COA: September 2017 Summaries of Published Decisions for Court of Appeals with links to full text of each decision

Court of Appeals Summary Decision of the Month:
Premises liability, statute of limitations, negligence per se, latent vs. non-latent defect, failure to notice the Kentucky Attorney General of constitutional challenge of statute.

Breedlove v. Smith Custom Homes, Inc.

Appellant challenged a summary judgment dismissing her claim for personal injury arising from her fall from the front porch of her residence. Appellant alleged that the owners of the home were negligent in maintaining the home, which caused the front entrance to be in an unsafe condition, and alleged that the builder was negligent in designing and/or constructing the home. Appellant also alleged negligence per se based upon an alleged building code violation in constructing the porch. The Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of the complaint. First, the five-year statute of limitations set forth in KRS 413.120(13) barred the action as the house was built in 2002 (when the cause of action was deemed to have accrued pursuant to the statute) and the injury happened in 2014. The Court rejected appellant’s argument that Saylor v. Hall, 497 S.W.2d 218 (Ky. 1973) extended the limitation period because the defect was latent, not non-latent as in Saylor, and declined to address the constitutionality of the statute because appellant failed to notify the Attorney General. The Court further held that appellant’s negligence per se claim for a building code violation was also barred by the statute of limitations as set forth in KRS 198B.130(2). Finally, the Court determined that appellant’s claims against the homeowners were properly dismissed because they did not breach their duty of care to her. 

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Here are individual summaries prepared by the AOC organized by legal topics this months PUBLISHED decisions only.

For a list of all archived monthly summaries, please click here for those at the AOC web site and click here for those posted here on this blog.

Please note some of these published decisions may have pending motions for discretionary review so you are cautioned to confirm finality of disposition by going to the AOC’s web site.