Yanero v. Davis, 1999-SC-0871-DG.

Decision Date21 November 2001
Docket NumberNo. 2000-SC-0353-DG.,No. 1999-SC-0871-DG.,No. 2000-SC-0347-DG.,1999-SC-0871-DG.,2000-SC-0347-DG.,2000-SC-0353-DG.
Citation65 S.W.3d 510
PartiesMichael A. YANERO and Sheri L. Yanero as Parents and Next Friends of Ryan Yanero, a Minor, Appellants, v. Allen DAVIS; Jeffrey Becker; Robert Stewart; Jefferson County Board of Education; Kentucky High School Athletic Association; and Ryan Coker, a Minor, Appellees. and Kentucky High School Athletic Association, Appellee/Cross-Appellant, v. Michael A. Yanero and Sheri L. Yanero as Parents and Next Friends of Ryan Yanero, a Minor, Appellants/Cross-Appellees, and Allen Davis; Jeffrey Becker; Robert Stewart; Jefferson County Board of Education; and Ryan Coker, a Minor, Appellees. and Allen Davis; Jeffrey Becker; Robert Stewart; and Jefferson County Board of Education, Appellees/Cross-Appellants, v. Michael A. Yanero and Sheri L. Yanero as Parents and Next Friends of Ryan Yanero, a Minor, Appellants/Cross-Appellees. and Kentucky High School Athletic Association, Appellee/Cross-Appellant, and Ryan Coker, a Minor, Appellee.
CourtSupreme Court of Kentucky

A. Thomas Johnson, Louisville, Counsel for Appellants/Cross-Appellees Michael A. Yanero and Sheri L. Yanero as Parents and Next Friends of Ryan Yanero, a Minor (1999-SC-0871-DG, 2000-SC-0347-DG and 2000-SC-0353-DG).

Steven L. Snyder, Daniel G. Brown, David A. Calhoun, Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, Louisville, Counsel for Appellees/Cross-Appellants Allen Davis, Jeffrey Becker, Robert Stewart, Jefferson County Board of Education (1999-SC-0871-DG, 2000-SC-0347-DG and 2000-SC-0353-DG).

Danny C. Reeves, Roger G. Wright, Greenebaum, Doll & McDonald, Lexington, Counsel for Appellee/Cross-Appellant Kentucky High School Athletic Association (1999-SC-0871-DG, 2000-SC-0347-DG and 2000-SC-0353-DG).

William K. Oldham, Blackburn, Hundley & Domene, LLP, Louisville, Counsel for Appellee Ryan Coker, a Minor (1999-SC-0871-DG, 2000-SC-0347-DG and 2000-SC-0353-DG).

Mike Breen, Mike Breen Attorneys at Law, P.S.C., Bowling Green, Counsel for Amicus Curiae Kentucky Academy of Trial Attorneys (1999-SC-0871-DG).

COOPER, Justice.

Waggener High School is a public ("common") school in the Jefferson County, Kentucky, School District. It is also one of 286 members of an unincorporated association known as the Kentucky High School Athletic Association ("KHSAA"). In addition to other interscholastic athletic teams, Waggener has both a varsity and a junior varsity baseball team. On April 17, 1997, Ryan Yanero, age fifteen, a member of the junior varsity team, was injured when struck in the head by a baseball thrown by Ryan Coker, also age fifteen and also a member of the junior varsity team. Both boys claim the injury occurred while Coker was pitching batting practice inside the school gymnasium prior to a scheduled game against another high school team. When struck, Yanero was inside the batting cage attempting to hit pitches thrown by Coker. Yanero was not wearing a batting helmet.

Yanero, by and through his parents, brought this action in the Jefferson Circuit Court against the Jefferson County Board of Education; Robert Stewart, Waggener's athletic director; Allen1 Davis, an assistant coach assigned to coach the junior varsity baseball team; Jeffrey Becker, another assistant coach assigned to "help" with the junior varsity team; and the KHSAA. The Complaint alleged that the Board of Education, Stewart, Davis and Becker negligently failed to require Yanero to wear a batting helmet while engaged in batting practice and/or to administer or obtain appropriate medical treatment as soon as practicable after his injury;2 that the Board of Education and the KHSAA negligently failed to develop, implement and enforce rules and regulations pertaining to the proper hiring and training of coaches and athletic directors qualified to provide for the safety of students participating in batting practice and/or in the proper medical procedures to be followed in case of a head injury; and that the Board and the KHSAA were vicariously liable for the negligence of Stewart, Davis and/or Becker. The defendants filed third-party complaints against Coker seeking indemnity and/or contribution for any sums that might be adjudged against them. At the conclusion of an extensive discovery process, the Jefferson Circuit Court granted summary judgments to all of the defendants on grounds of sovereign, governmental, or official immunity, and those dismissals mooted the third-party claims against Coker. The Court of Appeals affirmed. We granted discretionary review for the purpose of clarifying the nature and extent of immunity from tort liability applicable to governmental agencies, officers, and employees.

I. SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY.

As recently noted in Reyes v. Hardin Memorial Hospital, Ky., 55 S.W.3d 337 (2001), sovereign immunity is a concept that arose from the common law of England and was embraced by our courts at an early stage in our nation's history. Id. at 338. It is an inherent attribute of a sovereign state that precludes the maintaining of any suit against the state unless the state has given its consent or otherwise waived its immunity. Restatement (Second) of the Law of Torts § 895B(1) (A.L.I.1979); 72 Am.Jur.2d, States, Territories, and Dependencies, § 99 (1974). This principle was recognized as applicable to the Commonwealth of Kentucky as early as 1828. Divine v. Harvie, 23 Ky. (7 T.B. Mon.) 439, 441 (1828). The absolute immunity from suit afforded to the state also extends to public officials sued in their representative (official) capacities, when the state is the real party against which relief in such cases is sought. Alden v. Maine, 527 U.S. 706, 756, 119 S.Ct. 2240, 2267, 144 L.Ed.2d 636 (1999); 72 Am.Jur.2d, States, Territories and Dependencies, § 104 (1974); e.g., Tate v. Salmon, 79 Ky. 540, 543 (1881) (claim demanding payment of funds held in the state treasury could not be maintained under the pretext of a suit against the state treasurer3); Divine v. Harvie, supra, at 441 (state auditor and state treasurer could not be sued in substitution for the state to obtain a garnishment against the state treasury).

Absolute immunity also extends to legislators in the performance of their legislative functions, U.S. Const., Art. I, § 6, cl. 1 ("Speech or Debate" Clause), Tenney v. Brandhove, 341 U.S. 367, 71 S.Ct. 783, 95 L.Ed. 1019 (1951), Wiggins v. Stuart, Ky.App., 671 S.W.2d 262 (1984), but not otherwise, Hutchinson v. Proxmire, 443 U.S. 111, 125-33, 99 S.Ct. 2675, 2683-87, 61 L.Ed.2d 411 (1979); judges for all their judicial acts, Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, 98 S.Ct. 1099, 55 L.Ed.2d 331 (1978), Bradley v. Fisher, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 335, 20 L.Ed. 646 (1871), Vaughn v. Webb, Ky.App., 911 S.W.2d 273 (1995), but not otherwise, Forrester v. White, 484 U.S. 219, 108 S.Ct. 538, 98 L.Ed.2d 555 (1988); and prosecutors with respect to the initiation and pursuit of prosecutions, Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 96 S.Ct. 984, 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976), McCollum v. Garrett, Ky., 880 S.W.2d 530, 535 (1994). The rationale for absolute immunity for the performance of legislative, judicial and prosecutorial functions is not to protect those individuals from liability for their own unjustifiable conduct, but to protect their offices against the deterrent effect of a threat of suit alleging improper motives where there has been no more than a mistake or a disagreement on the part of the complaining party with the decision made. Restatement (Second) Torts, supra, § 895D cmt. c.

A sitting President of the United States is afforded absolute immunity from liability predicated upon his official acts, primarily because of the uniqueness of his office and the constitutional tradition of separation of powers. Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731, 749, 102 S.Ct. 2690, 2701, 73 L.Ed.2d 349 (1982). However, absolute immunity has not been extended to cabinet officials or presidential advisers, who enjoy only qualified official immunity as described in Part III of this opinion, infra. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982); Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. 478, 98 S.Ct. 2894, 57 L.Ed.2d 895 (1978). In Forrester v. White, supra, the Court explained that, except with respect to immunities granted by express constitutional or statutory provisions, immunity issues are resolved by examining "the nature of the functions with which a particular official or class of officials has been lawfully entrusted," id. at 224, 108 S.Ct. at 542, and evaluating "the effect that exposure to particular forms of liability would likely have on the appropriate exercise of those functions." Id. Absolute immunity of a government official from suit for monetary damages is justified only when the danger of the official being deflected from the effective performance of his/her public duty is great. 63C Am.Jur.2d, Public Officers and Employees, § 308 (1997). "Officials who seek exemption from personal liability have the burden of showing that such an exemption is justified by overriding considerations of public policy." Forrester v. White, supra, at 224, 108 S.Ct. at 542.

II. GOVERNMENTAL IMMUNITY.

"`[G]overnmental immunity' is the public policy, derived from the traditional doctrine of sovereign immunity, that limits imposition of tort liability on a government agency." 57 Am.Jur.2d, Municipal, County, School and State Tort Liability, § 10 (2001). The principle of governmental immunity from civil liability is partially grounded in the separation of powers doctrine embodied in Sections 27 and 28 of the Constitution of Kentucky. The premise is that courts should not be called upon to pass judgment on policy decisions made by members of coordinate branches of government in the context of tort actions, because such actions furnish an inadequate crucible for testing the merits of social, political or economic policy. 63C Am.Jur.2d, Public Officers and Employees, § 303 (1997). Put another way, "it is not...

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