Court Opinion

ID: 9676421
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:24:10.325819+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:48.576422
License: Public Domain

LEIBSON, Justice,
dissenting.
Respectfully, I dissent.
Small Claims Court is a relatively recent creation of the legislature, a special statutory procedure established by the “Small Claims Act,” KRS 24A.200 to 24A.360.
KRS 24A.200 defines its “Purpose” to include: to “make the judicial system more available and comprehensible to the public;” “to simplify practice and procedure;” to permit litigants to participate in the “handling and trial of such cases ... in their own behalf;” “to provide an efficient and inexpensive forum with the objective of dispensing justice in a speedy manner;” and “generally to promote the confidence of the public in the overall judicial system by providing a forum for small claims.”
In the present case we have turned Small Claims Court from its statutory “Purpose” into a trap for the unwary, making innocent victims of the people it was designed to serve. We are not compelled to this result by the legal principles that bear on the case. The Majority Opinion has cited the general rule concerning splitting a cause of action found in the Restatement (Second) Judgments, § 24 (1982), but erroneously disregarded the clearly stated “Exceptions to the General Rule Concerning Splitting” found in § 26 of the same Restatement (Second) Judgments.
Applying the general rule instead of the exceptions is particularly wrong in this case because the negligence issue was not even litigated in Small Claims Court. John Riherd was proceeding without an attorney, as the Small Claims Act contemplates. When his trial got to the point where he testified that he did not use his car in his work, but only drove it to and from work, the judge explained to him that under Kentucky law he was not entitled to claim loss of use for an automobile in these circum*36stances. Thereupon the judge dismissed the case because the claim for loss of use was the only claim Riherd was litigating.
I am concerned that our decision that this insignificant claim for loss of use of an automobile in Small Claims Court barred a major claim in circuit court for personal injuries will be viewed by the general public as proof that the law has become overly technical, unreasonable and unjust. The Majority Opinion defeats the purpose of the statutory scheme in the Small Claims Act.
Restatement (Second) Judgments, § 26, “Exceptions to the General Rule Concerning Splitting,” states:
“(1) When any of the following circumstances exists, the general rule of § 24 does not apply to extinguish the claim, and part or all of the claim subsists as a possible basis for a second action by the plaintiff against the defendant:

(d) [I]t is the sense of the [“statutory”] scheme that the plaintiff should be permitted to split his claim;”
Comment e, “Implementation of a statutory or constitutional scheme,” explains:
“[I]t may appear from a consideration of the entire statutory scheme that litigation, which on ordinary analysis might be considered objectionable as repetitive, is here intended to be permitted.”
The Small Claims Act and Small Claims Court is exactly the kind of statutory scheme contemplated by § 26(l)(d), and by the explanatory note in Comment e. If there is any doubt about this, it is resolved by reference to “Illustration 5” following Comment e, and by reference to § 28(3) of the Restatement (Second) Judgments and to Comment d explaining that subsection. § 28 provides:
“Although an issue is actually litigated and determined by a valid and final judgment, and the determination is essential to the judgment, relitigation of the issue in a subsequent action between the parties is not precluded in the following circumstances:

(3) A new determination of the issue is warranted by differences in the quality or extensiveness of the procedures followed in the two courts or by factors relating to the allocation of jurisdiction between them;”
Comment d to § 28 states in pertinent part:
“[Tjhere may be compelling reasons why preclusion should not apply. For example, the procedures available in the first court may have been tailored to the prompt, inexpensive determination of small claims and thus may be wholly inappropriate to the determination of the same issues when presented in the context of a much larger claim.” (Emphasis added.)
The Restatement then provides “Illustrations” which make the meaning perfectly clear:
“6. A brings an action against B to recover for property damage in a court whose jurisdiction is limited to claims not exceeding $2,000. The rules governing the conduct of litigation applicable in the court are substantially the same as those in courts of general jurisdiction. After trial, verdict and judgment are rendered for A on the basis of a finding of B’s negligence. In a subsequent action by B against A for $10,000 for personal injuries arising out of the same occurrence, the finding of B’s negligence in the first action is conclusive.
7. The facts are the same as in Illustration 6, except that the first action is brought in a small claims court which has a jurisdictional ceiling of $500, and which operates informally without pleadings, counsel or rules of evidence. The finding of B’s negligence is not conclusive in the second action.” (Emphasis added.)
Small Claims Court is a perfect example of the exception to the rule against splitting of causes of action in § 26 of the Restatement and is the specified Illustration of the exception to the general rule of *37issue preclusion in § 28 of the Restatement.
I respectfully suggest that we should not separate ourselves from the mainstream of American law as represented by the Restatement to achieve an overly technical result. Two cases involving decisions under small claims acts, squarely in point, and adopting the view stated in the Restatement and this Dissenting Opinion are Sanderson v. Niemann, 17 Cal.2d 563, 110 P.2d 1025 (1941) and Village Supply Co., Inc. v. Iowa Fund, Inc., 312 N.W.2d 551 (Ia.1981). We are cited no cases to the contrary.
We have elected to apply the rules used in an 1891 case, Pilcher v. Ligon, 91 Ky. 228, 12 Ky.Law Rep. 860, 15 S.W. 513 (1891), one hundred years later to a new specialized statutory procedure, Small Claims Court. Thus applied, the rule defeats the purpose of Small Claims Court. The result is to penalize Riherd for availing himself of the remedial legislation that the General Assembly was seeking to provide to him by the Small Claims Act.
AKER and VANCE, JJ., join in this dissent.