The Kentucky Court of Appeals announced 17 decisions on May 29, 2015, with four (7) of their opinions designated to be published.
Click here for links to all the archived AOC Court of Appeals minutes at the web site for the Administrative Office of the Courts.
Click here for all of a listing of the Kentucky Court Report’s posts of the weekly COA minutes (or you can always access these within the KCR web site at the uppermost dropdown menu option for the Court of Appeals). AOC version of this week’s decisions can be accessed by clicking here.
For the complete set of this week’s minutes listed all decisions (published and not to be published) with links to the full text of each at the AOC, the continue reading below the digested summaries of this week’s published cases.
Published appellate cases for this week:
448. Torts. Defenses. Qualified official immunity applied to school officials’ supervision of students. Bullying.
Louise Slattery vs. F.(J.)
COA Opinion reversing; Jefferson County
Held COA should exercise appellate jurisdiction of interlocutory appeals of denials of motions for reconsideration of prior denials of claims of immunity, and then On the issue of whether appellants are entitled to qualified official immunity for claimed negligence in the supervision of their students, the Court of Appeals reversed the Jefferson Circuit Court’s opinion and order which had Denied appellant’s motion for summary judgment and remanded the the case to the circuit court with instructions to enter judgment in favor of the appellants on the ground that qualified official immunity applies and there’s no showing of bad faith conduct on the part of the appellant’s.
Mother of A.F., a student, alleges that two teachers, Appellants Louise Slattery and Jessica Watkins, and the principal of Foster Traditional Elementary School, Appellant Susan Quinlan, were negligent in the supervision of their students. A.F. maintains that she was regularly bullied by fellow student, S.B., and that Appellants were unresponsive to A.F.’s pleas for help.
The Code itself calls for the use of reasonable judgment in its own application and enforcement as well as in disciplinary action. Appellants responded to all of these incidents reported by A.F. with disciplinary measures Appellants believed reasonable under the circumstances. This is well within Code compliance. Therefore, we disagree with Mother that the Code prescribes ministerial duties in this case as well as with her assertion that Appellants violated the Code by their corrective actions.
Mother also argues that Appellants were negligent per se in their supervision of their students due to violation of the mandatory reporting requirements of KRS 158.154 and KRS 158.156. Mother alleges these specific statutes do not allow the Appellants to exercise any discretion in their response to A.F.’s complaints of bullying by S.B. Specifically, Mother contends S.B.’s conduct and A.F.’s injury from the playground incident at recess compelled a report to law enforcement. Appellants argue that a determination of whether the statutes have been invoked requires the exercise of discretion, and further, A.F.’s injury was not of the type the statutes were designed to protect. We agree.
453. Justiciablility; case or controversy; Business improvement district
Berger Family Real Estate LLC vs. City of Covington
COA. Opinion Affirming; Kenton County.
Held here is not a justiciable case or controversy and affirm.
455. Regulatory law. Environmental Protection. Permits. Clean Water Act.
Louisville Gas & Electric Co. vs. Kentucky Waterways Allicance
COA. Opinion Affirming. Franklin County.
Kentucky Waterways Alliance, Sierra Club, Valley Watch and Save the Valley successfully challenged granting of wastewater and air pollution permit granted LG&E under Clean Water Act.
457. Criminal. Sentencing. Revocation of pretrial diversion by lower court reversed.
Matthew Helms vs. Commonwealth of Kentucky
COA Opinion Reversing and remanding; Boyd County.
458. Real property. Land conditionally dedicated to city.
Amy Williams vs. City of Kuttawa
COA. Affirming. Lyon County.
460. Road closing, access to property
Gary Greene vs. Greenup County, Kentucky
COA. Vacating and remanding. Greenup County.
462. Domestic Violence Order
Michael Boone vs. Tiffany Boone
COA. Remanding. Campbell County.
Selected Tort, insurance, civil decisions: The following decisions might be of interest to attorneys practicing personal injury and accident law, automobile accident injury law, and insurance law:
448. Torts. Defenses. Qualified official immunity applied to school officials’ supervision of students.
Louise Slattery vs. F.(J.)
COA Published Opinion reversing; Jefferson County
461. Nursing Home Negligence.
Debbie Howard, Adm’x of Estate of Kimberly Langon vs. Mary Breckinridge Healthcare Inc.
COA Not published opinion. Affirming in part, reversing in part and remanding. Leslie County.
STUMBO, JUDGE: Debbie Howard, as administratrix of the estate of Kimberly Langdon, appeals from an order of the Leslie Circuit Court which directed her to pursue her claims only against Mary Breckinridge Healthcare, Inc., denied her the ability to collect interest and costs from a previously entered judgment, and set aside an award of attorney fees previously granted. We find that Appellant is entitled to the attorney fees, but affirm in all other respects
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