RENDERED: APRIL 8, 2022; 10:00 A.M.

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED

Commonwealth of Kentucky

Court of Appeals

NO. 2020-CA-0772-WC

MICHAEL HARDIN APPELLANT 

v. 

PETITION FOR REVIEW OF A DECISION

OF THE WORKERS’ COMPENSATION BOARD

ACTION NO. WC-12-69227 

BROWN FORMAN CORPORATION; 

DANIEL CAMERON, ATTORNEY 

GENERAL OF KENTUCKY; 

HONORABLE GRANT ROARK, 

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE; 

AND WORKERS’ COMPENSATION 

BOARD APPELLEES 

OPINION

AFFIRMING

**   **  **

BEFORE: CALDWELL, COMBS, AND L. THOMPSON, JUDGES.

COMBS, JUDGE: Appellant, Michael Hardin, appeals from the May 15, 2020,

opinion of the Workers’ Compensation Board which held that the Administrative 
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Law Judge (the ALJ), correctly determined that KRS1 342.730(4) effective July 14, 

2018, applies to Hardin’s award of permanent total disability benefits.2 After our 

review, we affirm.

The facts are not in dispute. The issue before us is a purely legal one. 

On appeal, Hardin contends that retroactive application of the 2018 amended 

version of KRS 342.730(4) to his award of permanent total disability benefits 

violates the equal protection clause and the contracts clause of the Kentucky 

Constitution. In relevant part, the statute provides that: “[a]ll income benefits 

payable pursuant to this chapter shall terminate as of the date upon which the 

employee reaches the age of seventy (70), or four (4) years after the employee’s 

injury or last exposure, whichever last occurs.”

After Hardin filed his petition for review in this Court, the Attorney 

General filed a motion to stay the appeal on the ground that several appeals 

contesting the constitutionality of KRS 342.730(4) were currently pending before 

the Supreme Court. By order entered on July 29, 2020, this Court granted the 

motion and ordered that the appeal be held in abeyance. On September 27, 2021, 

the Attorney General filed a motion to return the appeal to the active docket in 

1 Kentucky Revised Statutes.

2 The Board noted that as an administrative tribunal it had no jurisdiction to rule on the 

constitutionality of a statute and was without authority to render a decision based upon the issue 

Hardin raised on appeal.
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light of the decisions rendered in Dowell v. Matthews Contracting, 627 S.W.3d 

890 (Ky. 2021) and Cates v. Kroger, 627 S.W.3d 864 (Ky. 2021). By order of this 

Court entered on October 29, 2021, the motion was granted. 

In Holcim v. Swinford, 581 S.W.3d 37 (Ky. 2019), our Supreme 

Court previously held that the July 14, 2018, amendment to KRS 342.730(4) 

“applied retroactively to all claims where (1) the injury occurred after December 

1996 and (2) had not been fully and finally adjudicated, are in the appellate 

process, or for which time to file an appeal has not lapsed, as of the effective date 

of the Act . . .”. Cates, 627 S.W.3d at 868 n.4. 

Cates holds as follows: 

[T]he 2018 amendment classifies recipients based only 

on age, entirely unrelated to their old-age social-security 

eligibility. This age classification prevents a duplication 

of benefits, which we have found, to be a legitimate state 

interest and applies to all those receiving workers’ 

compensation equally. So the current version of KRS 

342.730(4) is not violative of the Equal Protection Clause 

because the age classification is rationally related to a 

legitimate state purpose.

Id. at 871. 

Dowell holds that the 2018 amendment to KRS 342.730(4) does not 

violate the contracts clause of the federal or Kentucky constitutions: 

[T]he benefits an employee may receive following a 

work-related injury are not a result of a bargained-for 

exchange following an offer, acceptance, and 

consideration, but are the result of a statutory scheme 
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intended to provide a form of insurance for Kentucky 

employees in case of injury. Because the [Workers’ 

Compensation Act] does not form a contract, there are no 

contractual rights that the amendment to KRS 342.730(4) 

could infringe; thus, the fundamental premise of a 

Contracts Clause analysis -- the existence of a contract --

is absent, and our analysis ends.

Dowell, 627 S.W.3d at 895. 

Accordingly, we are compelled to affirm the May 15, 2020, opinion of 

the Workers’ Compensation Board.

ALL CONCUR.

BRIEF FOR APPELLANT:

Stephanie N. Wolfinbarger

Louisville, Kentucky 

BRIEF FOR APPELLEE

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF 

KENTUCKY:

Matthew F. Kuhn

Brett R. Nolan

Alexander Y. Magera

Frankfort, Kentucky

BRIEF FOR APPELLEE BROWN 

FORMAN CORPORATION: 

David D. Black

Louisville, Kentucky