OAG 80-186 | KOGC

Request By:

Mr. Lee Godwin
Assistant Director
Lake Cumberland Emergency Medical Services
221 East First Street
P.O. Box 280
Campbellsville, Kentucky 42718

Opinion

Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Elizabeth E. Blackford, Assistant Attorney General

You have written as the Assistant Director of the Lake Cumberland Emergency Medical Services System to ask whether the District Judge may order the ambulance service, upon pain of contempt for refusal to do so, to transport the mentally ill who are to be hospitalized under KRS Chapter 202A when KRS 202A.100 places that duty upon the sheriff, and, when there is no provision under the chapter for reimbursing the ambulance service for the costs of such transportation.

The judge may not order the ambulance service to transport the mentally ill to the hospital because the legislature has determined that this is a duty which is to be performed, without exception, by the sheriff. KRS 202A.100. See OAG 77-511, copy enclosed. In making the determination that the sheriff shall perform this duty and that he shall receive the appropriate compensation therefor, the legislature was acting within the scope of its authority. Accordingly, the judge may not usurp the power of the legislature by shifting that duty from the sheriff to the ambulance service.

LLM Summary

In OAG 80-186, the Attorney General addressed an inquiry regarding whether a District Judge could order an ambulance service to transport mentally ill individuals to be hospitalized under KRS Chapter 202A, despite the statute assigning this duty to the sheriff. The opinion concluded that the judge could not order the ambulance service to perform this duty, as the legislative intent clearly places this responsibility on the sheriff, with provisions for appropriate compensation. The decision cites OAG 77-511 to support the interpretation of legislative intent.

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