Request By:
Ms. Dolores J. Rickard, Commissioner
Providence Civil Service Commission
P.O. Box 302
Providence, Kentucky 42450
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of January 19 in which you raise the question as to whether or not the city of Providence is responsible for the legal fees and expenses incurred by members of the Providence Civil Service Commission when they intervened on their own initiative on the side of the Chief of Police who filed a suit against the city as a result of the city's repeal of the city's civil service ordinance.
Our response to your question would be in the negative, and we are enclosing copies of two opinions [OAG 61-602 and OAG 69-525] relating to the general subject of the right of a city, without statutory authority, to expend public funds in connection with litigation. You will note in these opinions that the city may employ and pay for legal services, in the absence of any statute prohibiting it, to represent the city in litigation in which it or its corporate rights may be involved, even if the municipality is not a party, such as in defense of one of its officers who has been sued in connection with the performance of some alleged corporate duty.
However, the authority to expend corporate funds would not, in our opinion, extend to the payment of attorney's fees for those litigants filing a suit against the city in response to one of its corporate acts, such as the repeal of its civil service ordinance, in order to protect their interests. You will note also that in any event the city has discretion as to whether or not public funds will be appropriated for payment of legal fees even though payment is authorized.