Request By:
Honorable Jonathan A. Mason
Attorney at Law
11 West Sixth Street
Covington, Kentucky 41011
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of April 6 in which you as city attorney for the city of Crescent Springs (a city of the fifth class) raise the question as to the method whereby the city can acquire ownership of abandoned motor vehicles parked on city streets. Your particular situation involves an abandoned station wagon that was finally towed in by the police department. The name of the owner was ascertained and notified but has refused on a number of occasions to pick up the vehicle and pay the outstanding storage charge and towing bill.
The only way that the city can obtain the vehicle is through its purchase at a public sale pursuant to the provisions of KRS 189.751 and KRS 376.275. These statutes read as follows:
KRS 189.751
"(1) Any person who leaves a vehicle upon a county road or city street under circumstances indicating an abandonment, shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars ($25.00) nor more than one hundred dollars ($100) or imprisoned for not less than ten (10) days nor more than thirty (30) days. A vehicle left upon a county road or city street for seven (7) consecutive days shall be presumed to be abandoned.
"(2) The public authority having jurisdiction over a particular county road or city street shall cause any such vehicle which is fit for future use to be removed by some person engaged in the business of storing or towing motor vehicles and the provisions of KRS 376.275 shall apply in disposing of such vehicle. Any money obtained in disposing of a vehicle that is in excess of any liens shall be paid by the seller to the owner and if the owner cannot be located, the excess money shall escheat to the state pursuant to the provisions of KRS chapter 393. Such vehicle shall be registered or transferred in the county where the sale is conducted upon an affidavit by the seller that the provisions of KRS 376.275 have been met. The affidavit shall contain information as prescribed by the department of transportation.
"(3) If any such vehicle is, in the opinion of the public authority, unfit for future use, the public authority may dispose of it immediately in such a manner as it deems appropriate."
KRS 376.275
"Any person engaged in the business of storing or towing motor vehicles, shall have a lien on the motor vehicle, for the reasonable or agreed charges for storing or towing the vehicle, as long as it remains in his possession. If after a period of sixty (60) days the reasonable or agreed charges for storing or towing a motor vehicle have not been paid, the motor vehicle may be sold to pay the charges after the owner has been notified by registered letter of the time and place of the sale. This lien shall be subject to prior recorded liens." (Emphasis added).
The above statutes are self-explanatory concerning the disposition of abandoned vehicles and as pointed out in OAG 74-885 [copy attached].
Thus, the city has no legal interest in the abandoned vehicle other than to have it removed and stored, or disposed of where it is found to be unfit for future use pursuant to KRS 189.751(3). Of course, the city can purchase the vehicle at a sale pursuant to KRS 376.275.