Administrative Office of the Courts v. Miller

468 S.W.3d 323, 40 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 839, 2015 Ky. LEXIS 1750, 2015 WL 4967189
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 20, 2015
Docket2013-SC-000373-TG
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 468 S.W.3d 323 (Administrative Office of the Courts v. Miller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Kentucky Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Administrative Office of the Courts v. Miller, 468 S.W.3d 323, 40 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 839, 2015 Ky. LEXIS 1750, 2015 WL 4967189 (Ky. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT BY

SPECIAL JUSTICE JOHN S. REED

This matter is before the Court for the second time on transfer from the Court of Appeals. We now consider the appeal and cross-appeal from the December 3, 2012 summary judgment order of the Jefferson Circuit Court, entered after this Court remanded the case to the Circuit Court on December 22, 2011.

We reverse the Order of the Jefferson Circuit Court granting summary judgment to Beverly J. Miller (“Miller”) and denying summary judgment to the Administrative Office of the Courts (“AOC”) on Miller’s claim that she was a tenured employee of the Court of Justice (“COJ”) and, therefore, before she was terminated, she was entitled to the due process provided in the COJ Personnel Policies. As a matter of law, we hold that, on the undisputed record, Miller was not a tenured employee and was not entitled to termination due process under the COJ Personnel Policy.

We affirm the Order of the Jefferson Circuit Court granting summary judgment to the AOC and dismissing Miller’s claim under the Kentucky Whistleblower Statute. On the record, we hold as a matter of law that Miller did not report or disclose previously concealed or non-public information that would entitle her to protection under KRS 61.102.

I. Procedural Background

The course of this long-running public employment dispute is recounted in the December 22, 2011, opinion of this Court. Miller v. Administrative Office of the Courts, 361 S.W.3d 867, 869-71 (Ky.2011). There, this Court considered Miller’s appeal from the Order of the Jefferson Circuit Court dismissing her claims as being barred under the doctrine of res judicata because the issues in question had already been decided in federal court. This Court concluded:

There is nothing in the record below, or in the federal action, indicating that [325]*325there has been a finding of whether Miller’s position with the AOC was tenured or “at will,” and if tenured whether she was afforded her rights under the administrative procedures of the AOC.
... The finding of the federal district court dismissing Miller’s whistleblower claims was not necessary to the opinion of the Sixth Circuit that sustained the district court’s dismissal of Miller’s claim on other grounds, thus depriving the final decision of the federal courts of one of the required tests in order for issue preclusion to apply to the state court action.

Id. at 877.

This Court reversed the dismissal of Miller’s claims and remanded the case to the Jefferson Circuit Court

for further proceedings in regard to Miller’s status as a tenured employee entitled to due process protection afforded by the administrative policies of the AOC, and if she was a tenured employee, a finding of whether those policies were followed in regard to Miller’s termination, and in regard to whether Miller reported information that would entitle her to protection under the Kentucky whistleblower statute.

Id.

II. Relevant Facts

As when this Court last considered this dispute, “[t]he specific facts leading up to [Miller’s 2001] termination are not necessary to resolution of this matter.” Id. at 869.

A. Miller’s status as a tenured or at-will employee.

Effective July 15, 1976, Miller (then known as Beverly Doyle) was appointed by the Chief Judge- of the Jefferson Circuit Court “as coordinator for the Jefferson Circuit Court,” “to serve at the pleasure of the Court,” ie., as an at-will employee. The position she filled was created in 1976 under a temporary grant from the United States Department of Justice Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (“LEAA”) to develop the Jefferson County Jury Management Project — a more efficient and effective jury management system for the largest county in the Commonwealth. This represents the first time, and still the only time, a Kentucky trial court has separated jury management from the rest of the trial court administrator’s traditional functions.

Effective March 1, 1977, Miller’s “position title” was reclassified from “Aid Coordinator” to “Jury Pool Manager.” She continued in the same job with the same duties. By the time grant funding for the Jefferson County Jury Management Project ended, the COJ had budgeted funds to continue the Jefferson County jury management program and make permanent the jury pool manager position that had been temporary when it was created under grant funding.1

Miller continued as Jefferson County Jury Pool Manager until early 1999, when a change in Kentucky law allowed employees to draw both retirement and salary simultaneously. To take advantage of the new law, she retired as full-time Jury Pool [326]*326Manager effective February 28, 1999, and she was rehired part-time in the same position effective April 1,1999.

Effective July 1, 1999, Miller’s “position title” was reclassified from Jury Pool Manager to “Professional Services Supervisor.” On July 26, 1999, Miller requested to go full-time in her job effective September 1, 1999. So on September 1, 1999, the AOC personnel manager confirmed to Miller in a letter that she was then a “full-time employee” “as a ’Professional Services Supervisor’ with the working title ’Jury Pool Manager.’ ” Her duties remained the same. After that, as before, Miller consistently referred to herself, and also signed documents, as “Jury Pool Manager” or as “Jury Pool Administrator.”

Miller’s employment with the COJ ended when she was terminated by Jefferson Circuit Chief Judge Tom Wine in a letter dated April 24, 2001.

There is no indication in any document in Miller’s COJ/AOC personnel file that her employment status was ever anything other than at will. Never did the word “tenure” or “tenured” or any equivalent (like “classified” or “covered”) appear. Over the course of Miller’s employment, her merit status was variously expressed in writing in her personnel file as “at the pleasure of the Court,” “unclassified,” or “not covered,” each of which indicates at-will, non-tenured employment.

For her entire employment with the Jefferson Circuit Court, Miller’s duties always included only the function of jury pool management. Traditionally jury pool management has been performed directly by trial court administrators everywhere in Kentucky except Jefferson County where, since 1976, the function was separated for the Jefferson County jury pool.2 The Jefferson Circuit Court Chief Judge had the administrative authority to delegate to the Trial Court Administrator the responsibility for overseeing the jury pool management function.

B. . Miller’s whistleblower status.

Miller’s claim under KRS 61.102

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Miniard v. Turner
516 S.W.3d 814 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 2017)
Roscoe v. Angelucci Acoustical, Inc.
512 S.W.3d 730 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 2017)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
468 S.W.3d 323, 40 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 839, 2015 Ky. LEXIS 1750, 2015 WL 4967189, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/administrative-office-of-the-courts-v-miller-ky-2015.