Thomas Brown v. Brian Funk

Court of Appeals of Kentucky·Decided May 9, 2024·No. 2023 CA 000576·Unknown

Opinion

RENDERED: MAY 10, 2024; 10:00 A.M.

TO BE PUBLISHED

Commonwealth of Kentucky

Court of Appeals

NO. 2023-CA-0576-MR

THOMAS BROWN APPELLANT

APPEAL FROM JEFFERSON CIRCUIT COURT v. HONORABLE ANN BAILEY SMITH, JUDGE ACTION NO. 19-CI-003615

BRIAN FUNK APPELLEE

OPINION

AFFIRMING

** ** ** ** **

BEFORE: COMBS, GOODWINE, AND LAMBERT, JUDGES. LAMBERT, JUDGE: Thomas Brown appeals from an order of the Jefferson Circuit Court granting summary judgment to Brian Funk. We affirm.

This case has an unusual procedural history which we must relate in more chronologically precise detail than we usually deem necessary in order to understand fully the issues and arguments before us. Brown tripped on the stub of a street sign protruding from a public sidewalk near Churchill Downs in May 2019. The next month, Brown filed this action against Funk, an Assistant Director of the

Department of Public Works for the Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government (the City), alleging Funk had breached his duty to maintain and repair the sidewalk in issue.

A deputy sheriff signed a summons indicating he served Funk with a copy of Brown’s complaint on August 15, 2019. Funk did not respond to Brown’s complaint within the time allotted for doing so under Kentucky Rule of Civil Procedure (CR) 12.01. Consequently, on October 1, 2019, Brown filed a motion for default judgment.1 The order granting Brown’s motion for default judgment was entered by the circuit court clerk on October 7, 2019.

The next item in the record is Brown’s July 2020 motion for a damages hearing. Brown did not serve the motion upon Funk, but he was not required to do so because Funk had not appeared in the case. Howard v. Fountain, 749 S.W.2d 690, 693 (Ky. App. 1988) (“We hold that fundamental fairness requires that a defaulting party be given notice of a damage assessment hearing where he has entered an appearance in the action prior to the hearing.”); CR 5.01 (requiring a party to be served with motions “except those in default for failure to appear”). Eventually, the damages hearing was scheduled for October 20, 2020.

1 There is no certificate of service on the motion for default judgment. However, Brown was not required to serve Funk with the motion since he had not appeared in the action. Dressler v. Barlow, 729 S.W.2d 464, 465 (Ky. App. 1987).

On September 30, 2020, Brown filed a motion to reschedule the damages hearing. Brown’s motion stated it would be heard on October 5, 2020. Again, the motion was not served upon Funk. The record before us does not contain video of the October 5, 2020, hearing2 but it appears undisputed that the trial court told Brown to serve a copy of his motion on Funk even though doing so was not strictly required by precedent or CR 5.01. Brown filed, and served upon Funk, a motion to reschedule the damages hearing. The motion stated it would be heard by the trial court on October 12, 2020.

On October 8, 2020, one year and one day after the default judgment was entered by the circuit court clerk, Funk filed a motion to set aside the default judgment. In his attached affidavit, Funk averred that the first time he learned of the action was on October 7, 2020, when he received the motion to reschedule the

2 Kentucky Rule of Appellate Procedure (RAP) 24(A)(3) automatically makes video recordings “of the trial that results in the order or judgment being appealed from” part of the appellate record. But RAP 24 requires a party to specifically designate any other proceedings the party wishes to become part of the appellate record. RAP 24(B). Brown did not file a designation of record. Funk did, and his designation lists “[a]ll video recordings of hearings conducted by the trial court, including but not limited to hearings conducted on January 19, 2021 and December 6, 2021.” RAP 24(B)(2) permits an appellee to designate “additional dates of pre-trial or post-trial recordings as that party wishes to be included.” The Jefferson Circuit Court Clerk included in the appellate record only the two hearings Funk specifically designated.

We decline to sua sponte order the record to be supplemented or analyze whether the circuit court clerk should have included video from every hearing since Brown did not submit a designation of record, the circuit court clerk provided the record of the two specific hearings designated by Funk, and no one has objected to the certified record or otherwise sought to supplement it under RAP 25. “We are required to assume missing portions of a record support the decision of the trial court.” Strong v. Gary, 673 S.W.3d 77, 79 (Ky. App. 2023).

damages hearing. Despite the return of service indicating to the contrary, Funk averred that he had never received the summons or complaint. Funk did not assert that he was not responsible for sidewalk and street sign maintenance. Instead, Funk asserted he was entitled to qualified official immunity and could not be held vicariously liable for the negligence of his supervisees.

CR 55.02, which Funk cited in his motion, provides that “[f]or good cause shown the court may set aside a judgment by default in accordance with Rule 60.02.” Funk’s motion to set aside the default judgment cites CR 60.02(a) and (f). CR 60.02(a) allows a court to relieve a party from a final judgment due to “mistake, inadvertence, surprise or excusable neglect . . . .” CR 60.02 requires a motion brought pursuant to CR 60.02(a) to be made “not more than one year after the judgment . . . was entered or taken.” CR 60.02(f) allows a court to relieve a party from a final judgment for “any other reason of an extraordinary nature justifying relief.” A motion brought under CR 60.02(f) must be brought “within a reasonable time . . . .” The motion does not cite CR 60.02(e), which allows relief from a final judgment which is “void . . . or [where] it is no longer equitable that the judgment should have prospective application . . . .”

Funk’s motion to set aside the default judgment stated it also would be before the court on October 12, 2020. The video of the October 12, 2020, hearing is not in the record before us.

On that same date, Brown filed an amended complaint. The amended complaint does not incorporate, or even mention, the original complaint. However, the amended complaint is similar to the original. The only differences appear to be in Paragraphs Six and Nine as shown below, with one word in the original complaint deleted from the amended complaint struck through and new language found only in the amended complaint italicized:

6. The Defendant, Brian Funk, breached his duty to exercise ordinary care in the maintenance and upkeep of Louisville Jefferson County Metro public sidewalks. In particular, the Defendant, Brian Funk, individually and in the direction of through his agents, servants and/or employees, negligently and carelessly caused a sign post in a Louisville Jefferson County Metro sidewalk to be cut or sheared off approximately four inches above the sidewalk . . . .

9. As a direct and proximate result of the negligence and carelessness of Brian Funk, individually and in the direction of his agents, servants and/or employees, the Plaintiff, Thomas Brown has sustained grievous bodily injuries . . . .

Brown filed his response to Funk’s motion to set aside the default judgment the day after filing his amended complaint. Brown argued Funk’s motion was time-barred because it was filed one day after the one-year deadline for seeking relief under CR 60.02(a). Brown argued the amended complaint he had filed only the day before “is of no consequence to the action insofar as the Court has no jurisdiction at this point to set aside the Default Judgment . . . . As a

practical matter, the Amended Complaint is a nullity.” On October 20, 2020, Funk filed an answer to Brown’s amended complaint. The trial court scheduled a hearing on the motion to set aside the default judgment for January 2021.

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