Parking Authority of River City, Inc. v. Bridgefield Casualty Insurance Co.

477 S.W.3d 598, 2015 Ky. App. LEXIS 152, 2015 WL 6761026
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedNovember 6, 2015
DocketNO. 2014-CA-001610-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 477 S.W.3d 598 (Parking Authority of River City, Inc. v. Bridgefield Casualty Insurance Co.) 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
Parking Authority of River City, Inc. v. Bridgefield Casualty Insurance Co., 477 S.W.3d 598, 2015 Ky. App. LEXIS 152, 2015 WL 6761026 (Ky. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION

DIXON, JUDGE:

• Appellant, Parking Authority of River City, Inc. (PARC), appeals from an order of the Jefferson Circuit Court denying its motion to dismiss and finding that it is not entitled to immunity in a personal injury lawsuit brought by an individual injured while on PARC’s premises. Finding, no error, we affirm.

On February 27, 2012, Sandy . Fackler sustained an injury when she slipped and fell on property that was operated under the authority of PARC. At the time of her injury, Fackler was on business for her employer, Robert H. Clarkson Insurance Agency, LLC. On February 15, 2013, Ap-pellee, Bridgefield Casualty Insurance Company initiated the current litigation against PARC claiming that it was entitled to recover damages in the amount that it paid in benefits to Fackler on behalf of Clarkson, its insured.

On April 4, 2014, PARC filed a motion to dismiss all of Bridgefield’s claims for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Therein, PARC argued that it was insulated from liability based upon the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Specifically, PARC contended that because it is an agent of Louisville Metro Government, and Louisville Metro is a political subdivision of the state afforded immunity, PARC was also entitled to immunity. By opinion and order entered on September 4, 2014, the trial court denied PARC’s motion. Therein, the trial court concluded that although PARC met its burden of showing that it qualified as a governmental entity entitled to the protections of sovereign immunity absent an explicit statutory waiver, Kentucky Revised Statutes (KRS) 67A.920 waived that immunity by allowing PARC to be sued. PARC thereafter appealed to this Court.

A motion to dismiss .should only be granted if “it appears the pleading party would not be entitled to relief under any set of facts which could be proved[.]” Fox v. Grayson, 317 S.W.3d 1, 7 (Ky.2010) (citation omitted). The pleadings should be liberally construed so that all allegations are taken as true. Mims v. Western-Southem Agency, Inc., 226 S.W.3d 833, 835 (Ky.App.2007). Since a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which [600]*600relief may be granted is a pure question of law, a reviewing court owes no deference to a trial court’s determination; instead, an appellate court reviews the issue de novo.

Kentucky law distinguishes between sovereign immunity and governmental immunity and, as a result, draws a distinction between the protections afforded state and county governments as opposed to those afforded governmental agencies or entities. The Commonwealth and its counties are entitled to sovereign, or absolute, immunity from suit, absent an express consent or waiver. Comair, Inc. v. Lexington-Fayette Urban County Airport Corp., 295 S.W.3d 91, 94 (Ky.2009). A merged urban-county government, such as Louisville Metro, is a classification of county government that is likewise afforded sovereign immunity. Lexington-Fayette Urban County Gov’t v. Smolcic, 142 S.W.3d 128, 132 (Ky.2004).

Governmental immunity, on the other hand, is a derivative of sovereign immunity and is granted to qualified governmental agencies or entities. The test for whether an entity qualifies for governmental immunity is two-pronged. Comair, 295 S.W.3d at 99. The court must first examine the origin, or “parent,” of the entity to determine if the entity is an agency (or alter ego) of a clearly immune parent. Id. Second, the court must assess whether the entity performs a “function integral to state government.” Id. (Quoting Kentucky Center for the Arts Corp. v. Berns, 801 S.W.2d 327, 332 (Ky.1990)). The rationale for this showing is that sovereign immunity “should extend ,, ■ to departments, boards or agencies that are such integral parts of state government as to come within regular patterns of administrative organization and structure.” Id. (citation omitted). Examples of state level governmental concerns include police, public education, corrections, tax collection, and public highways. Id. Conversely, entities performing proprietary functions and/or addressing purely local concerns do not qualify for the protections of governmental immunity. Id. at 99-100. As noted by our Supreme Court in Comair, “both of these inquiries—the sources of the entity in question and the nature of the function it carries out—are tied together to the extent that frequently only an arm of the state can exercise a truly integral governmental function (whereas municipal corporations tend to exercise proprietary functions addressing purely local concerns).” Id. at 99-100.

Recently, in Transit Authority of River City v. Bibelhauser, 432 S.W.3d 171, 173 (Ky.App.2013), a panel of this Court addressed the issue of whether TARC was entitled to immunity from an underlying negligence action filed by an individual injured when he was struck by a TARC bus. The trial court had denied TARC’s motion for partial summary judgment on immunity grounds. On appeal, TARC first claimed it was entitled to sovereign immunity by virtue of KRS 67C.101(2)(e), which affords a consolidated local government such as Louisville Metro the same sovereign immunity as counties, their agencies, officers and employees, as well as KRS 96A.020, which governs a transit authority’s creation and existence. In rejecting TARC’s claim of sovereign immunity, this Court concluded:

These statutes do not afford TARC sovereign immunity. KRS 96A.020(1) clearly states that TARC is “a public body corporate” with the power “to sue and be sued” and “to have and exercise, generally, all of the powers of private corporations.... ” In Gross v. Ky. Bd. Of Managers, 105 Ky. 840, 49 S.W. 458, 459 (1899), the court addressed a similar [601]*601issue and held that, while the Kentucky Board of Managers was an agency of the state, ... the [ ] Board could be sued for its corporate acts, just like any other corporation, and its contracts were its obligation, not that of the state. Id. As in Qross, TARC’s authority is more corporate than governmental. Thus, its actions are not cloaked in sovereign immunity.

Bibelhauser, 432 S.W.3d at 173-174.

The Bibelhauser Court similarly rejected TARC’s claim that it was entitled to governmental immunity. Applying the Co-mair test, this Court found that TARC satisfied the first prong in that it is an agency of Louisville Metro, which is an entity immune from suit.

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477 S.W.3d 598, 2015 Ky. App. LEXIS 152, 2015 WL 6761026, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/parking-authority-of-river-city-inc-v-bridgefield-casualty-insurance-co-kyctapp-2015.