Crowe v. Miller

467 S.W.2d 330, 1971 Ky. LEXIS 363
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedMay 14, 1971
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 467 S.W.2d 330 (Crowe v. Miller) 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
Crowe v. Miller, 467 S.W.2d 330, 1971 Ky. LEXIS 363 (Ky. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

DAVIS, Commissioner.

Mary Helen Crowe and Joseph F. Crowe, Jr., her husband, filed separate suits against Dennis Carl Lanham and Charles Miller, seeking damages allegedly sustained by each as the result of a motor-vehicle collision. It was charged that Lanham negligently caused the accident while acting within the scope and course of his employment at Miller’s used car lot.

The trial court dismissed the complaints against Lanham on the ground that the one-year statute of limitation had run before the actions against him were commenced in good faith. A directed verdict, and judgment pursuant to it, resulted in the dismissal of the complaints against Miller on the basis that there was no showing that Lanham was acting within the scope or course of his employment by Miller.

Disposition of each phase of the appeal will be made in this opinion and requires [332]*332a separate statement of the facts affecting them.

The accident giving rise to the litigation occurred on February 4, 1965. KRS 413.-140(1) (a) fixes a limitation period of one year in cases of this type. On February 1, 1966, the complaints were filed and process was issued. As a matter of convenience, reference to “the complaint” shall include the separate complaints.

On February 1, 1966, just after filing the complaint, Mr. Jerry Nall, attorney for the plaintiffs, learned that Lanham was under twenty-one years of age. Mr. Nall telephoned the sheriff’s office and learned that the summonses in each case had been delivered to the sheriff by the circuit clerk, but no service had yet been undertaken. In an effort to comply with CR 4.04(3), which deals with the manner of serving process upon an unmarried infant, Mr. Nall obtained the process papers from the sheriff and caused to be typed on them the following instructions for service as to Lanham: “Serve Joseph Carl Lanham, father of Dennis Carl Lanham.” Mr. Nall returned the summonses to the sheriff’s office that same day, and on February 3, 1966, the sheriff undertook to serve Dennis Carl Lanham by delivering a copy of the summons to Joseph Carl Lanham, father of Dennis.

On February 2, 1966, Mr. Nall moved for the appointment of a guardian ad litem for Dennis Carl Lanham, “upon the grounds that said defendant is an infant over 14 years of age who has no guardian, curator or committee residing in this state or elsewhere.” The motion was accompanied by Mr. Nall’s affidavit, which recited that Dennis was under twenty-one years of age, noting his birth date as being October 8, 1946. On February 2, 1966, the court appointed Honorable William L. Wiesman as guardian ad litem for Dennis.

On February 8, 1966, Mr. Nall obtained alias summons for Dennis Carl Lanham, and service of that process was accomplished when the sheriff delivered copies of the process to Dennis on February 12, 1966.

On February 10, 1966, the guardian ad litem filed a motion to set aside the order appointing him as such, noting that Dennis was over eighteen years of age when the suit was filed and calling attention to KRS 2.015 and this court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Hallahan, Ky., 391 S.W.2d 378, decided May 28, 1965. Since Dennis was over eighteen, he was not an “infant” within the meaning of KRS 2.015 (as enacted in 1964, effective January 1, 1965, and fixing the age of majority at eighteen years instead of twenty-one years as had theretofore been true).

Without further detailing the pleadings, motions, hearings, and orders which followed, it suffices to say that the trial court ultimately ruled that the one-year statute of limitation barred the claims against Dennis, because the actions against him had not been “commenced” within the statutory period with “the issuance of summons or warning order thereon in good faith.”

CR 3 provides:

“A civil action is commenced by the filing of a complaint with the court and the issuance of a summons or warning order thereon in good faith.”

Language substantially the same is contained in KRS 413.250 pertaining to the “commencement” of an action as respects tolling the running of a statute of limitation.

This court has dealt with the problem in many previous cases. Some of the decisions touching the question are: Commonwealth, Dept. of Highways v. Parker, Ky., 394 S.W.2d 899; Roehrig v. Merchant’s and Businessmen’s Mutual Ins. Co., Ky., 391 S.W.2d 369; Wooton v. Begley, Ky., 305 S.W.2d 270; Hausman’s Adm’r v. Poehlman, 314 Ky. 453, 236 S.W.2d 259, 27 A.L.R.2d 233; Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. v. Little, 264 Ky. 579, 95 S.W. 2d 253. Many other cases are discussed [333]*333in those just cited. The present case is similar in factual background to Parker, Roehrig, and Hausman’s Adm’r, cited above.

In this case the lawyer for the plaintiffs was mistaken as to the proper method of service of process upon an unmarried defendant, over eighteen but less than twenty-one years of age. Until the effective date of KRS 2.015 (January 1, 1965), the method of service first undertaken was the appropriate one. There were doubts in many circles concerning the proper construction of KRS 2.015. See, for example, Commonwealth v. Hallahan, Ky., 391 S.W. 2d 378, and note legislative action clarifying KRS 2.015 in 1968.

As noted, plaintiffs’ lawyer sought and obtained the appointment of a guardian ad litem before the limitation period expired. He obtained alias process which was served on Dennis just a few days later. It may be that the lawyer should have made more diligent, research of the comparatively recent change in the law, but his failing in this respect is not equatable with a lack of “good faith.” In Parker the lawyer mistakenly sought to obtain service upon the Workmen’s Compensation Board by having summons served on the Attorney General, although KRS 342.285(1) plainly directs that such service should be on the Executive Secretary of the Board. That deviation was not “bad faith,” the court held.

In Roehrig the plaintiff’s lawyer sought to effect service of process on a foreign insurance company by causing a copy of the summons to be delivered to the Louisville agent of the company.

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467 S.W.2d 330, 1971 Ky. LEXIS 363, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crowe-v-miller-kyctapp-1971.