Board of Trustees v. Henderson County Fiscal Court

549 S.W.2d 828, 1976 Ky. App. LEXIS 125
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedOctober 22, 1976
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 549 S.W.2d 828 (Board of Trustees v. Henderson County Fiscal Court) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Board of Trustees v. Henderson County Fiscal Court, 549 S.W.2d 828, 1976 Ky. App. LEXIS 125 (Ky. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinion

GANT, Judge.

This action is concerned with Chapter 173 of the Kentucky Revised Statutes and particularly with those sections providing for the creation of a public library district. Two methods of creation are provided by the statutes, one of which is set out in KRS 173.470 and which method provides that upon the filing of a duly certified petition of 100 or more qualified voters in each county to be included within the district, the Fiscal Court of that county shall adopt a resolution submitting this question on the ballot at the next general election for the purpose of creating the district and imposing a special ad valorem tax for the purpose of maintaining and operating the district. Hereafter, this will be referred to as the “ballot method.”

In addition to the “ballot method”, KRS 173.720 provides an alternative method for the organization of the district. This section states that upon the filing of a duly certified petition of fifty-one percent (51%) or more of the number of duly qualified voters who voted in the last general election in the county to be included within the district, the Fiscal Court of that county shall adopt a resolution ordering the levy of the tax and creating the district. We shall hereafter refer to this as the “petition method”.

In this action, the voters of Henderson County, Kentucky, satisfied the requirements of both sections and the Fiscal Court of that county adopted resolutions under both KRS 173.470 and KRS 173.720. This court is required to resolve the dispute as to which of these methods shall be followed.

Virtually all of the facts in this action are submitted to this court by stipulation. In the late fall of 1975, the Appellants and their supporters began to circulate petitions in Henderson County in order to obtain the signatures of the 51% required under the “petition method”, canvassing door to door in the desired public library district. Subsequent to the initiation of these petitions, the Intervenors or persons in their behalf, began to circulate petitions to obtain the signatures of the 100 or more voters required under the “ballot method”. It is stipulated between the parties to this action that the signatures of the persons on the petition required by the “ballot method” were obtained and that these signatures and petitions comply with the provisions of the statute as to form, required number of signatures, authenticity of signatures and registered voter status of the signers in sufficient number to satisfy the statute.

The Appellants continued to seek the signatures of sufficient voters to fulfill the requirements of KRS 173.720, or the “petition method”, and did, in fact, obtain signatures in a number greater than 51% of the duly qualified voters who voted in the last general election on November 5, 1975. These petitions, according to the stipulation of all parties, complied with the provisions of the applicable statutes as to form, required number of signatures, authenticity of signatures and registered voter status of the signers.

This court is informed that there were between 120 and 130 signatures on those petitions which constituted the “ballot method” and between 3,600 and 3,700 signatures on those petitions filed under the “petition method”. The petition under the “ballot method” was filed on January 19, 1976. The Henderson County Fiscal Court, at a regular meeting on January 26, 1976, adopted a resolution providing that the “ballot method” should be followed and immediately thereafter adopted a resolution that the “petition method” should be followed. It is further stipulated that this court was properly convened, a quorum present and voting, and that both resolu[830]*830tions were adopted unanimously in proper and correct form and that these resolutions have both been entered in the Order Books of the Henderson Fiscal Court.

Thereafter, the Appellants appealed to the Henderson Circuit Court from the resolution directing the Henderson County Court Clerk to place the public library district and tax question on the ballot. A companion action was filed asking that the Henderson Circuit Court declare void the resolution adopted pursuant to the “petition method” and that an injunction be issued to prevent the Henderson County Court Clerk from collecting the tax. Thereafter, and on June 29, 1976, the Honorable Carl D. Melton, Judge of the Henderson Circuit Court, entered his order declaring that the “ballot method” should prevail and declaring the “petition method” a nullity and directing that the Henderson County Fiscal Court had not legally created a public library district.

This action is composed of a succession of unexpressed intent. In the first instance, the Legislature of Kentucky did not express its intent in passing the “petition method” some four years after it passed the “ballot method”. Also, we have no expressed intent by the Henderson County Fiscal Court in passing the two resolutions other than the fact that the County Attorney, appearing on behalf of that court, stated that the court had no preference but felt that both methods were made mandatory by Chapter 173 of the Kentucky Revised Statutes. Finally, we have no expressed intent by the signers of the petition pursuant to the “ballot method”, so that we cannot determine whether by their method they intended to organize a district or whether by utilization of the “ballot method” they intended to block or negate the “petition method” sought by the Appellants.

In examining the question of intent of the Legislature in passing these two statutes, we have several guideposts which we can follow. The courts have long held that where two statutes seemingly conflict, courts must harmonize them and give them such construction as will give effect to each if possible. General Motors Acceptance Corporation v. Shuey, 243 Ky. 74, 47 S.W.2d 968 (1932); Tubbs v. Commonwealth, 248 Ky. 24, 58 S.W.2d 236 (1933); Lewis v. Mosely, 215 Ky. 573, 286 S.W. 793 (1926).

In Louisville Railway Company v. Dugan, 179 Ky. 825, 201 S.W. 324, 325 (1918) it was said: “An often invoked rule of construction, where two acts or sections of the statutes appear to conflict, requires that each section or act shall be given that meaning which will most completely effectuate the legislative intention without running counter to the other, thus harmonizing and bringing the two into a consistent whole.”

Although Appellants argue that the passage of KRS 173.710 some four years after KRS 173.450 constituted a repeal of the earlier method, it is the opinion of this court that both of those methods have a useful function.

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Related

Aubrey v. Office of the Attorney General
994 S.W.2d 516 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1999)
Crafton v. Board of Trustees
554 S.W.2d 82 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 1977)

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Bluebook (online)
549 S.W.2d 828, 1976 Ky. App. LEXIS 125, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/board-of-trustees-v-henderson-county-fiscal-court-kyctapp-1976.