Request By:
Mr. Leslie A. Henderson, Sr.
Carter County Coroner
Drawer A
Olive Hill, Kentucky 41164
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Questions relating to the coroner's office are raised in your letter. Question No. 1 reads:
"Can the county judge executive reduce the original amount of bills submitted to and approved by the fiscal court?"
Assuming that the bills are valid claims againt the county treasury and are accurately stated, the county judge executive has no authority to alter such claims. See KRS 67.710 and 67.083(4), concerning the county judge executive's executive role in county government. On the fiscal court, the county judge executive is one of the voting members of that body. See KRS 67.080(1)(c) and 67.083(1), relating to powers of the fiscal court. The correctness of a bill against the county should be determined by the fiscal court, upon the advice of the county attorney when necessary. The actual number of claims will depend upon the claims against the county approved by the fiscal court as a body.
Question No. 2:
"Can the coroner order the county ambulance service to transport the remains to a facility for the purpose of having an autopsy performed?"
We assume you refer to a "coroner ordered autopsy" , as defined in KRS 72.405(1). A "coroner ordered autopsy" means an autopsy ordered by the coroner having jurisdiction and performed by a pathologist pursuant to such authorization in order to ascertain the cause and manner of death in a coroner's case. A "corner's case" means a case in which the coroner has reasonable cause for believing that the death of a human being within his county was caused by any of the conditions set forth in KRS 72.025 (circumstances requiring postmortem examination to be performed by coroner or other person named in KRS 72.405(4)). Clearly the cost of transporting the body for the purpose of an autopsy ordered by the coroner must be borne by the fiscal court. See KRS 72.435 and 72.460. We are not aware of any statute requiring the county ambulance service to haul a dead person for the purpose of an autopsy, as you suggest. The answer to question no. 2 is "no".
Question No. 3:
"Is the fiscal court responsible for office space for the county coroner? "
Any cost of a reasonable amount of office space necessary for the coroner to carry out his statutory functions would be borne by the fiscal court, pursuant to KRS 72.415. Clearly KRS 72.415(2) imposes upon each fiscal court and urban county government the responsibility of paying "all reasonable expenses" incurred by the coroner in carrying out his responsibilities under the provisions of KRS 72.410 to 72.470. "All reasonable expenses" refers to those expenses actually incurred by the coroner in carrying out his statutory duties, which expenses are reasonable in amount and which are reasonably necessary in the performance of such statutory duties. See City of Ashland v. Miller, Ky., 283 S.W.2d 195 (1955), concerning the function of this county officer, the coroner.