Request By:
Paul J. Theissen
Attorney at Law
401 Pike Street
P.O. Box 546
Covington, Kentucky 41012
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By William S. Riley, Assistant Attorney General
In your recent letter to the Attorney General four questions are asked as follows:
(1) Is a lien for income tax outlawed by the statute of limitations five years after the date of filing, that is, is a lien filed January 1, 1973 outlawed and unenforceable on January 1, 1978?
Answer: Your attention is directed to KRS 134.420 which gives the state a lien on property assessed for taxes due them respectively for five years following the date when the taxes become delinquent. The state shall also have a lien of equal rank as the lien provided for property tax on all property of a taxpayer who owes property, license, inheritance or estate tax, excise, income or other tax, with a five-year period statutory bar to enforce the lien.
(2) Is the statute of limitations tolled when a suit is filed to enforce the lien within five years of the date of filing?
Answer: Yes.
(3) If the statute is tolled by filing suit within five years, is the filing of a Lis Pendens Notice in the real estate indices a requirement to the tolling of the statute?
Answer: See
Breslin v. Gray, 283 Ky. 785, 143 S.W.2d 452 (1940) where the Court stated that where a contractor in a suit to enforce improvement liens filed a lis pendens notice, the notice was notice to the whole world of the contractor's lien and whoever thereafter bought the property took it subject to that lien. Also see
Ben Williamson v. Hall, 290 Ky. 672, 161 S.W.2d 905 (1942) where the Court stated that it has been an accepted view that a lis pendens is a notice of all facts apparent on the face of the pleadings and exhibits and of all other facts of which they would put a person of ordinary prudence on inquiry.
It would appear that the filing of a lis pendens notice stops the running of the statute until any pending litigation concerning the property in question is finally determined.
(4) Would the same rules apply to liens such as workmen's compensation and sales tax liens?
Answer: Sales tax liens would fall under KRS 134.420(2). KRS 342.175, Lien for Compensation, has the same priority for the whole thereof against the assets of the employer as is allowed by law for any unpaid wages for labor. It would appear that the workmen's compensation liens would fall under a different category.