Court Opinion

ID: 9778662
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 21:15:33.619245+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:12.449425
License: Public Domain

*411PALMO RE, Judge (dissenting).
In Foley Construction Company v. Ward, Ky., 375 S.W.2d 392 (1964), we held that the Commonwealth of Kentucky and its administrative agency, the Department of Highways, which is a part of the executive branch of the state government, are protected by the doctrine of sovereign immunity. The source of that immunity is § 231 of the Constitution, which provides as follows:
“§ 231. Suits against the Commonwealth. The General Assembly may, by law, direct in what manner and in what courts suits may be brought against the Commonwealth.” (Emphasis added.)
To hold otherwise would necessarily have rendered § 231 meaningless. But the extension of § 231 to suits against other units of government, in which no recovery would or could constitute a claim upon the state treasury, is a conclusion that is not and never was demanded by its language.
The viewpoint of the majority of the court has been stated ably and well. Nonetheless, it is my belief that sovereign immunity should be limited strictly to what the Constitution demands, for the simple reason that in a civilized society it is morally indefensible. The very idea that an innocent citizen run down on the street by a reckless motorist can recover of the driver’s employer if the employer is another private citizen, or a private business organization, but has no such recourse if the employer happens to be one of the myriad governmental agencies which today engage in so many activities formerly considered to lie within the exclusive domain of private enterprise, is offensive on its face. It is no answer to say that the government must see to its fiscal integrity. So must every private citizen be concerned for his own financial resources. It is no more a hardship for a governmental unit to buy liability insurance than it is for a private individual.
Nor is it an answer to say that when the public is ready to right the wrong it will do so through its representatives in the General Assembly. The average man in the street never heard of sovereign immunity and would scarcely believe it if he did. Indeed it is unbelievable. And it is in the name and for the sake of the average citizen that I record this protest against it.
“The shocking effect of the immunity doctrine is well illustrated by the fact that, in view of some courts, no immunity attaches where property rights are violated by governmental action, but does attach where it is merely a matter of the life or limb of a human being.
“Where property rights are infringed, the courts are willing to rely upon the overriding constitutional principle prohibiting the taking of private property for public use, and to hold a governmental unit or agency liable for such an infringement. On the other hand, a constitutional guaranty of the right of an action of wrongful death will as readily be disregarded and held insufficient to defeat governmental immunity.” Annotation, “Immunity from liability for damages in tort of state or governmental unit or agency in operating hospital,” 25 A.L.R.2d 203, 210.
Cited as authority for this preposterous anomaly are the decisions of none other than our own court in Twyman v. Board of Council of Frankfort, 117 Ky. 518, 78 S.W. 446, 64 L.R.A. 572, 4 Ann.Cas. 622 (1904), and Ketterer v. State Board of Control, 131 Ky. 287, 115 S.W. 200, 20 L.R.A., N.S., 274 (1909). If property is damaged, either wilfully or through negligence, the court “implies” a promise to pay. See Curlin v. Ashby, Ky., 264 S.W.2d 671 (1954).
The word “shocking” is well said. It is inexcusable. I rest my case on the proposition stated long ago by one of the greatest human beings of all time: “It is as much the duty of Government to render prompt justice against itself in favor of citizens as it is to administer the same between private individuals.” First Annual Message by *412Abraham Lincoln, December 3, 1861, in “The State of the Union Messages of the President, 1790-1966,” Vol. II, p. 1060 (ed. by F. T. Israel, 1966).
HILL, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.