Court Opinion

ID: 9778601
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 21:13:41.891442+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:12.046972
License: Public Domain

MONTGOMERY, Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent from so much of the majority opinion as holds that the state treasurer may question a claim as being unconstitutional. The majority opinion holds that such authority is implied. My objection is two-fold: (1) The constitutional section relied on does not support the implication; and (2) the Constitution expressly provides that the duties of the treasurer shall be fixed by statute and have so been fixed.
The fallacy in the implication is that Section 230 of the Constitution, relied on, deals with a prohibition against the payment of money from the Treasury unless appropriated. This authorizes the treasurer to question a claim on the ground that money has not been appropriated for it. It does not authorize the treasurer to question a claim as being constitutionally invalid.
This conclusion is supported by Sections 91. and 93 of the Constitution concerning the treasurer and other public officers and providing that their “duties and responsibilities * * * shall be prescribed by law.” The inclusion of the same delegation. of power to the General Assembly twice in the Constitution is a clear indication that the duties and responsibilities of the treasurer and such other named officers should be prescribed by the General Assembly.
This is exactly the conclusion reached in Ferguson v. Chandler, 266 Ky. 694, 99 S.W.2d 732, when the same constitutional sections were considered with reference to the duties and responsibilities of the commissioner of agriculture, an officer named with the treasurer in Sections 91 and 93. In construing the reorganization act of 1934 concerning the duties of the commissioner of agriculture, this Court held that Section 91 of the Constitution did not define the duties of the commissioner •but expressly conferred this privilege upon the General Assembly, and that the statute enacted by the General Assembly should be looked to in order to ascertain the commissioner’s duties and responsibilities. The Ferguson v. Chandler decision would seem decisive of the question here. It is neither discussed, distinguished, nor overruled in the majority opinion. For the same result concerning the county treasurer, see Breathitt County v. Cockrell, 250 Ky. 743, 63 S.W.2d 920, 92 A.L.R. 626.
The conclusion that the Ferguson v. Chandler decision is sound and should control here is fortified by reference to the various subsequent reorganization statutes which make the commissioner of finance the chief financial officer of the state, charged with protecting the financial interest of the state and expressly directing the payments of claims by the treasurer on warrants from the commissioner. Carroll’s Kentucky Statutes, Section 4688; KRS 41.120, 41.150(1), and 41.160. KRS 41.120 expressly provides that the warrant of the commissioner of finance shall “constitute full and sufficient authority to the Treasurer for the disbursement of public money in the amount set forth.”
It, therefore, is concluded that the treasurer’s duties and responsibilities with respect to processing claims are purely ministerial so long as there are appropriated funds, and that the treasurer had no right to question the claim presented on constitutional grounds.