Pathways, Inc. v. Hammons

113 S.W.3d 85, 2003 Ky. LEXIS 164, 2003 WL 21990220
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 21, 2003
Docket2001-SC-0626-DG
StatusPublished
Cited by191 cases

This text of 113 S.W.3d 85 (Pathways, Inc. v. Hammons) 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
Pathways, Inc. v. Hammons, 113 S.W.3d 85, 2003 Ky. LEXIS 164, 2003 WL 21990220 (Ky. 2003).

Opinions

Justice JOHNSTONE.

Opinion of the Court by

Appellee, Brenda Hammons, was sexually assaulted while a resident at Moore’s Boarding Home in Lexington, Kentucky. At the time, Hammons was a client of Appellant, Pathways, Inc., and had been placed at Moore’s by Pathways. Ham-mons filed suit against Pathways, et al., claiming that Pathways was negligent in placing her at Moore’s. In response, Pathways moved for summary judgment on grounds that it owed no duty to Ham-mons. The trial court granted the motion without stating the reasons for its ruling. The Court of Appeals reversed. We granted discretionary review and reverse the Court of Appeals.

I. Facts and Procedural History

Pathways is a private, non-profit corporation that offers psychiatric and social services for the mentally ill in a ten-county region of Eastern Kentucky. In 1998, it had approximately 575 employees.

Brenda Hammons suffers from a bipolar disorder and has a lengthy history of mental illness. She was a client of Pathways from 1982 through 1997.

In March 1996, Hammons was discharged from Eastern State Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, and returned to West Liberty, Kentucky, where she took up residence with her ex-husband. At the same time, she contacted Pathways to seek out its services. Hammons was placed on ease management services, which meant that she received assistance from Pathways to help her remain in the community. Her case was assigned to Kimberly Royse, who was an Adult Mental Health Case Manager employed by Pathways.

Royse first assisted Hammons in getting an air conditioner for the trailer where she was living. Next, in July 1996, after Ham-mons explained that she was having trouble living with her ex-husband, Royse assisted her in completing an application for an apartment. Hammons’ application was accepted, but she refused to take possession. Royse’s next contact with Hammons occurred on November 4, after Hammons was discharged from Our Lady of Belle-fonte Hospital in Ashland, Kentucky. This time, Hammons was no longer living with her ex-husband and needed immediate help in finding a place to live.

Based on Hammons’ history, Royse did not believe that she would be able to place Hammons in any housing in the immediate area. Therefore, she consulted a list of boarding homes near West Liberty to find a placement for Hammons. The list had been circulated by the Cabinet for Human Resources in 1992, was woefully out of date, and had been compiled before the Commonwealth began maintaining a list of registered boarding homes, ie., boarding homes that met minimum health and safety regulations established by the Cabinet for Health Services. Unfortunately, Royse’s first choice, Moore’s Boarding Home in Lexington, was operating in violation of a court order that it cease operations. Moore’s was not included on the then-current list of boarding homes registered with the Commonwealth that had been circulated to Pathways by the Department of Health. Royse phoned Moore’s, which agreed to take Hammons as a resident.

Before Hammons could be transported to Moore’s, she became hostile and threatened some of Pathways’ staff. As a result, she was admitted to the psychiatric unit of King’s Daughters Hospital in Ashland on November 6. Upon Hammons’ admission [88]*88to King’s Daughters, Russ Damron, a psychiatric social worker, began looking for a place for Hammons to reside after her release. Damron testified that this was a standard procedure and part of Hammons’ treatment. After he had exhausted all the local options available to him, Damron contacted Pathways for assistance. Pathways informed Damron that a bed had been found for Hammons at Moore’s. Damron contacted Moore’s to confirm this and then arranged for Hammons to be transported to Moore’s.

Hammons testified that two days after she arrived at Moore’s, she was physically struck by Harry Stacy, who was also a boarder at Moore’s. About a week later, on November 12, she arranged for friends to pick her up from Moore’s and take her to the Appalachian Regional Hospital in West Liberty, where she admitted herself as a patient. She went from this hospital in West Liberty back to Lexington on November 19 when she was involuntarily committed for seventy-two hours to the psychiatric unit of the Eastern State Hospital.

During her commitment at Eastern State, Cecil Laster, Jr., a mental health specialist, attempted to persuade Ham-mons to go to a personal care home upon discharge. Laster testified that he believed that a personal care home was better equipped to meet Hammons’ needs. He explained to her that a personal care home would see that she took her medication regularly and, further, while the monthly charges of a personal care home would exceed her SSI income, the Commonwealth would pay the excess amount and provide her with a $40.00 a month living allowance. Hammons refused to go to a personal care home and, instead, insisted on returning to Moore’s.

Hammons testified that she returned to Moore’s because she “didn’t have [any] money and it was wintertime and she didn’t know how to get to the Salvation Army.” But her testimony does not contradict Laster’s testimony that he attempted to persuade her to go to a personal care home rather than to return to Moore’s. Nor did she testify that, prior to returning to Moore’s, she sought assistance in finding another place to live. After her discharge from Eastern State on November 27, Hammons was transported at her request to Moore’s. On November 30, she was sexually assaulted by Stacy, who later pleaded guilty to the assault. Subsequently, she filed suit against Moore’s, its owners, Royse, and Pathways claiming damages in connection with Stacy’s assault on November 30.

Pathways moved for summary judgment, which the trial court granted without comment. The Court of Appeals reversed on grounds that Pathways owed a duty to Hammons and that whether Stacy’s assault was a legal cause of Hammons’ injuries was a question of fact. We granted discretionary review, and reverse the Court of Appeals for the reasons stated below.

II. Standard of Review

Because the trial court disposed of Hammons’ claims against Pathways on summary judgment, in order to prevail on appeal, Pathways must show that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. CR 56.03. This is a negligence case, which requires proof that (1) the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care, (2) the defendant breached the standard by which his or her duty is measured, and (3) consequent injury. Mullins v. Commonwealth Life Insurance Co., Ky., 839 S.W.2d 245, 247 (1992), citing Illinois Central R.R. v. Vincent, Ky., 412 S.W.2d 874, 876 (1967). “Consequent injury” consists of what horn-[89]*89books separate into two distinct elements: actual injury or harm to the plaintiff and legal causation between the defendant’s breach and the plaintiffs injury. See Lewis v. B & R Corporation, Ky.App., 56 S.W.3d 432, 436 (2001); David J. Leibson, Kentucky Practice, Tort Law § 10.2 (West Group 1995); William L. Prosser, Law of Torts (West 1976). Duty, the first element, presents a question of law. Mullins, 839 S.W.2d at 248.

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Bluebook (online)
113 S.W.3d 85, 2003 Ky. LEXIS 164, 2003 WL 21990220, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pathways-inc-v-hammons-ky-2003.