Court Opinion

ID: 9659443
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:46:01.497588+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:08.249541
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Justice ROACH.
Because I believe that this Court should follow its own rules until they are amended pursuant to CR 87,1 dissent. See Robertson v. Commonwealth, 177 S.W.3d 789, 791 *338(Ky.2005) (“We are reluctant to carte blanche amend our rules without following the formal procedures established for such amendments. CR 87.”).
CR 76.25 sets forth the applicable rules for the review of Workers’ Compensation Board (the “Board”) decisions. CR 76.25(1) states that “decisions of the Workers’ Compensation Board shall be subject to direct review by the Court of Appeals in accordance with the procedures set out in this Rule.” CR 76.25(4)(a) states:
The petition shall designate the parties as appellant(s) and appellee(s) and shall contain the following:
(a) The name of each appellant and each appellee and the names and addresses of their respective counsel. The appellant shall specifically designate as appellees all adverse parties and the Workers’ Compensation Board.
Quite frankly, the majority’s holding that the Board is not an indispensable party because KRS 342.285(1) and KRS 342.290 do not require the Board to be named in an appeal misses the mark. Whether these statutes require the Board to be named is not the issue. CR 76.25(4)(a) expressly requires that an appellant designate the Workers’ Compensation Board as an appellee. It is beyond me how we can simply ignore the clear dictates of our very own rule. The majority claims that the rule can be ignored because the “apparent function of the rule is to require the appellant to serve the Board with a copy of the petition.” CR 76.25(4)(a) does not say or suggest this “apparent function”; rather, it says that the Board shall be designated as an appel-lee. Whatever the “apparent function” of the rule may be or may not be, I do not believe that unequivocal language in a rule should be ignored. If we wish to amend CR 76.25(4)(a), let us amend the rule in accordance with CR 87. Until we do so, I am not willing to conclude that the Court of Appeals abused its discretion when it enforced our own rules of procedure. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
COOPER, J., joins this dissenting opinion.