Request By:
Mr. James Hite Hays
Shelby County Attorney
501 Main Street
Courthouse
Shelbyville, Kentucky 40065
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Recently, you have written, the county fiscal court has had some misunderstandings with your circuit judge with regard to courthouse space being rented to the Administrative Office of the Courts for circuit court use.
Question No. 1 reads:
"Is the fiscal court responsible for providing office space to the circuit judge?"
KRS 26A.100(1) and (2) reads:
"(1) The circuit and the district court shall be held in the county courthouse of each county unless otherwise ordered by the Supreme Court in which case it may be held at any other location made available by the county and owned, leased, or controlled by the county. Circuit or district court may also be held in such other locations in the county as may be convenient and approved by the Supreme Court.
"(2) Every county or urban-county government shall provide such reasonably available space which would not disrupt the operation of county government as necessary in the county courthouse, or in other county facilities as permitted in subsection (1), for:
"(a) A courtroom or courtrooms for the circuit and the district court;
"(b) Chambers for the circuit judge and district judge or judges;
"(c) Office space for the circuit and district court staffs;
"(d) Office and storage space for the circuit clerk's operations;
"(e) Jury facilities for the circuit and the district court;
"(f) Office space for other officers of the Court of Justice including pretrial release officers, court reporters, court administrators, judges' secretaries, friends of the court and commissioners; and
"(g) Such other facilities necessary for the operation of the circuit and the district court as may be agreed upon by the county or urban-county government and the administrative office of the courts."
Assuming that the Supreme Court of Kentucky has not ordered nor approved otherwise, the circuit court must be held in the courthouse of your county. KRS 26A.100(2), in this situation, mandates that the fiscal court provide the circuit judge with office space. We think experience and the operations of the courts have proven that the judge's office or chambers must be near or adjacent to the courtroom. Although KRS 26A.100(2) suggests that the granting of courthouse space to the circuit judge's office may be conditioned on its being reasonably available, etc., the old
Court of Appeals, in Martin v. Louisville Motors, 276 Ky. 696, 125 S.W.2d 241 (1939), wrote that it will not be imputed to the legislature that it intended the doing of an impractical or vain or foolish thing. Another way to put it is that a rule of law must be given a practical construction. Since the courtroom is going to be in the courthouse, the circuit judge's chambers or office must be there also.
Question No. 2 reads:
"If the fiscal court is presently leasing courthouse space to the circuit judge could they terminate this lease and use this office space for other county offices?"
Under the reasoning given under Question No. 1, above, the answer is "no".
Question No. 3 reads as follows:
"If the circuit judge is not satisfied with his office space in the courthouse (extreme temperatures) and he decides to move to another office that is privately owned is the fiscal court responsible for paying the rent for this private office?"
If the county cannot provide satisfactory office space for the circuit judge, and no public facilities are available as provided in subsections (3) and (4) of KRS 26A.100, then under KRS 26A.100(5), private facilities may be leased for the judge by the Finance Department. See also KRS 26A.105. The fiscal court, if the judge's office is in the courthouse, does not furnish the space gratis. See KRS 26A.115, relating to an operating costs allowance and use allowance payments to the unit of government furnishing the court space. If the judge's office is in private quarters, then the rental would be paid by the Finance Department, pursuant to KRS 26A.100(5).