Kentucky Region Eight v. Com.
| Decision Date | 01 March 1974 |
| Citation | 507 S.W.2d 489 |
| Parties | KENTUCKY REGION EIGHT, etc., et al., Appellants, v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky and Kentucky Employes Retirement System, Appellees. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
Edward L. Fossett, Donald Duff, Smith & Duff, Frankfort, for appellants.
Ed W. Hancock, Atty. Gen., Patrick B. Kimberlin, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., Frankfort, for appellees.
CULLEN, Commissioner.
The appellants, Kentucky Region Eight Mental Health-Mental Retardation Board, Inc., Nineteenth Regional Mental Health-Mental Retardation Board, Inc., and Twentieth Regional Mental Health-Mental Retardation Board, Inc., are three of eighteen charitable, nonprofit corporations organized in various areas of Kentucky to assist, in accordance with KRS 210.370, in administering mental health programs and clinics under KRS 210.370 to 210.460. The judgment from which they are appealing required them to participate in the Kentucky Employes Retirement System. The principal grounds on which they appeal are (1) that they are not state agencies within the meaning of the statutes providing for the Kentucky Employes Retirement System specifically KRS 61.510(3), and (2) that the executive order of former Governor Edward T. Breathitt providing that the corporations 'are permitted to become and are participating agencies in the Kentucky Employes' Retirement System' was merely permissive and not mandatory. We find merit in the first proposition and therefore it is unnecessary that we pass on the second one.
The Kentucky Employes Retirement System provided for in KRS 61.510 to 61.700 is for employes of 'departments,' defined in KRS 61.510 to mean 'any state department or board or agency' participating in the system (our emphasis).
The regional mental health-mental retardation boards are private nonprofit corporations organized under KRS Chapter 273 to participate in administering mental health-mental retardation programs and clinics under KRS 210.370 to 210.460. KRS 210.370 provides that the programs and clinics may be administered by a community health board established pursuant to KRS 210.370 to 210.460 'or by a nonprofit corporation.' The nonprofit corporations are eligible for state grants under KRS 210.370 to 210.460 as well as federal grants under the Community Mental Health Centers Act, private donations, local government contributions, etc.
Statements from studies predating the enactment of KRS 210.370 to 210.460 were to the effect that use of nonprofit corporations to implement the program was intended to be an alternative to use of direct state agencies; that the corporations were to be treated as being separate and apart from state government in order to encourage local community support, and to qualify fully for receipt of federal grants and tax-deductible charitable donations.
The mere fact that the corporations receive and administer grants of state funds does not mean that they...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Commonwealth v. Reed
... 647 S.W.3d 237 COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellant, v. Dovontia REED, Appellee. 2020-SC-0116-DG Supreme Court of ... 25, 2015), https://www.bizjournals.com ... ...
-
Ky. Emps. Ret. Sys. v. Seven Counties Servs., Inc.
...here involved are not claimed to be state agencies for any purpose other than retirement system participation." Ky. Region Eight v. Commonwealth , 507 S.W.2d 489, 491 (Ky. 1974). The legislature responded in part by adding new statutory language affirming that any entity appropriately desig......
-
Ky. Emps. Ret. Sys. v. Seven Counties Servs., Inc. (In re Seven Counties Servs., Inc.)
...under Chapter 273 of the Kentucky Revised Statutes. One of these was Kentucky Region Eight Mental Health–Mental Retardation Board, Inc. (“Region Eight”), which filed for incorporation as a non-profit organization on June 29, 1966. Region Eight, later known as River Region Mental Health–Ment......
-
Withers v. University of Kentucky
...whole, the entity is carrying out a function integral to state government. We use by analogy the language in Kentucky Region Eight v. Commonwealth, Ky., 507 S.W.2d 489, 491 (1974), holding that sovereign immunity should extend only to "departments, boards or agencies that are such integral ......