Court Opinion

ID: 9662849
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 23:19:46.795169+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:43.241168
License: Public Domain

VANCE, Justice,
dissenting.
At oral argument we were informed that the General Assembly of Kentucky makes a direct annual appropriation to the Kentucky Center for the Arts, and that the Kentucky Center for the Arts Building in Louisville, which is involved in this lawsuit, is owned by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. This lawsuit stems from an allegation of negligence in the failure to properly maintain a stair railing in this building owned by the Commonwealth. The briefs furnished to us do not discuss the question of whether a judgment, if one is obtained, could be enforced or whether the funds appropriated by the General Assembly to the Kentucky Center for the Arts would be subjected to the payment of any such judgment. There is also no discussion of whether the building itself could be subject to judicial sale to satisfy a judgment.
The last decision of this court on sovereign immunity held that the Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District was a state agency entitled to the protection of immunity. Louisville and Jefferson County Municipal Sewer District v. Simpson, Ky., 730 S.W.2d 939 (1987). The sewer district did not receive any direct appropriation from the Commonwealth, nor did the Commonwealth have title to the property utilized by the district. It seems to me that the Commonwealth has a much closer and direct connection with the Kentucky Center for the Arts than it does with the Louisville and Jefferson County Municipal Sewer District, and thus the decision here represents a step in a different direction in a field in which this court has changed direction numerous times.
I am certain, however, that if a judgment in this case could be satisfied out of funds appropriated by the state or by a judicial sale of state property, the suit is truly one against the Commonwealth.
The record in this case is not complete enough for me to know whether either of these events is a possibility, but I believe we should be certain as to whether the Commonwealth might ultimately bear the burden of any potential judgment before we deny the availability of the defense of sovereign immunity.
STEPHENS, C.J., joins in this dissenting opinion.