Kentucky Supreme Court

The Court affirmed Young’s convictions and thirty-two-year sentence, rejecting his challenges based on double jeopardy, substitute counsel, expert testimony, and evidence concerning a victim’s autism.

The Court denied the Commonwealth's petition for a first-class writ of prohibition because the Franklin Circuit Court had subject matter jurisdiction over the inmates' declaratory and constitutional challenges to execution regulations.

The Court held that an employer may immediately recover workers’ compensation benefits already paid when a worker later obtains a third-party settlement duplicating those benefits.

The Kentucky Supreme Court held that KRS 45A.245 waives governmental immunity for all claims based on lawfully authorized written contracts with the Commonwealth and its agencies, including written employment contracts.

The Kentucky Supreme Court denied interlocutory relief because the employment agreement did not contain an arbitration agreement and the accounting firm's calculation was not an arbitration award subject to judicial confirmation.

The Kentucky Supreme Court affirmed summary judgment for the school administrators and teachers, but on grounds substantially different from those used below. It held that administrators making school policies were protected by qualified official immunity, while teachers performing and enforcing those policies were…

The court held that the trial court’s informed-consent jury instruction was legally deficient because it stated only the professional standard of care and omitted the statutory requirement that the information provide a reasonable individual with a general understanding of the procedure, alternatives, and substantial…

The court held that the two principals were entitled to qualified official immunity because their responsibilities involved discretionary operational supervision and assignment of duties, rather than personally performing the routine task of extending the bleachers.

The court affirmed the summary denial of Foley's post-conviction motion challenging his convictions and death sentences based on a firearms expert's report. It held that the report was not newly discovered evidence because it merely reinterpreted facts available at trial, and that its speculative…

The court reversed summary judgment for Cardinal Hill, holding that an open-and-obvious condition does not eliminate a land possessor's duty of reasonable care to an invitee. The condition instead bears on breach, foreseeability, causation, and comparative fault, ordinarily matters for the jury unless reasonable minds…

The court held that the later arbitration agreement was a valid, independent contract and was not barred by the purchase contract's merger and integration clause. It also held that the agreement was neither procedurally nor substantively unconscionable and that Lori Peay assented to it by accepting warranty services…

The court reversed and remanded a legal-malpractice judgment because the trial court used the suit-within-a-suit method but failed to instruct the jury on the underlying pilot-negligence claim, leaving causation unresolved.

The court held that the resident’s durable power of attorney authorized her daughter to manage property, finances, and health-care decisions, but did not authorize her to waive the resident’s right to litigate through an optional, collateral arbitration agreement.

The Court held that a post-decree motion to modify visitation or timesharing is an action tried upon the facts without a jury under CR 52.01, requiring specific findings of fact, separate conclusions of law, and an appropriate judgment.

The court adopted Kentucky's economic loss rule for commercial product transactions, barring tort recovery for losses resulting from damage to the product itself and limiting recovery to contract and warranty remedies.

The Court held that Kentucky's long-arm statute must be applied independently before determining whether jurisdiction satisfies federal due process. Although the defendants conducted substantial business in Kentucky, the plaintiff's Indiana slip-and-fall claim did not arise from those Kentucky activities because there…

The court affirmed Brown's convictions and consecutive twenty-year sentences for burglary and robbery but held that the Double Jeopardy Clause barred imposing death at his second trial after the first jury selected life imprisonment without parole for twenty-five years.

The court held that Haney’s supervision of the children during the Night Hike activity was discretionary rather than ministerial, entitling her to qualified official immunity as a matter of law.

The Court held that Section 93 of the Kentucky Constitution, as amended in 1992, gives the Senate alone the constitutional authority to confirm gubernatorial appointees to inferior state offices and boards and commissions.

The Court affirmed Appellant's convictions, holding that the trial court did not compel self-incrimination by requiring admissible evidence to support an extreme-emotional-disturbance instruction, and adequately investigated Appellant's dissatisfaction with counsel.

The Court held that an order denying a substantial claim of absolute immunity is immediately appealable because immunity protects against the burdens and costs of litigation, not merely liability.

