Court Opinion

ID: 9667782
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:55:00.310604+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:40.840541
License: Public Domain

LAMBERT, Justice,
dissenting.
In Gnau v. Louisville & Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District, Ky., 346 S.W.2d 754 (1961), we held that the limited waiver of immunity of the Board of Claims Act did not include MSD. The Court stated:
[T]he waiver of immunity attaches only to those agencies which are under the direction and control of the central State government and are supported by monies which are disbursed by authority of the Commissioner of Finance out of the State treasury.
As MSD was not such an agency, we held that it was not subject to the jurisdiction of the Board of Claims.
Later in Haney v. City of Lexington, Ky., 386 S.W.2d 738 (1964), this Court abolished municipal tort immunity except for legislative or judicial functions. Prior to Haney, we held in Rash v. Louisville & Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District, 309 Ky. 442, 217 S.W.2d 232 (1949) that:
*941The Metropolitan District is a separate entity acting for its own purposes and possessing defined, though limited, powers of a municipal community. It meets the conventional descriptions or definitions of a “municipality.”
Relying on Haney, supra, we held in Louisville & Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District v. Kirk, Ky., 390 S.W.2d 182 (1965):
Metropolitan next asserts the trial judge erred in overruling its motion for a directed verdict for the reason that this action was essentially one based upon negligence and that, since Metropolitan has been held to be a governmental functionary, Gnau v. Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District, Ky., 346 S.W.2d 754 [(1961)] it is protected from liability for its torts by the doctrine of immunity. This defense (municipal tort immunity) is now unavailing because this doctrine was abolished in Kentucky, insofar as it attaches to a public agency such as appellant by the recent case of Haney v. City of Lexington, Ky., 386 S.W.2d 738 [(1964)].
If any doubt remained as to the abolition of municipal tort immunity in Haney, such was removed by our holding in Gas Service Co., Inc. v. City of London, Ky., 687 S.W.2d 144 (1985).
MSD now comes before this Court arguing that it is entitled to immunity as a quasi-municipal corporation and relies upon Fawbush v. Louisville & Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District, Ky., 240 S.W.2d 622 (1951). In view of Rash and Kirk, I disagree with this contention.
On the basis of the majority opinion in the case at bar and Gnau, MSD has achieved the exalted status of being immune from liability for its tortious conduct in any forum. I do not believe this is an accurate interpretation of the legislative act authorizing the creation of MSD or of the Constitution of Kentucky.