Request By:
Sgt. Richard Dale Minton
Kentucky State Police
Water Safety
Route Two, Box 101
Henderson, Kentucky 42420
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Joseph R. Johnson, Assistant Attorney General
In your letter dated July 28, 1980, you state that you are writing on behalf of all Kentucky State Police Officers employed by the Division of Water Safety. You state that all officers employed by your division are furnished a nineteen (19) foot boat with a six cylinder Chevrolet car engine, but have been required to purchase liability insurance coverage at their expense without reimbursement from the state. Furthermore, you state that the liability insurance limits have been raised to $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident for medical expenses and $50,000 per accident for property damage and you ask why the officers cannot be reimbursed for the purchase of liability insurance coverage when state employees who are furnished automobiles by the state are reimbursed.
I.
At the outset, it should be noted that there is no requirement that agencies of either the federal or state government purchase liability insurance coverage for motor vehicles. KRS 304.39-080(5) specifically exempts from the general liability and basic reparation insurance requirement the federal government and "This Commonwealth, its political subdivisions, municipal corporations, and public agencies." Instead, the federal and state governments may become obligated governments pursuant to KRS 304.39-080(6). The Commonwealth of Kentucky has in fact obligated itself against losses occasioned by the negligent acts of its employees and agents acting within the scope of their employment to the extent of $50,000 through the Board of Claims. KRS 44.070.
In OAG 79-8 (copy enclosed) this office concluded that the penalty for failure to maintain the required insurance coverage ($50-$500 fine and possible suspension of license plates) can be applied against a motor vehicle owner only who fails to maintain the required security. Kentucky residents and nonresidents alike must purchase liability insurance coverage in the amounts of $10,000, $20,000 and $5,000 if the motor vehicle is operated on Kentucky roadways. KRS 304.39-110(1). (Please find OAG 79-376 enclosed) . The penalty cannot be applied as against a non-owner operator since the statute is silent as to any sanctions to be imposed as against him. Therefore, the owner of the state motor vehicle -- the state -- is exempt from the mandatory liability and basic reparation insurance requirements pursuant to KRS 304.39-080(5) and the state employee/ operator of the state-owned motor vehicle is exempt because he is not the owner of the motor vehicle.
In spite of the fact that neither the state nor its employees are required by law to purchase liability or basic reparation insurance coverage, the Commonwealth of Kentucky has, by statute, established an Automobile Liability Reimbursement Program to be administered by the Department of Personnel to reimburse state employees for the purchase of insurance security to cover them while operating a state-owned motor vehicle. One hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) has been appropriated in fiscal year 1980-81 and one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars ($125,000) in fiscal year 1981-82.
The policy and purpose of Kentucky's Motor Vehicle Reparations Act is set forth in KRS 304.39-010(1) and is as follows:
The toll of about 20,000,000 motor vehicle accidents nationally and comparable experience in Kentucky upon the interests of victims, the public, policyholders and others require that improvements in the reparations provided for herein be adopted to effect the following purposes:
(1) To require owners, registrants and operators of motor vehicles in the Commonwealth to procure insurance covering basic reparation benefits and legal liability arising out of ownership, operation or use of such motor vehicles; . . . .
The conclusion reached here is that while there is no statutory or regulatory requirement whatsoever for a state officer, agent or employee to procure a motor vehicle liability insurance policy to cover him while operating a state-owned motor vehicle, the state employee would be extremely foolish to operate a state-owned motor vehicle without such protection. Because the state has enunciated in the motor vehicle reparations act as state policy that the purchase of motor vehicle liability insurance coverage is to be encouraged, the state's program to reimburse state employees who purchase automobile liability insurance to cover them while operating state-owned vehicles is consistent with this objective.
II.
The foregoing discussion still does not answer your question as to whether the state should also reimburse state police officers employed by the Division of Water Safety for the purchase of liability insurance while operating state-owned boats.
The term "motor vehicle" is defined in KRS 304.39-020(7) as follows:
'Motor vehicle' means any vehicle which transports persons or property upon the public highways of the Commonwealth, propelled by other than muscular power except road rollers, road graders, farm tractors, vehicles on which power shovels are mounted, such other construction equipment customarily used only on the site of costitution and which is not practical for the transportation of persons or property upon the highways, such vehicles as travel exclusively upon rails and such vehicles as are propelled by electrical power obtained from overhead wires while being operated within any municipality or where said vehicles do not travel more than five miles beyond the said limits of any municipality. Motor vehicle shall not mean moped as defined in this section.
The above definition obviously does not encompass boats or any other watercraft. Unlike the case of statutorily defined motor vehicles, the state has at no time enunciated a policy objective of requiring or even encouraging the purchase of liability insurance coverage by owners or operators of boats or other watercraft operated on Kentucky waterways. Therefore, the state has not adopted a program of reimbursing state employees who purchase liability insurance coverage for themselves while operating state-owned watercraft. Your letter implies that you are under the impression that state employees who operate state-owned watercraft are required by law to purchase liability insurance coverage. This is simply not true. While any state employee who operates state-owned watercraft would be wise to purchase liability insurance coverage, if the employee does purchase such coverage, it must be at his own expense and he cannot look to the state for reimbursement.