Gnau v. Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer Dist.
| Decision Date | 19 May 1961 |
| Citation | 346 S.W.2d 754 |
| Parties | Norman Thomas GNAU et al., Appellants, v. LOUISVILLE & JEFFERSON COUNTY METROPOLITAN SEWER DISTRICT, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
Philip P. Ardery, Brown, Ardery, Todd & Dudley, Herbert C. Howard, Miller & Howard, Louisville, for appellants.
Blakey Helm, James Goslee Becket, Louisville, for appellee.
The appellant, Norman Thomas Gnau, filed a tort proceeding in the Board of Claims against the Louisville & Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District. The Board dismissed the proceeding on the ground it had no jurisdiction over the appellee. Appeal to the Jefferson Circuit Court resulted in an affirmance of the decision of the Board.
By statute, the Commonwealth's immunity from liability for injury occasioned by its negligence has been waived to a limited extent. KRS 44.070 vests authority in the Board of Claims to 'investigate, hear proof, and to compensate persons for damages sustained to either person or property as a proximate result of negligence on the part of the Commonwealth, any of its departments or agencies, or any of its officers, agents or employees while acting within the scope of their employment by the Commonwealth or any of its departments or agencies; * * *' KRS 44.100 provides that all awards and cost of operation assessed by the Board shall be paid out of a State Fund, upon warrants drawn by the Commissioner of Finance upon the State Treasurer.
The Sewer District was created under the authority of Chapter 76 of Kentucky Revised Statutes. It is 'a public body corporate, and political subdivision, with power to adopt, use and alter at its pleasure a corporate seal, sue and be sued, contract and be contracted with, and in other ways to act as a natural person, within the purview of this chapter.' KRS 76.010.
In Fawbush v. Louisville & Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District, Ky., 240 S.W.2d 622, 624, this Court held that the Sewer District is not liable for torts committed by its servants while acting within the scope of their employment. We said that the Sewer District is an independent public corporation; autonomous and economically self-sustaining, and that it is performing a governmental function in the preservation and promotion of public health. We recognized that the Sewer District is an agency of the State and thus cloaked with immunity from liability for injury occasioned by negligent acts of its servants. In referring to the Sewer District as an...
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