(1) “Secured person” means the owner, operator or occupant of a secured motor vehicle, and any other person or organization legally responsible for the acts or omissions of such owner, operator or occupant.
(2) A reparation obligor which has paid or may become obligated to pay basic reparation benefits shall be subrogated to the extent of its obligations to all of the rights of the person suffering the injury against any person or organization other than a secured person.

Terms Used In Kentucky Statutes 304.39-070

  • Action: includes all proceedings in any court of this state. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
  • Attorney: means attorney-at-law. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
  • Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
  • Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
  • Motor vehicle: means any vehicle which transports persons or property upon the public highways of the Commonwealth, propelled by other than muscular power except road rollers, road graders, farm tractors, vehicles on which power shovels are mounted, such other construction equipment customarily used only on the site of construction and which is not practical for the transportation of persons or property upon the highways, such vehicles as travel exclusively upon rails, and such vehicles as are propelled by electrical power obtained from overhead wires while being operated within any municipality or where said vehicles do not travel more than five (5) miles beyond the said limits of any municipality. See Kentucky Statutes 304.39-020
  • Owner: means a person, other than a lienholder or secured party, who owns or has title to a motor vehicle or is entitled to the use and possession of a motor vehicle subject to a security interest held by another person. See Kentucky Statutes 304.39-020
  • Reparation obligor: means an insurer, self-insurer, or obligated government providing basic or added reparation benefits under this subtitle. See Kentucky Statutes 304.39-020

(3) A reparation obligor shall have the right to recover basic reparation benefits paid to or for the benefit of a person suffering the injury from the reparation obligor of a secured person as provided in this subsection, except as provided in KRS § 304.39-
140(3). The reparation obligor shall elect to assert its claim (i) by joining as a party in an action that may be commenced by the person suffering the injury, or (ii) to reimbursement, pursuant to KRS § 304.39-030, sixty (60) days after said claim has been presented to the reparation obligor of secured persons. The right to recover basic reparation benefits paid under (ii) shall be limited to those instances established as applicable by the Kentucky Insurance Arbitration Association as provided in KRS § 304.39-290.
(4) Any entitlement to recovery for basic or added reparation benefits paid or to be paid by the subrogee shall in no event exceed the limits of automobile bodily injury liability coverage available to the secured party after priority of entitlement as provided in this section and KRS § 304.39-140(3) has been satisfied.
(5) An attorney representing a secured person in any action filed under KRS § 304.39-
060 shall be entitled to a reasonable attorneys’ fee in the event that reparation benefits paid to said secured person by that secured person’s reparation’s obligor are reimbursed by any insurance carrier on behalf of a tortfeasor who is the defendant in any such action filed by the said secured person or in the event such potential “action” is settled by said potential tortfeasor’s insurance carrier on his behalf prior to the filing of any such suit.
Effective: June 17, 1978
History: Amended 1978 Ky. Acts ch. 215, sec. 4, effective June 17, 1978; and ch. 384, sec. 104, effective June 17, 1978. — Created 1974 Ky. Acts ch. 385, sec. 7, effective July 1, 1975.
Legislative Research Commission Note. This section was amended by two 1978 acts which do not appear to be in conflict and have been compiled together.