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Headen v. Commonwealth9/20/2002
REVERSING AND REMANDING
Patricia Headen appeals from a Franklin Circuit Court judgment that affirmed a Board of Claims' order dismissing as untimely filed Headen's claim for damages resulting from a personal injury sustained on the campus of Northern Kentucky Technical College (NKTC).
Headen asserts that on June 8, 1999, she slipped and fell on a recently-mopped floor. As a result of her fall, Headen allegedly sprained her ankle and continues to experience pain. On June 1, 2000, within one year following her fall, Headen filed a complaint in Kenton Circuit Court against the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) which operates NKTC. KCTCS moved to dismiss Headen's complaint on the ground that the Board of Claims has exclusive jurisdiction to hear negligence claims brought against the Commonwealth of Kentucky and its instrumentalities, including KCTCS. The parties stipulated to a dismissal of the circuit court action on July 21, 2000.
Headen then filed a claim on the prescribed form with the Board of Claims on July 28, 2000. KCTCS filed an answer on September 22, 2000, in which it asserted that Headen's claim was filed more than one year after the cause of action accrued and thus is barred by the applicable statute of limitations, Kentucky Revised Statutes (KRS) 44.110(1). When the Board dismissed Headen's claim as untimely filed, she appealed to Franklin Circuit Court as authorized by KRS 44.140(2). The circuit court agreed with the Board that Headen's claim was barred because it was filed too late and affirmed the Board's order dismissing it. In so doing, the circuit court rejected Headen's argument that she was entitled to invoke the so-called "savings statute," KRS 413.270, to salvage her claim because she had failed to plead it when her claim was pending before the Board of Claims. Headen followed by appealing to this Court.
KRS 413.270, the savings statute that Headen sought to invoke, provides that:
(1) If an action is commenced in due time and in good faith in any court of this state and the defendants or any of them make defense, and it is adjudged that the court has no jurisdiction of the action, the plaintiff or his representative may, within ninety (90) days from the time of that judgment, commence a new action in the proper court. The time between the commencement of the first and last action shall not be counted in applying any statute of limitation.
(2) As used in this section, "court" means all courts, commissions, and boards which are judicial or quasi-judicial tribunals authorized by the Constitution or statutes of the Commonwealth of Kentucky or any of the United States of America.
The parties agree that if the savings statute does apply, Headen's claim was timely filed. Therefore, the issue we must address is whether Headen was required to plead the savings statute in the claim form she initially filed with the Board of Claims in order to invoke it.
As previously noted, KRS 44.110 mandates that " ll claims must be filed with the Board of Claims within one (1) year from the time the claim for relief accrued." Headen's initial claim form contained neither the factual information necessary to make the Board aware of the errant filing in Kenton Circuit Court nor any reference to the savings statute. Based on the pleadings before it - Headen's claim and KCTCS's answer, the Board of Claims was confronted with a claim for an injury that occurred on June 8, 1999, the filing of a claim on July 28, 2000, and a statute of limitations that bars claims filed more than one year after the occurrence that gave rise to the
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