Opinion ID: 2281299
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Pulaski County Detention Center Corporation

Text: Appellant makes the procedural argument that he should have been allowed to amend his complaint to include the Pulaski County Detention Center Corporation as a party. He also alleges that the corporation is not entitled to sovereign immunity. The Pulaski County Detention Center moved the court to dismiss the complaint against it because it was not a suable entity because it was only a building owned and operated by Pulaski County, Kentucky. The Detention Center cited a federal district court case interpreting Kentucky law, Smith v. Franklin County, 227 F.Supp.2d 667 (E.D.Ky.2002), in which the federal court dismissed all claims against the Regional Jail because it was not an entity capable of being sued. The Pulaski County Detention Center pointed out that it was no more capable of being sued than was the local courthouse. Being owned by the county, the Detention Center further argued that it was entitled to sovereign immunity. After a hearing, the trial court entered summary judgment in favor of the Detention Center based on sovereign immunity. Appellee Bishop then filed motions to alter or amend and for summary judgment, and the trial court conducted another hearing. In response, the Appellant noted that in fact the Pulaski County Detention Center was owned by a corporation, known as the Pulaski County Detention Center Corporation, and moved the trial court to allow amendment to name the corporation instead. In an order dated October 2, 2007, the trial court granted Bishop's motion for summary judgment, and denied the Appellant's motion to amend to add Pulaski County Detention Center Corporation. During the proceedings, counsel for the Detention Center produced the Articles of Incorporation of Pulaski County Detention Center Corporation to demonstrate that there was no suable entity when only the Detention Center was named, other than the county, which was entitled to sovereign immunity. However, since the Appellant saw this as establishing that the Detention Center was owned by an entity other than the county, namely a private corporation, he believed that the evidence had identified the proper suable entity and asked the court to allow amendment to conform to the evidence. The trial court found that the Detention Center had not been sued in its capacity as a corporation, and denied leave to amend. This was error. It is well-established that amendment to conform to the evidence is proper when there can be no real surprise or detriment to the opposing party, which is obviously the case here, since it was the Detention Center who produced the Articles of Incorporation. See CR 15.01 (Otherwise a party may amend his pleading only by leave of court or by written consent of the adverse party; and leave shall be freely given when justice so requires.); Ashland Oil & Refining Co. v. Phillips, 404 S.W.2d 449, 450-51 (Ky.1966) (There was no showing that appellee's position had been worsened by the delay in offering the amendments to the complaint; there was certainly a color of excuse for the delay in light of appellee's long delay in responding to the interrogatories. No suggestion of `bad faith' on the part of appellant appears. We conclude that there was no sufficient reason for the trial court to refuse the tendered amendments.); Kentucky Home Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Hardin, 277 Ky. 565, 126 S.W.2d 427, 431 (1938) (The law favors the right of litigants to have their rights disposed of on the merits rather than technicalities with regard to amendments or other reasonable changes in pleadings to the end that justice may prevail.); see also Hoke v. Cullinan, 914 S.W.2d 335, 339 (Ky.1995) (noting the freedom with which pleadings may be amended). However, though it was error to deny the amendment, here it is harmless, because while the Pulaski County Detention Center Corporation is indeed suable, it is entitled to sovereign immunity as an alter ego of the county. Its position is on all fours with the Student Life Foundation described in Autry v. Western Kentucky University, 219 S.W.3d 713, 717 (Ky.2007). Like the Student Life Foundation in Autry, the Pulaski County Detention Center Corporation is technically a separate corporation from the governmental entity in question. Nevertheless, while both entities have a corporate structure, both exist only to fulfill a purpose of the state. In Autry, the Student Life Foundation bonded, built and held title to the dormitories situated on the campus of Western Kentucky University only to further the university's duty to provide housing for students. The Pulaski County Detention Center Corporation exists for an almost identical purpose: it bonded, built and holds title to the Detention Center property only to provide incarceration space for inmates who have been charged with or convicted of breaking the law and are serving a penalty in the county jail. Its only identity is to serve as a tool of county government, which furthers the state purpose of incarcerating lawbreakers. Thus, even if the trial court had properly allowed the amendment, the inevitable result would have been the same: summary judgment for the Pulaski County Detention Center Corporation on the basis of sovereign immunity. Thus, there was no error in the trial court's finding that even in its corporate capacity, the Detention Center was entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law, which also renders harmless the failure to allow amendment of the complaint. That portion of the Court of Appeals' opinion must be affirmed.