Beaumont v. Zeru

460 S.W.3d 904, 2015 Ky. LEXIS 71, 2015 WL 1544241
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedApril 2, 2015
Docket2013-SC-000489-DG
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 460 S.W.3d 904 (Beaumont v. Zeru) 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
Beaumont v. Zeru, 460 S.W.3d 904, 2015 Ky. LEXIS 71, 2015 WL 1544241 (Ky. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT BY

JUSTICE KELLER

The Jefferson Circuit Court granted summary judgment to Muluken Zeru, finding that Bonita Beaumont had not filed her complaint within the two year statutory period provided in Kentucky Revised Statute (KRS) 304.39-230(6). Beaumont appeals, arguing that the circuit court and the Court of Appeals incorrectly determined when her statutory period began to run. Having reviewed the record and the arguments of the parties, we reverse and remand.

I. BACKGROUND.

On April 24, 2008, Zeru ran a stop sign and struck Beaumont’s vehicle, causing significant physical injuries. Thereafter, Beaumont sought and received basic reparations/personal injury protection benefits (hereinafter PIP) from her insurer, Cincinnati Insurance Company (CIC).

On July 29, 2010, Beaumont’s attorney wrote to CIC to find out when CIC had made its last PIP payment. A representative from CIC responded and reported that CIC had made “a payment” on September 25, 2009 to Kentucky Orthopedic Rehabilitation. Beaumont filed her.com[906]*906plaint on September 21, 2011, within two years of the date provided by CIC.

Thereafter, Zeru filed a motion for summary judgment arguing that Beaumont had not timely filed her complaint. In support of his motion, Zeru filed an August 13, 2009 letter from CIC to Jewish Hospital, stating that CIC was only making partial payment of the hospital’s bill because that payment exhausted Beaumont’s PIP benefits.

A review of CIC’s records revealed that the issue herein arose from a $400 check that CIC issued to Springhurst Physical Therapy (the assumed name of Kentucky Orthopedic Rehabilitation) on March 17, 2009. Springhurst lost that check and, although it is not clear how, notified CIC on or near September 15, 2009 of the lost check. CIC issued a stop payment order on the March 17, 2009 check and, on September 25, 2009, issued a replacement check.

The circuit court, without explanation, dismissed Beaumont’s claims with prejudice. The Court of Appeals, relying on Wilder v. Noonchester, 113 S.W.3d 189 (Ky.App.2003) and Wehner v. Gore, 2006 WL 2033894, 2005-CA-000689-MR (Ky.App.2006) affirmed the circuit court. In doing so, the Court of Appeals followed the precedent in Wilder that a PIP payment is made when the insurer issues a check and the precedent in Wehner that a replacement check does not constitute making payment. Therefore, the Court concluded .that the last payment was made in August 2009, when CIC sent a partial payment to Jewish Hospital.

II, STANDARD OJF REVIEW.

Statutory construction is a question of law, which we review de novo. Jefferson Cnty. Bd. of Educ. v. Fell, 391 S.W.3d 713, 718 (Ky.2012).

In construing statutes, our goal, of course, is to give effect to the intent of the General Assembly. We derive that intent, if at all possible, from the language the General Assembly chose, either as defined by the General Assembly or as generally understood in the context of the - matter under consideration .... We presume that the General Assembly intended for the statute to be construed as a whole, for all of its parts' to have meaning, and for it to harmonize with related statutes.

Id. quoting Shawnee Telecom Res., Inc. v. Brown, 354 S.W.3d 542, 551 (Ky.2011).

III. ANALYSIS.

KRS 304.39-230(6) provides in pertinent part that “[a]n action for tort liability ... may be commenced not later than two (2) years after ... the last ..; [PIP] payment made by any reparation obligor.... ” The legislature did not set forth in the Act what constitutes “payment,” and, although the Court of Appeals has dealt with this issue, this is a case of first impression for this Court.

Beaumont argues that we should look to KRS 355.3 et seq., the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), to determine that payment by check has not been made until the check has been presented and honored, i.e. paid. Zeru argues that, because CIC made payments to Beaumont’s health care providers at her direction, the payment principles set forth in the UCC “simply do not provide a useful or relevant framework around which to build an approach for determining” when payment of PIP has been made. We disagree with this assessment by Zeru; however, we agree with Zeru that payment for PIP purposes occurs, in the normal course, when the reparation obligor issues a check.

As noted above., the MVRA does not set forth what constitutes payment when the [907]*907reparations obligor issues a check to discharge its obligation; therefore, we must look elsewhere. As set forth in the UCC, • a check is “[a] draft ... payable on demand and drawn on a bank.” KRS 355.3-104(6)(a). “[I]f a ... check is taken for an obligation, the obligation is suspended to the same extent the obligation would be discharged if an amount of money equal to the amount of the instrument were taken, ... [and] suspension of the obligation continues until dishonor of the check or until it is paid or certified. Payment or certification of the check results in discharge of the obligation to the extent of the amount of the check.” KRS 355.3-310(2)(a). According to Beaumont, the preceding means that payment is not made until the obligation is discharged, ie. the date the check has been paid. However, this reading of the UCC, in the context of the MVRA, ignores the word “suspended.” We believe that a better reading of the UCC as applied to the MVRA is that, once the check has been paid, the obligation is no longer in suspension and' date of “payment” for MVRA purposes relates back to the date the suspension began, ie. the date the check was issued. This is in keeping with Wilder, which we believe was a sound decision. It provides the certainty that both parties say they seek and it provides a straight forward mechanism to use to determine when the statute of limitations begins to run — the PIP log. Furthermore, unlike relying on when the check was actually paid, the preceding does not require the parties to obtain banking records from the reparations obligor or from the recipient of the check. However, we cannot stop our analysis with the preceding, which works well when checks are issued, presented, and honored, because that is not what occurred here.

Here, a check was issued in March 2009 and, because the check was either lost or not delivered, that check was never presented or honored. According to Beaumont, that check therefore did not constitute payment and the earliest payment could have been deemed made was when the replacement check was issued. Zeru argues that, pursuant to the Court of Appeals in Wehner, the date the replacement check was issued is irrelevant and it is the date of the initial check that controls.

In

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

Related

Anthony K. Dale v. Jennifer D. Tipton
Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 2025
Mark Johnson v. Commonwealth of Kentucky
Kentucky Supreme Court, 2023
J.M. v. Hatfield
W.D. Kentucky, 2022

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
460 S.W.3d 904, 2015 Ky. LEXIS 71, 2015 WL 1544241, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beaumont-v-zeru-ky-2015.