Peter v. Gibson

336 S.W.3d 2, 2010 Ky. LEXIS 297, 2010 WL 5129718
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 16, 2010
Docket2010-SC-000155-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 336 S.W.3d 2 (Peter v. Gibson) 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
Peter v. Gibson, 336 S.W.3d 2, 2010 Ky. LEXIS 297, 2010 WL 5129718 (Ky. 2010).

Opinions

Opinion of the Court by

Justice VENTERS.

Appellant, Emil Peter III, seeks a writ of prohibition against the Jefferson Circuit Court to bar an accounting of funds held by him for the benefit of Appellee and Real Party in Interest, Emil Peter IV. Appellant argues that since the funds in question were part of a bequest made pursuant to the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (hereinafter “UTMA”), the Jefferson Circuit Court does not have subject matter jurisdiction over this matter. The Court of Appeals denied the writ of prohibition finding that the General Assembly’s grant of original jurisdiction to the district court over matters involving the UTMA did not extend to parties, like Appellee, who are no longer minors. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the Court of Appeals.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In 1983, Appellee’s grandmother, Decedent, Allyne M. Peter, bequeathed to Ap-pellee all of the benefits due her estate from her employee pension plan. Since Appellee at the time was a minor, pursuant to the UTMA, Appellant, who was the Decedent’s son and Appellee’s father, was named custodian of the custodial property. The initial amount of the bequest totaled $86,409.46.

According to an affidavit filed by Appel-lee in the underlying case, he only had a general understanding that his grandmother had left him some money. Appellant provided Appellee with very little information regarding the bequest, but did give Appellee several distributions from the custodial property which were described to Appellee as “gifts.” When Appellee turned eighteen, Appellant failed to give the remaining custodial property to Appel-lee as was required by KRS 385.202(1). Appellee eventually learned of the size of the initial bequest through a review of public records. Surprised by the size of the bequest in comparison to the small distributions he received, Appellee brought an accounting action against Appellant in Jefferson Circuit Court.

[4]*4The circuit court initially dismissed the accounting action for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, due to the UTMA’s exclusive grant of jurisdiction to district court. However, upon Appellee’s motion to amend, alter, or vacate its dismissal order, the circuit court changed its position and held that since Appellee was no longer a minor, the circuit court had subject matter jurisdiction. Appellant then sought a writ of prohibition against the Jefferson Circuit Court which was denied by the Court of Appeals. He now appeals that denial to this Court as a matter of right.

APPELLANT IS NOT ENTITLED TO A WRIT OF PROHIBITION BECAUSE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY DID NOT GIVE JURISDICTION TO THE DISTRICT COURT OVER AN ACCOUNTING ACTION FILED BY AN ADULT

Appellant argues that he is entitled to a writ of prohibition because the district court has exclusive jurisdiction over any case dealing-with the UTMA, and thus the Jefferson Circuit Court is acting outside of its jurisdiction by hearing Appellee’s accounting action. We disagree.

A writ of prohibition “is an ‘extraordinary remedy1 that Kentucky courts ‘have always been cautious and conservative both in entertaining petitions for and in granting .such relief.’ ” Newell Enterprises, Inc. v. Bowling, 158 S.W.3d 750, 754 (Ky.2005) (quoting Bender v. Eaton, 343 S.W.2d 799, 800 (Ky.1961)).

A writ of prohibition may be granted upon a showing that (1) the lower court is proceeding or is about to proceed outside of its jurisdiction and there is no remedy through an application to an intermediate court; or (2) that the lower court is acting or is about to act erroneously, although within its jurisdiction, and there exists no adequate remedy by appeal or otherwise and great injustice and irreparable injury will result if the petition is not granted.

Hoskins v. Maricle, 150 S.W.3d 1, 10 (Ky.2004).

Kentucky Constitution § 113(6) expressly provides that “[t]he district court shall be a court of limited jurisdiction and shall exercise original jurisdiction as may be provided by the General Assembly.” “Accordingly, in order to resolve the issue at bar, we must look to the appropriate statutes” to see what jurisdiction was granted to the district courts. McElroy v. Taylor, 977 S.W.2d 929, 931 (Ky.1998).

Clearly, the General Assembly gave district courts original jurisdiction for UTMA disputes. See KRS 385.012(5) (“ ‘Court’ means District Court.”) In Privett v. Clendenin, 52 S.W.3d 530, 532 (Ky.2001), we recognized that the General Assembly gave district courts exclusive jurisdiction to order a custodian to make an accounting under the UTMA through KRS 385.192. However, KRS 385.192 allows only the following persons “to petition the district court for an accounting” under the UTMA:

a minor who has attained the age of 14 years;
the minor's guardian of the person or legal representative;
• an adult member of the minor’s family;
• a transferor (of the custodial property) or a transferor’s legal representative.

KRS 385.012(11) defines a “minor” as “an individual who has not attained the age of eighteen (18) years.” Thus, from its plain language, KRS 385.192 applies only to minors or one petitioning for an accounting of custodial property on behalf of a minor. An accounting action under KRS 385.192 cannot therefore apply to custodial property which was (or should have been) re[5]*5leased to an adult beneficiary per KRS 385.202(1), because the beneficiary would no longer be a minor. Our ruling in Pri-vett does not contradict this conclusion, because in that case the beneficial owners of the custodial property were still minors, the claimant on their behalf was an adult member of their family, and the UTMA custodianship was ongoing. Privett, 52 S.W.3d at 532. Thus, in Privett the accounting action fell within the purview of KRS 385.192.

In this matter, Appellee was over twenty-nine years old when he brought this accounting action. Appellee was clearly no longer a minor, and he was entitled to have the custodial property turned over to him once he turned eighteen-years-old.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
336 S.W.3d 2, 2010 Ky. LEXIS 297, 2010 WL 5129718, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/peter-v-gibson-ky-2010.