The Supreme Court of Kentucky addressed the following tort, insurance, and civil law issues:

  • workers compensation issue relative to award enhancement for safety violation
  • summary judgment on agency issue and mention of insurance  that doctors and hospital covered under same liability policy
  • priority of pip coverage for pedestrian struck by uninsured motorist – pedestrian’s policy or KAC?

May 23, 2013 Supreme Court Minutes
Nos. 67-79
13 Decisions with 7 Published
Click here for AOC page with index to list of minutes links.
Click here for THIS month’s minutes with links to all decicision, published and not to be published.

PUBLISHED DECISIONS:

67. CRIMINAL LAW
Murray vs. Commonwealth
Questions Presented:
Two counts of complicity to commit murder,
first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, and two counts of tampering with physical evidence. Admission of prior consistent statement. Joinder of two counts of murder in a single indictment. RCr 6.18. Tampering with physical evidence charges did not violate defendant’s right against self-incrimination. No error in permitting testimony of alleged homosexual conduct between defendant and an accomplice, or in failing to instruct the jury on criminal facilitation to murder and robbery.

68.  CRIMINAL LAW
Cox v. Commonwealth
Questions Presented:
First-degree possession of a controlled substance, firearm enhanced; possession of a handgun by a convicted felon; and PFOII-20 years. Parole officer’s incomplete testimony regarding sentencing credits potentially available to parolees was not misleading and did not amount to palpable error.

69.  CRIMINAL LAW
Grider v. Commonwealth
Questions Presented:
Murder, first-degree robbery and intimidating a participant in the legal process-Life imprisonment. KRS 532.025 does not bar a jury from sentencing juveniles to LWOP 25. Jury selection. Validity of RCr 9.40-number of peremptory challenges in a criminal case.

70. WORKERS COMPENSATION
Hornback vs. Hardin Memorial Hospital
Questions Presented:
Workers’ Compensation. Issues presented in this case include whether an employee who was injured during an unsuccessful rescue from a stalled elevator is entitled to an enhancement of her workers’ compensation award pursuant to KRS 342.165(1), which penalizes an employer for an intentional failure to follow a safety protocol; and according to the four part test provided in Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government v. Offutt, 11 S.W.3d 598 (Ky. App. 2000).

71.  AGENCY. EVIDENCE.
Grubb vs.  Norton Hospitals, Inc
Questions Presented:
Jury Selection. Agency. Evidence Admissibility. The issues include: whether the trial court erred by failing to strike three jurors for cause; whether the trial court erred by entering summary judgment on agency issues, and whether the trial court erred by failing to allow the plaintiffs to introduce evidence that the doctors and hospital were covered by the same liability insurance.

72. CRIMINAL LAW
Turley v. Commonwealth
Questions Presented:
First-degree possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana and PFOII-20 years. Trial court erred in denying a motion to suppress drug-related evidence seized during a routine traffic stop because its discovery was the product of a custodial detainment which extended beyond the scope of the original purpose of the traffic stop in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

73.  INSURANCE. PIP.
Samons v. Kentucky Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co.
Questions Presented:
Insurance. Motor Vehicle. Basic Reparation Benefits. Issues involve responsibility for paying basic reparation benefits on behalf of an uninsured rider on horseback injured in a collision with an uninsured motor vehicle driven by an insured. Specifically, can that driver’s insurer be excluded from responsibility for paying BRBs, to be covered instead through the Assigned Claims Plan?

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