October 2012 – Topical Summary of Kentucky Court of Appeals Published Decisions with Digests and Links to Full Text (prepared by the AOC)

Still playing catchup on updating blog.

No monthly summaries for COA for August 2012.

Click here for entire listing of COA Monthly Summaries of Published Decisions.

Click here for this month’s summaries.

Here are the tort, insurance and civil decisions for this month.

• BRIDGEFIELD CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, INC. v. YAMAHA MOTOR MANUFACTURING CORPORATION OF AMERICA
  2011-CA-000684 10/26/12
  NegligenceOpinion by Judge VanMeter; Judges Lambert and Thompson concurred.

  Trial court did not err in granting summary judgment on workers’ compensation insurer’s claim for statutory and common law subrogation based on product liability theories of negligent design; negligent manufacturing; and breach of express and implied warranties arising from Yamaha’s distribution of an allegedly defective Rhino for which insurer had paid compensation benefits. Court of Appeals held that because insurer’s rights were strictly derivative of claims its insured could pursue, trial court properly applied the same one-year statute of limitations as would be applicable in a direct action by insured. Neither the discovery rule nor the equitable estoppel doctrine operated to toll statute of limitations because insured’s injuries and the Rhino’s potential role in causing the accident were immediately evident from the accident itself. Dismissal of breach of warranty claims was affirmed on basis that there was no privity of contract or “buyer-seller relationship” between insurer and Yamaha.

[gview file=”http://apps.courts.ky.gov/Appeals/Opinions/October2012.pdf”]