Request By:
Mr. Donald R. Erler
Assistant County Attorney
1112 Kentucky Home Life Building
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The Jefferson County Jail has accumulated a considerable amount of clothing that prisoners have abandoned. There is also a substantial amount of money that has accumulated in the former prisoners' accounts because the money was not reclaimed when the prisoners left the jail. See KRS 71.020 as to the jailer's custodial role.
The Jefferson County Attorney's Office requests our opinion as to the proper method for disposing of this abandoned property.
The Jefferson County Jail is operated under a Metropolitan Correctional Services Department in lieu of the sheriff-jailer. See KRS 67B.030.
Under KRS 67.590 the fiscal court may designate a custodian of abandoned property taken into the custody of the sheriff, county police or courts. That statute has no application factually.
We assume the identity and address of the original owners of the clothing and money cannot now be determined.
Under KRS 393.020 any property abandoned by the owner, except a perfect title to a corporeal hereditament, shall vest in the state, subject to all legal and equitable demands. Corporeal hereditament refers to tangible real property capable of being inherited. Under this statute any property that vests in the state under this section shall be liquidated, and the proceeds, less costs, fees and expenses incidental to all legal proceedings of the liquidation shall be paid to the Department of Revenue. See KRS 393.010(1)(g).
As relates to the money on hand, where the money is unclaimed for seven years after it becomes payable, there is a presumption of abandonment pursuant to KRS 393.066, and the money escheats to the state. The constitutionality of the eascheat statutes was upheld in
Anderson Nat. Bank v. Reeves, 293 Ky. 735, 170 S.W.2d 350 (1943).
For any further details on the escheat procedure, you should contact Mr. William Riley, General Counsel for the Kentucky Department of Revenue.