The Court affirmed Rodgers's conviction, holding that the joint trial was permissible, the redacted statements did not require severance or reversal, and the trial court properly limited Rodgers's attempt to introduce additional self-defense statements.

The court vacated the judgment and remanded for a new trial because the trial court improperly excluded evidence relevant to consent and damages, failed to instruct the jury on sexual assault and consent, and gave an ordinary-care instruction that could impose liability for an employee's intentional conduct outside…

The court affirmed Winstead's convictions and sentences, rejecting his claims concerning self-representation, racial voir dire, a juror's qualification, and improper witness bolstering.

The court reversed Miller's convictions and the related persistent-felony-offender enhancement because the jury instructions for multiple rape and sodomy counts did not factually distinguish the separate alleged offenses, creating palpable and prejudicial error that undermined unanimity and meaningful appellate…

The Court affirmed denial of Jeffrey Leonard’s motion to reopen his completed collateral attack. It held that the rule permitting a later ineffective-assistance claim based on an alleged palpable error addressed on direct appeal was a new procedural rule and could not be applied retroactively to a collateral…

The court held that the trial court reversibly erred by submitting seven identical sexual-abuse instructions that did not identify the conduct supporting each count, and that closing argument could not cure the defect.

The Court affirmed the order maintaining joint custody with the mother as primary residential parent after her relocation to Virginia. It held that post-decree relocation requires the court first to determine whether the requested relief changes the legal nature of custody or merely modifies timesharing, and that the…

The court held that the trial court abused its discretion by refusing to strike a police-officer juror whose voir dire responses showed a probability of bias, and that forcing the defendant to use a peremptory challenge to remove that juror violated a substantial state-law right that could not be treated as harmless…

The court held that the trial court improperly admitted testimony identifying the appellant's prior incarceration as being for a similar crime because the evidence was offered for propensity purposes and did not satisfy either exception under KRE 404(b).

The court reversed Clark's convictions because the trial court improperly failed to instruct the jury on second-degree sexual abuse as to L.H., whose abuse could have occurred both before and after his twelfth birthday, and improperly admitted evidence of Clark's prior sexual misconduct.

The Kentucky Supreme Court held that Bell County Coal timely appealed because the trial court's amended judgment revoked the original judgment's finality and substantively changed the judgment.

The Kentucky Supreme Court reinstated summary judgment for the county jailer and deputy jailer in their individual capacities because the challenged decisions concerning the voluntary jail work program, prisoner assignments, supervision, and training were discretionary and the record contained no evidence of bad…

The court affirmed Ratliff's convictions for intentional murder and seven counts of first-degree criminal abuse, rejecting challenges to severance, juror qualifications, evidentiary sufficiency, expert testimony, photographs, double jeopardy, jury instructions, and alleged juror sleeping.

The court held that a prior determination on direct appeal that an unpreserved error was not palpable error does not bar a later ineffective-assistance claim based on counsel's failure to preserve the same issue.

The Kentucky Supreme Court affirmed Lanham's convictions for murdering his wife and tampering with physical evidence. It held that the detective's accusatory interrogation comments were admissible to provide context for Lanham's changing responses, but that a limiting admonition was required if requested and Lanham…

The court held that the supplier's lien was automatically released when the supplier failed to timely serve its lien complaint, entitling 3D to the withheld funds. It further held that the settlement agreement barred MSD from asserting that 3D breached the contract by providing a worthless warranty, and that the…

The court affirmed Matthews's rape and persistent-felony-offender convictions, holding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying a mistrial after an unsolicited reference to prior incarceration or by admitting evidence of a prior misdemeanor charge to show motive.

The court held that violation of the applicable Kentucky occupational-safety regulation constituted a violation of the underlying safety statute, supporting a negligence-per-se action under the separate statutory remedy for persons within the protected class.

The court affirmed dismissal of Bowling’s postconviction civil action seeking to vacate his death sentences on the ground of mental retardation. It held that the action could be treated as an independent equitable action despite initial procedural defects, but Bowling waived the claim by failing to raise it when…