513 (1966).
Upon these facts, we are of the opinion that the seals cannot be permanently removed from the warrants. To do so constitutes a violation of law and will subject the offender to penal sanctions, see KRS 519.060(1)(b).
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 The Land Office is included within the Office of the Secretary of State.