Carl F. Corvin v. Hardin County Board of Education

CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedMay 1, 2026
Docket2025-CA-0866
StatusPublished

This text of Carl F. Corvin v. Hardin County Board of Education (Carl F. Corvin v. Hardin County Board of Education) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carl F. Corvin v. Hardin County Board of Education, (Ky. Ct. App. 2026).

Opinion

RENDERED: MAY 1, 2026; 10:00 A.M. TO BE PUBLISHED

Commonwealth of Kentucky Court of Appeals NO. 2025-CA-0866-MR

CARL F. CORVIN AND CHARITO M. CORVIN APPELLANTS

APPEAL FROM HARDIN CIRCUIT COURT v. HONORABLE ELISE GIVHAN SPAINHOUR, SPECIAL JUDGE ACTION NO. 24-CI-01603

HARDIN COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION; DONNA BOYD; MARY ANN BENSON; STEPHEN REESOR; AND THIRD RESTATED THERESA J. REESOR REVOCABLE LIVING TRUST APPELLEES

OPINION AFFIRMING

** ** ** ** **

BEFORE: THOMPSON, CHIEF JUDGE; CETRULO AND L. JONES, JUDGES.

THOMPSON, CHIEF JUDGE: Carl and Charito Corvin appeal from an order of

the Hardin Circuit Court which denied their Kentucky Uniform Public Expression

Protection Act (KUPEPA) motion to dismiss the counterclaims of the Hardin

County Board of Education. The court held that an exception to KUPEPA applied that prevented the granting of the motion. Alternatively, the court held that the

Board sufficiently pleaded its counterclaims to survive the motion. We agree that

the motion was properly denied and affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

This case involves two parcels of neighboring land. One parcel is 16

acres of land owned by the Third Restated Theresa J. Reesor Revocable Living

Trust (“the Trust”), and that parcel contains a historical home called the William

Bush House. The other parcel is 100 acres of land owned by the Reesor Family

Limited Partnership (“the Partnership”). The Trust’s three trustees are also

members of the Partnership. The Hardin County Board entered into a contract

with the Partnership to purchase the Partnership’s parcel of real estate in order to

construct a new school. The Trust also gave the Board a right of first refusal for

the 16-acre trust property.1 Should the Trust receive an offer for the 16 acres, the

Board would have the option to purchase that parcel if it agreed to terms that were

substantially similar to the offer. Deciding not to wait for an offer that they would

have to counter, the Board submitted its own offer to the trustees for the Trust

parcel at a proposed price of $1,280,000.00. The offer also indicated that the

Board intended to demolish the William Bush House.

1 It is unclear why the Trust was involved with a real estate purchase between the Partnership and the Board.

-2- Mr. Corvin is one of the beneficiaries of the Trust. When he and his

wife heard about the proposed sale of the Trust property and the Board’s intention

to demolish the William Bush House, they tendered an offer to the Trust to

purchase the property for $1,360,000.00. This offer contained an escalation clause

which would increase their purchase price in increments of $10,000.00 to a

maximum of $1,536,000.00. Appellants’ proposed contract further promised to

preserve the William Bush House for 30 years. The trustees then notified the

Trust’s beneficiaries that it found said offer “acceptable” and forwarded the offer

to the Board in light of the right of first refusal.

The Board then made another offer on the property for a purchase

price of $1,536,100.00. This offer did not commit to preserving the William Bush

House like Appellants’ offer did. The Trust then notified the beneficiaries of the

Board’s increased offer. Appellants, through counsel, sent an e-mail to the trustees

indicating that, because the Board did not commit to preserving the William Bush

House, they did not make a substantially similar offer to that of Appellants;

therefore, the offer from Appellants became binding on the Trust. Counsel also

indicated that if the Trust went through with selling the land to the Board,

Appellants would take legal action. Mr. Corvin sent a copy of this e-mail to the

Board.

-3- The trustees later communicated with the beneficiaries that the Trust

was going to accept the Board’s offer. A little later, the Trust provided a report to

the beneficiaries which referenced an appraised amount for the Trust property.

That appraisal was for $1,900,000.00. Thereafter, Appellants offered to purchase

the Trust property for $1,910,000.00. This offer also included a covenant to

preserve the William Bush House. Appellants received no response to this offer.

On September 11, 2024, Appellants filed the underlying lawsuit. The

complaint brought claims against the Trust and trustees for breach of fiduciary

duties and breach of contract. Appellants also requested a declaratory judgment

finding that they had a contract for the purchase of the Trust property, that the

Trust should be estopped from selling to the Board, and that the Trust specifically

perform and follow through on the contract to sell the property to Appellants.2

Finally, Appellants requested injunctive relief to prevent the Trust from selling the

property to the Board and requested that the trustees be removed from their control

of the Trust. All these claims were brought against the Trust and trustees only.

The Board was named as a defendant in the suit; however, no claims were raised

against it. Appellants indicated that the Board was included in the suit so it could

raise any claims it believed it had to the Trust property.

2 Appellants claim that when the trustees indicated that Appellants’ offer was acceptable, that created a binding contract.

-4- On September 12, 2024, the Trust and the Board entered into a

purchase agreement for the Trust real estate. The purchase price was

$1,536,100.00 and the agreement did not require the Board to preserve the William

Bush House. The Board then agreed to not close on the property until litigation

was concluded.

On September 30, 2024, the Board filed its answer to Appellants’

complaint and asserted counterclaims against Appellants. The first counterclaim

was for tortious interference with business relations. The Board claimed that, by

threatening to file a lawsuit and then following through on doing so, Appellants

were interfering with its ability to acquire the Trust property pursuant to the right

of first refusal agreement. The second counterclaim was for abuse of process. The

Board alleged that Appellants only filed the lawsuit to force it to increase the

amount of money it was willing to pay for the property, coerce it to preserve the

William Bush House, or to convince the Board to extract itself from the sale of the

Trust property. The Board also sought a declaration of rights claiming that it had a

valid agreement to purchase the Trust property. Finally, the Board sought punitive

damages.

On October 21, 2024, Appellants filed the underlying KUPEPA

motion seeking to dismiss the Board’s counterclaims of interference with business

relations and abuse of process. Appellants argued that the counterclaims sought to

-5- prevent Appellants from exercising their right to petition the court to adjudicate

their claims. Following briefing on the issue by the parties, oral argument was

heard on December 12, 2024. On June 17, 2025, the court entered an order

denying the motion. The court held that the KUPEPA statute contained an

exception that applied to the case. Specifically, cases involving real property are

not subject to KUPEPA. The court also ruled that, in the alternative, the Board’s

claims were sufficient to survive a KUPEPA challenge. This appeal followed.

KUPEPA

KUPEPA is legislation that “establish[es] procedures for dismissing

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Carl F. Corvin v. Hardin County Board of Education, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carl-f-corvin-v-hardin-county-board-of-education-kyctapp-2026.