Opinion ID: 2344662
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Instruction on Punitive Damages was Improper

Text: The Court of Appeals noted that the Supreme Court of Kentucky has held that punitive damages are not available under the Kentucky Civil Rights Act, the underpinning for Adkins'[s] age discrimination suit. The court went on to state that the issue is unpreserved since Childers did not object specifically to the instruction on punitive damages on those grounds. (There was a specific objection to the punitive instruction on the ground that Childers's action did not rise to the level required to warrant a punitive damage instruction.) The court continued by citing to cases where specific objections to jury instructions were required, and then held that the giving of the punitive damages instruction was not a palpable error under CR 61.02. There is room for argument on both sides of the debate regarding the specificity, or lack thereof, of Childers's objection. While Childers did not specifically raise an objection to the jury instructions on this ground, it did, however, tender its own instructions, which did not include an instruction on punitive damages. In Fields v. Rutledge, 284 S.W.2d 659 (Ky.1955), the Court said that the rule of requiring specific objection should not be construed to permit entrapment of a party failing to make an independent objection when the requested instruction clearly presented his position. Regardless of this debate, the Court of Appeals's out-of-hand dismissal of CR 61.02 is problematic. In Cobb v. Hoskins, 554 S.W.2d 886 (Ky.App.1977), the court dealt with an objection to instructions which it described as marginal at best. The court applied CR 61.02 and stated that [i]n applying this rule, the palpable error must result from action taken by the court rather than an act or omission by the attorneys or the litigants. Id. at 888. In applying CR 61.02 the court in Cobb found that the refusal of the trial court to accept the plaintiffs tendered instruction, coupled with its own erroneous Instruction No. 3, resulted in a manifest injustice. Id. Childers cites also a more recent case, Transit Authority of River City v. Montgomery, 836 S.W.2d 413, 415 (Ky.1992), which reaffirmed the same principles regarding CR 61.02. So even without specific objection, it is clear that Childers may invoke CR 61.02 and claim palpable error if its substantial rights have been affected and a manifest injustice has resulted from the error. In light of Cobb , it appears that the task of the appellate court in review under CR 61.02 is to determine if (1) the substantial rights of a party have been affected; (2) such action has resulted in a manifest injustice; and (3) such palpable error is the result of action taken by the court. The jury's verdict upon the questionable instruction resulted in a $50,000 judgment against Childers for punitive damages. Clearly the rights of Childers have been affected by having this judgment entered against it. While it is not always clear when manifest injustice has occurred, the court in Cobb above seems to have outlined one such situation: when the trial court rejects one party's tendered instructions and instead gives a different erroneous instruction. In the present case, Childers did, in fact, tender an instruction that did not include an instruction on punitive damages and which was rejected by the trial court. The case law surrounding the availability of damages in a suit brought under the Kentucky Civil Rights Act has seen much change in the last two and a half decades. The current authority comes from Kentucky Department of Corrections v. McCullough, 123 S.W.3d 130 (Ky.2003). In McCullough, the Court expressly denied the availability of punitive damages under KRS 344.450, which is the source of Adkins's claim. Id. at 139-40. The trial court's instruction allowing punitive damages for an action brought under KRS 344.450 then, after the Supreme Court of Kentucky had expressly denied the availability of such damages, was clearly erroneous. The court concludes that that erroneous instruction resulted in a manifest injustice. The last element of the analysis, then, is determining if this palpable error is the result of an error by the trial court or an error by Childers. The duty to give proper instructions lies clearly in the hands of the trial court: Should a party offer an erroneous instruction upon a proper issue, it is the duty of the court and not the excepting party to prepare a correct instruction in lieu of the defective one. Murphy v. Harmon, 291 Ky. 504, 165 S.W.2d 11, 13 (1942). The source of the erroneous instruction in the present case is the set of instructions tendered by Adkins's counsel. It was the duty of the trial court to prepare an instruction which correctly stated the law, especially since the given instruction was against the clearly stated law set forth by the Supreme Court of Kentucky. Childers's substantial rights have been affected; that action is the result of a manifest injustice caused by the trial court's refusal of proffered instructions combined with the giving of an erroneous instruction; such palpable error is the result of the trial court's act. Punitive damages are not an available remedy under KRS 344.450 and the trial court has committed palpable error by allowing them. The decision of the Court of Appeals should be reversed.