Request By:
Mr. Challen P. McCoy
Nelson County Attorney
113 West Stephen Foster
Bardstown, Kentucky 40004
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
KRS 244.480(2), as amended in 1982, provides in part:
"The fiscal court of each county in which a city of the first, second, third or fourth class is located shall have the exclusive power, subject to subsection (3), to establish the times in which malt beverages may be sold in that portion of the county which lies without the corporate limits of such a city, except any portion in which malt beverages are prohibited by KRS Chapter 242 from being sold."
Cities of the first, second, third or fourth class, in which traffic in malt beverages is permitted by KRS Chapter 242, shall have a similar power to establish the times in which malt beverages may be sold within the city territory. The city of Bardstown is a fourth class city in Nelson County. The county, however, has not adopted an ordinance regulating the times in which malt beverages may be sold within that portion of Nelson County which is unincorporated.
Your question:
"Are the hours and days of the sale of malt beverages governed by subsection (1) in KRS 244.480 in the absence of the fiscal court's adopting an ordinance regulating the same?"
We assume you are referring to the unincorporated portion of Nelson County. Subsection (1) of KRS 244.480 reads:
"Except as provided in subsection (2), no brewer or distributor shall deliver any malt beverages on Sunday or between the hours of 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. on any week day except Saturday, when the hours of deliveries shall be between 6 a.m. and midnight. No retailer shall sell, give away or deliver any malt beverages between midnight and 6 a.m. or at any time during the twenty-four (24) hours of a Sunday or during the hours the polls are open on an election day."
Subsection (3) of KRS 244.480 reads:
"Notwithstanding subsections (1) and (2):
"(a) The hours so fixed by the legislative body of a city of the first, second or third class, and by fiscal courts, shall not prohibit the sale, gift or delivery of any malt beverages between 6 a.m. and midnight during week days; and
"(b) No malt beverages shall be sold on any election day while the polls are still open."
"Malt beverage" means any fermented undistilled alcoholic beverage of any name or description, manufactured from malt wholly or in part, or from any substitute for malt, and having an alcoholic content greater than that permitted under KRS Chapter 242. See KRS 241.010(21) and KRS 244.010.
Under KRS 244.480(1), in the absence of the fiscal court's establishing the times in which malt beverages may be sold in the unincorporated portion of Nelson County, the time scheme laid out in subsection (1) applicable to brewers or distributors and retailers will govern, as relates to the unincorporated portion of Nelson County. In addition, in that situation, subsection (3)(a) would apply to retailers and subsection (3)(b) would apply to brewers or distributors and retailers.
Under the doctrine of in pari materia all of KRS 244.480 must be read together as a whole in order that the legislative intent may be properly arrived at. See Dieruf v. Louisville & Jefferson County Bd. of Health, 304 Ky. 207, 200 S.W.2d 300 (1947).