Little Bent Farm, LLC v. Western Kentucky University

CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedJune 27, 2025
Docket2024-CA-0191
StatusUnpublished

This text of Little Bent Farm, LLC v. Western Kentucky University (Little Bent Farm, LLC v. Western Kentucky University) 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
Little Bent Farm, LLC v. Western Kentucky University, (Ky. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

RENDERED: JUNE 27, 2025; 10:00 A.M. NOT TO BE PUBLISHED

Commonwealth of Kentucky Court of Appeals NO. 2024-CA-0191-MR

LITTLE BENT FARM, LLC APPELLANT

APPEAL FROM SIMPSON CIRCUIT COURT v. HONORABLE KENNETH H. GOFF, II, JUDGE ACTION NO. 21-CI-00069

WESTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY; CITY OF BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY; DR. PAUL WOOSLEY; AND JOSEPH REYNOLDS APPELLEES

OPINION AFFIRMING

** ** ** ** **

BEFORE: COMBS, LAMBERT, AND MCNEILL, JUDGES.

LAMBERT, JUDGE: Little Bent Farm, LLC (hereinafter “LBF”) appeals from the

January 9, 2024, order summarily dismissing its claims of breach of an implied

warranty and negligent failure to comply with the labeling of a pesticide for the

sale of allegedly contaminated compost. After careful review of briefs, record, and

law, we affirm the dismissal of LBF’s suit. BACKGROUND FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

This appeal involves the composting activities conducted on Western

Kentucky University’s Farm1 (hereinafter “the Farm”), an 800-acre property

located in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The Farm began its composting operation in

approximately 1987 as part of an agreement with the City of Bowling Green

(hereinafter “the City”) to accept and lawfully dispose of the leaves that the City

collected from within city limits as a free service.

Under the terms of the initial agreement, the City agreed to reimburse

Western Kentucky University (WKU) for its costs, up to $27,871.10. WKU, in

turn, agreed to provide the labor, tools, and sundry items needed to run the

compost yard. Half of the compost produced by WKU was to be considered the

City’s property and the compost not used by the City, along with WKU’s share,

was to be marketed and sold by WKU, with the City entitled to any proceeds

received on its share.

Via yearly municipal orders, the City has continued in this

arrangement with WKU, with minimal modifications. These modifications

included that, beginning in 2015, the City’s financial contribution increased to the

1 References to the Farm are interchangeable with Western Kentucky University, unless the context of the sentence requires otherwise.

-2- current sum of $45,900.00, and at some point the City began receiving a set 25%

of the compost sale’s proceeds.

WKU uses the funds from the City as the operating account for the

compost yard, with any shortfalls being advanced by the Farm’s budget and repaid,

when possible, by WKU’s portions of the proceeds from compost sales. In

addition to the City’s 25% of the proceeds, a portion of the sales is paid to WKU

Facilities Management. This portion is used to defray its cost for transporting food

scraps, which have been used in the compost since 2017, from WKU’s dining halls

to the Farm. Surplus funds, if any, are then put towards student scholarships.2

Over the years, the composting yard has grown, and it received two government

grants to increase its production. In fiscal year 2020, compost sales generated

approximately $14,623.00 in revenue.

Dr. Paul Woosley and Joseph Reynolds are employees of WKU. Dr.

Woosley is the Director of the Farm. Joseph Reynolds, a licensed compost

operator who reports directly to Dr. Woosley, is solely responsible for the compost

yard management. Reynolds creates the compost from the leaves provided by the

City, food scraps collected from WKU’s dining halls, and animal bedding,

sawdust, and manure collected from the Farm and the expo center. He uses his

2 LBF notes without any specificity, explanation, or supporting citations that it disputes “WKU’s contention that 75% of the revenue from compost sales goes to student scholarship[s.]”

-3- judgment and experience to determine what to add to the compost pile, when to

turn the pile, and when the composting process is completed. In addition to these

duties, Reynolds also handles the marketing and selling of the compost produced

by the Farm.

In April 2019, Dr. Woosley applied GrazonNext, a pesticide3

containing aminopyralid, on 51 acres of fields at the Farm. Dr. Woosley did not

inform Reynolds of this action, and Reynolds denies any independent knowledge.

On March 26, 2020, LBF purchased two dump truck loads of compost

from the Farm. LBF is a five-acre farming business operating in Simpson County,

Kentucky, that grows vegetables and sells its produce at farmers’ markets.

Reynolds, who handled the sale and delivery, was familiar with LBF and its

intended use for the compost. After LBF applied the compost to its vegetable

fields, the crops exhibited damage consistent with contamination from

aminopyralid, which LBF does not use. Suspecting that the compost was the

source of the contamination, LBF had a sample tested, and the results were positive

for aminopyralid.

Thereafter, LBF contacted the Kentucky Department of Agriculture

(hereinafter “the KDA”), to determine whether it could sell its produce despite the

suspected pesticide contamination, and the KDA opened an investigation into the

3 Specifically, the product is an herbicide, which is a subset of pesticides.

-4- Farm’s use of pesticides to verify compliance with state and federal laws. The

KDA and Reynolds, who had received other complaints about possible pesticide

contamination, collected samples from the compost purchased by LBF and from

WKU’s remanent pile, the bulk of the product having been sold, and submitted

them for testing at different labs. Additionally, the KDA also collected and

submitted foliage samples from LBF’s affected plants.

The parties dispute the significance of the different testing methods,

the laboratories used, what samples were actually tested, and the results, but the

tests conducted by the KDA and WKU were negative for aminopyralid. And,

relatedly, WKU’s bioassays, testing seed germination when grown with the

compost versus a control soil, did not suggest pesticide contamination. Based on

its test results, the KDA concluded that the compost was not contaminated and

closed its investigation. Despite this, LBF was instructed by a different KDA

employee that its produce could not be sold, and so LBF destroyed its 2020 crop.

On March 17, 2021, LBF filed the underlying suit alleging the

following causes of action against WKU, Reynolds and Dr. Woosley, in their

individual capacities, and the City: (1) breach of implied warranty of fitness,

regarding the unsuitability of the compost for its intended purpose of growing

-5- vegetables and (2) negligent failure to comply with pesticide labeling.4 LBF

sought lost profits, consequential damages, lost future sales and reputational

damages, costs to restore the contaminated property to its former state, and

punitive damages. The respondents denied liability, and the parties engaged in

extensive discovery.

On October 31, 2022, WKU and its employees filed a motion for

summary judgment. In the motion, WKU and its employees argued that they had

total immunity, governmental and qualified official immunity, respectively, from

LBF’s suit. They additionally asserted that summary judgment was proper because

all of LBF’s claims were precluded by the KDA’s finding of no contamination and

by the economic loss rule.5 As for the claims against Reynolds and Dr. Woosley

individually, the parties asserted that the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)6 and

the Kentucky Product Liability Act (KPLA)7 barred LBF’s action because neither

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