Lawsuit

LANCASTER - Lancaster City Council members voted unanimously Tuesday night to proceed with a "friendly lawsuit" challenging the constitutionality of a proposed change in 911 service funding. Ordinances passed recently by Lincoln and Garrard fiscal courts implement a new funding source for the area's 911 call center, Bluegrass 911, by placing a monthly fee on most water meters. Lincoln and Garrard counties have traditionally funded 911 service via monthly fees placed on landline telephones, but that revenue source is drying up as fewer and fewer people are paying for landlines.

A lawsuit involving a Danville man who alleges he was injured while working at the Norfolk Southern railyard has been moved to federal court. Donald Berry initially filed the complaint on Sept. 2 in Boyle Circuit Court, claiming Norfolk Southern violated safety regulations and was responsible for the injuries Berry sustained while he was refueling a locomotive in the Danville yard on Oct. 29, 2011. The rail company, however, was successful last week in its motion to have the case moved to U.S. District Court in Lexington, arguing that state negligence laws are trumped by federal laws as spelled out in the federal Rail Safety Act of 1970 and the Highway Safety Act of 1973.

LIBERTY - The mother of an autistic child has filled a lawsuit against the Casey County Board of Education and a special education teacher alleging her son was abused, neglected and intimidated while attending Walnut Hill Elementary School last year. Ronna Carmicle filed the complaint last week in Casey Circuit Court on behalf of her son, Bradley Carmicle, who attended Walnut Hill as a kindergartener from August through December of 2011. The lawsuit names school board members, Superintendent Linda Hatter, teacher Geraldine Baker Fletcher and other unnamed school employees as defendants.

STANFORD - A Hustonville woman and her grandson have filed a lawsuit against the city of Hustonville alleging that failure to maintain proper water pressure in city water lines contributed the destruction of their business in a fire last year. Mary Kirkpatrick, who owned the building at 110 Lyons Court, and Billy Kirkpatrick, who operated Billy's Body Shop there, filed the complaint last week in Lincoln Circuit Court. The city, its water and fire departments, and unnamed employees are named as defendants.

We are very fortunate to have Dr. Carmen Coleman serve as superintendent of the Danville school system. I have served on the Danville School Education Foundation for almost two years, and that experience has allowed me significant first hand knowledge of Dr. Coleman's outstanding abilities, intelligence and enthusiasm. She is an excellent superintendent. As an attorney, I hope all of The Advocate-Messenger's readers understand that the recent article regarding litigation involving the Danville school board and Dr. Coleman only reports one side of a dispute.

An insurance company that sued the city of Danville last month over a claim it paid for damages caused to a business by a backed up sewer has withdrawn the complaint.  Farm Bureau Insurance voluntarily pulled the lawsuit on Aug. 31, even before attorneys for the city responded to allegations made in the complaint.  The motion to withdraw, filed for Farm Bureau by Campbellsville attorney John Miller, does not provide any explanation for the company's change of heart. The lawsuit alleged the city  failed to properly maintain a sewer line near the now defunct Danville Christian Bookstore and Music Center.

LANCASTER - Lincoln and Garrard counties are preparing to find out if a plan to fund 911 service through water meter fees will hold up in court. Garrard County magistrates passed Monday evening the second reading of an ordinance implementing a 25-cent monthly fee on all water meters in the county. Judge-Executive John Wilson said the plan is to have Garrard County magistrates formally ask the city of Lancaster to file suit against the ordinance, challenging its constitutionality.

Allegations of corruption in Jessamine County over the past decade are at the heart of a lawsuit filed early this year by one local land developer against another. Forest Creek, LLC filed its lawsuit in January alleging local developer Clay Corman and Harold “Hal” Snowden Jr., owner of Roseglade Farm, conspired to hinder its multimillion-dollar residential development. The lawsuit remains in a state of discovery, and there may be more defendants named in the alleged conspiracy, according to attorney Constance Grayson of Gullette & Grayson, PSC, who filed the suit.

By TODD KLEFFMAN tkleffman@amnews.com LANCASTER - Even though Liquor Mart of Lancaster sold a case of Bud Light to an intoxicated Brett Whitaker just before he killed a Berea couple in a drunk-driving collision, the liquor store won't be held responsible for the deaths, a judge has ruled. Garrard Circuit Judge Hunter Daugherty granted a motion for summary judgment in favor of Liquor Mart, dismissing the liquor store from liability in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Joel Rowland, son of John and Lavada Rowland, who were killed in the crash on U.S. 27 in June 2010.