<br><br>81A.020 Protest against annexation of unincorporated territory or reduction of <br>territory by city of the first class -- Trial -- Judgment. <br>(1) Within thirty (30) days after the enactment of an ordinance proposing to annex <br>unincorporated territory to a first-class city, or to reduce its limits, one or more <br>residents or freeholders of the territory proposed to be annexed or stricken off may <br>file a petition in the Circuit Court of the county, setting forth the reasons why the <br>territory or any part of it should not be annexed, or why the limits should not be <br>reduced. Summons shall issue on the petition and be executed on the chief <br>executive officer of the city, and the answer of the city shall be filed within twenty <br>(20) days after service of the summons. The case shall be tried according to the <br>practice prescribed for the trial of jury cases. <br>(2) If the jury finds, upon a hearing, that less than seventy-five percent (75%) of the <br>freeholders of the territory to be annexed or stricken off have remonstrated, and that <br>the adding or striking off of the territory will be for the interest of the city, and will <br>cause no manifest injury to the persons owning real estate in the territory sought to <br>be annexed or stricken off, the annexation or reduction shall be approved and <br>become final. If the jury finds that seventy-five percent (75%) or more of the <br>resident freeholders of the territory sought to be annexed or stricken off have <br>remonstrated, the annexation or reduction shall not take place, unless the jury finds <br>from the evidence that a failure to annex or strike off will materially retard the <br>prosperity of the city, and of the owners and inhabitants of the territory sought to be <br>annexed or stricken off, in which case the annexation or reduction shall take place <br>notwithstanding the remonstrance. <br>(3) An appeal from the judgment may be taken as in other cases, but there shall be no <br>change of venue from the county. Costs shall follow the judgment. <br>(4) The judgment shall, when entered, be certified to the city legislative body, which <br>may thereupon annex to or strike from the city the territory described in the <br>judgment, and the territory shall then become, or cease to become, a part of the city. <br>Effective: October 1, 1942 <br>History: Recodified 1942 Ky. Acts ch. 208, sec. 1, effective October 1, 1942, from Ky. <br>Stat. secs. 2762, 2763. <br>Formerly codified as KRS 81.110. <br><br>