Court Opinion

ID: 9653778
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:54:53.163336+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:01.696565
License: Public Domain

SIMS, Judge
(dissenting in part).
I am not in accord with that part of the majority opinion which holds the amount of special damages does not have to be specifically pleaded and will give my reasons in this dissent.
True, the Rules of Civil Procedure attempt to get away from the strict requirements of the Civil Code, but to my mind this does not mean the Civil Rules have eliminated all requirements of pleading a cause of action, or that a monkey may now prepare a complaint as well as a man.
The majority correctly say the purpose of CR 9.06 is to require the pleading to advise the opposite party that special damages are being claimed and the nature of such damages and that the amount thereof must be proved to authorize recovery. But, in my judgment, they are wrong when they say it is not necessary to itemize such special damages or to aver the amount thereof in the complaint. Under the Civil Rules, pleading and proof are still complementary one of the other, just as they were under the Civil Code of Practice. Proof without pleading is no more availing than is pleading without proof. Both are necessary before there may he a recovery. Utterback’s Adm’r v. Quick, 230 Ky. 333, 19 S.W.2d 980, 982. The majority reason that often the amount is not known at the time the complaint is filed, thus it cannot be incorporated in the pleading. The simple answer to that is, the pleader can always amend, even during the trial, to show the amount he seeks to recover.
The majority say if it is important to opposing party prior to trial to know the amount of damages sought, it may be ascertained by a simple interrogatory under CR 33, or by other discovery procedure. As I understand the Civil Rules, they require, as did the Civil Code, that plaintiff must state a cause of action in his complaint with such certainty that the opposing counsel may know what he has to defend. The defendant should not be required to go to the trouble and expense of ascertaining by interrogatories or by discovery the amount of specific damages plaintiff is seeking to recover of him, but the duty is on plaintiff to set them out with certainty in his complaint as he knows, or should know, what his special damages are.
Let us now turn to the simple provisions of our Civil Rules. It is provided in CR 9.06: “When items of special damage are claimed, they shall be specifically stated.” Nothing could be clearer than that this Rule pointedly requires the pleader to state the nature of the special damage claimed and the amount thereof. By CR 8.01 a pleading is required to set forth “a demand for judgment for the relief to which he [the pleader] deems himself entitled.” Unless the pleader states specifically the amount he deems himself .entitled to recover, he has simply failed to make a proper demand for this special relief.
I am of the opinion that the decisions under our Civil Code on this question apply with full force under the Civil Rules. In *256Lexington Ry. Co. v. Britton, 130 Ky. 676, 114 S.W. 29S, on page 297, it is written':
“It is the well-settled rule in this state that special damages, such as loss of time and medical treatment, must be specially pleaded. If they are not specially pleaded, no recovery can be had for such items. If the pleading, then, is blank as to either one of these items, it is the same as if there were no plea of special damages. The defendant in this case might have been willing to admit doctors’ bills in a small amount, but in case the petition sought to recover for a large sum' under this item it might have desired to contest the same. In any event, the pleadings should be in such condition as to inform the defendant of the amount claimed, and thus give it an opportunity either to admit or deny the averments concerning such items of damage. The petition was therefore defective in this particular.”
See also Montgomery v. Glasscock, Ky., 121 S.W. 668, and Coleman v. Daniel, 292 Ky. 553, 166 S.W.2d 978, 979.
Appellees argue that under our Civil Rules a pleading must be construed favorably to the pleader and technical forms are not required. Conceding these points, they do not justify noncompliance. Some misconceptions to the contrary, proper pleading is still required by our Rules. They should not be so liberally construed as to destroy definiteness in the statement of a claim or demand for relief. See Fleming v. Dierks Lumber & Coal Co., D.C., 39 F.Supp. 237. Aside from that, there is no question of construction or a technicality.
It is my opinion that failure to aver the amount of special damage prohibits the introduction of proof of same.
I am authorized to state that Judge BIRD joins in this dissent.