Request By:
Mrs. Ginger Stiers
Post Office Box 92
Alexandria, Kentucky 41001
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Eileen Walsh, Assistant Attorney General
Our office has received your letter wherein you asked whether a constable is covered by the county or the state for purposes of Workers' Compensation. It seems that your husband is a constable in Campbell County and that he was accidentally shot while on duty.
A constable is clearly a covered "employee" under Workers' Compensation. KRS 342.640 defines "employee" for purposes of Workers' Compensation to include "every person in the service of the state or of any political subdivision or agency thereof, or of any county, . . . and every official or officer thereof, whether elected or appointed, while performing his official duties." Further, under KRS 342.630 both the state and each county are "employers" mandatorily subject to, and required to comply with, the provisions of the Workers' Compensation statutes. Prior to the passage of KRS 342.630 by the 1972 Kentucky General Assembly, KRS 67.180 and 67.185 authorized, but did not require, fiscal courts to obtain worker's compensation coverage for its employees. KRS 342.630 now requires Workers' Compensation for county governments.
For purposes of compensation a constable is deemed to be a county officer. KRS 64.530(2). In the case of officers compensated from fees (as a constable is), or partly from fees and partly by salary, the fiscal court shall fix the maximum compensation that any officer, (except the county clerk, county judge/executive, and sheriff), may receive. KRS 64.530(3); 64.535.
From the foregoing, it seems apparent that a constable would be considered to be in the service of the county for purposes of Workers' Compensation coverage. It is our opinion that a constable is the responsibility of the county for Workers' Compensation purposes.