Request By:
Thomas A. Donan
Assistant Commonwealth Attorney
Tenth Judicial District
Bardstown, Kentucky 40004
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Elizabeth E. Blackford, Assistant Attorney General
You have written to ask whether a sheriff may obtain reimbursement pursuant to KRS 64.070 for costs incurred in transporting a prisoner from the county jail to a hospital, pursuant to a court order, for emergency medical care where the prisoner remains in the hospital's security unit for the duration of the medical treatment. The Department of Finance has refused claims made for these transportation costs on the basis that there is no statutory authorization therefore. However, you believe that reimbursement may be appropriate under KRS 64.070(2)(a) where the prisoner remains "incarcerated" in the hospital security unit because the situation is then analogous to a transfer of a prisoner from one county jail to another.
The interpretation rendered by the Department of Finance is correct. It has long been the rule that statutes relating to the fees of public officers are to be construed in favor of the government and that officers are only entitled to fees that are clearly given by law.
Overstreet v. Boyle County Fiscal Court, 264 Ky. 761, 95 S.W.2d 585 (1936); KRS 64.410.
It is clear that the Legislature will make an express provision for fees for the transfer of prisoners to a hospital when it intends to do so. KRS 202A.110(2). In light of this fact it cannot be said that KRS 64.070(2) which by its clear terms relates to the transfer of a prisoner from one county jail to another pursuant to KRS 441.030 either expressly or by implication authorizes the payment of a fee for transferring prisoners from the jail to a hospital.
The sheriff may however be given a credit against any excess fees for the actual costs involved in this type of transfer under the doctrine of