Request By:
Mr. Stephen M. Arnett
Attorney at Law
107 S. Morgan Street
P.O. Box 419
Morganfield, Kentucky 42437
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You seek our opinion as to the present limit of the master commissioner's salary in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Your letter includes the following:
Civil Rule 53.08 places the limits of compensation for Commissioners not to exceed $24,000.00 per year. However, in KRS 31A.010(4), in counties other than those containing cities of the first and second class and urban county governments, the master commissioner's fee is limited to $7,200.00 per year exclusive of actual expenses.
It is my understanding that this question may soon be rendered moot, inasmuch as the legislature in its 1982 session passed a statute to do away with the $7,200.00 limit. However, I would still appreciate your opinion as to the limits that are in existence until the effective date of the new statute.
Civil Rule 53.08 imposes a limit on the compensation of all commissioners derived from fees of $24,000 per year. The commissioners' accounting for all fees is taken up in Civil Rule 53.09.
KRS 31A.010(4) provides in part that the master commissioner shall be compensated by fees as provided by rule of the Supreme Court. In counties other than those containing cities of the first and second class and urban county governments his compensation shall not exceed the sum of seven thousand two hundred dollars ($7,200) per year, exclusive of actual expenses.
Thus in Union County, the maximum personal compensation payable to the master commissioner per year is presently $7200.
House Bill 239 was enacted into law in the 1982 session. It amends KRS 31A.010(4) by deleting the sentence restricting the master commissioners in counties other than those containing cities of the first and second class and urban county governments to $7200 per year. H.B. 239 takes effect ninety (90) days after the close of the session, since the bill did not contain an emergency clause.
After 90 days from the close of the session H.B. 239 will have the effect, under KRS 31A.010, as amended, of merely providing that the master commissioner shall be compensated by fees as provided by rule of the Supreme Court. That referred to rule is CR 53.07 through CR 53.09. Thus at that point (effective date of H.B. 239), all of the master commissioners in Kentucky will be subject to a compensation derived from fees and not exceeding $24,000 per year.
Thus, in enacting H.B. 239, the legislature has eliminated the special restrictions on master commissioners' compensation presently found in KRS 31A.010(4) in favor of a general law applicable to all master commissioners within the Commonwealth of Kentucky. See § 59, Kentucky Constitution, and Walters v. Binders, Ky., 435 S.W.2d 464 (1968).