Court Opinion

ID: 9768135
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:43:53.22411+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:36.837686
License: Public Domain

COOPER, Justice,
concurring.
I do not share the majority’s view that it would be an “onerous burden” to require a licensed, but uninsured, driver to refrain from operating uninsured vehicles. However, I agree that the legislature has yet to impose that restriction on uninsured drivers.
There can be no penalty if there is no crime. The 1994 amendment of KRS 304.99-060(1) purports to impose criminal penalties on an “operator of any vehicle who fails to have in full force and effect the security required by Subtitle 39 of this chapter....” Subtitle 39 of chapter 304, specifically KRS 304.39-080(5), only requires an “owner of a motor vehicle registered in this Commonwealth or operated in this Commonwealth by him or with his permission ” (emphasis added) to provide security (insurance) for basic reparation benefits and tort liability “arising from maintenance or use of the motor vehicle.” Subtitle 39 contains no provision requiring an operator to provide security for a vehicle which he does not own. Perhaps the amendment was intended to conform the penalty statute to the “or operated by him” language in KRS 304.39-080(5). But if the intent was to penalize an operator for violating a statute which imposes no obligation on him, it is a nullity.
A crime was committed, but the wrong person was charged. The culpable party under our statute was the owner of the vehicle, not its operator.