LEBEN, J. In 2007, Lana Smith began work as a physical therapist for a Wichita medical practice. After she left its employment, she sued for bonuses she said were owed to her. Smith said that the practice's business manager promised her a minimum $10,000 per year bonus before she began work. But Smith's employment agreement also clearly provided that she was an at-will employee, something she has not contested, and the compensation of at-will employees may be changed on a going-forward basis....
MALONE, C.J. Bluestem Telephone Co. and numerous other Kansas Rural Local Exchange Carriers (RLECs) appeal from orders of the Kansas Corporation Commission (Commission) issued during two general investigation dockets. The Commission opened these dockets to explore the impact of proposed new federal regulations relating to the provision of and payment for universal service in the telecommunications industry. The RLECs filed their petition for judicial review in the Washington County District...
McANANY, J. Jason Mashaney's convictions for sex crimes were set aside and a new trial was ordered. Before the retrial Mashaney pled guilty to amended charges. He then sued his criminal defense lawyers for malpractice, but the district court dismissed his claims. Mashaney's appeal raises the following issues: (1) whether the Board of Indigents' Defense Services (BIDS) may be sued for legal malpractice; (2) whether Mashaney's civil malpractice claims against the individual attorneys are barred...
LEBEN, J. Heather Hilton was put on probation in two separate felony cases, and the district court followed the parties' agreement by making the two probations — each lasting 12 months — consecutive to one another. A month later, Hilton violated one of the conditions of her probation. The State asked that probation be revoked in both cases and that Hilton be required to serve the prison sentences for both crimes. Hilton argued that since the probation terms were made consecutive to one...
HILL, J. Kelli B. Dumler appeals the dismissal of her personal injury lawsuit. She was injured when her car struck some mud on the roadway adjacent to a field where ensilage was being harvested. Not knowing exactly who left the debris on the roadway, Dumler sued John Conway, the farmer who owned the field where the ensilage was being harvested. When Conway later raised the defense that he was not liable for the negligence of Wentz Enterprises, LLC, an independent contractor he had hired to...
MALONE, C.J. This is a civil regulatory proceeding in which the Kansas Department of Revenue Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) fined MCJS, Inc., dba Reed's Ringside Sports Bar and Grill (Reed's) $500 for violating K.S.A. 41-2615 by permitting a minor to possess or consume alcohol on its premises. The Director of the ABC (Director) found that Reed's is responsible for ensuring that minors do not possess or consume alcoholic beverages on its premises and that K.S.A. 41-2615 creates...
LEBEN, J. This case arises out of the sale of real estate in Johnson County — parcels of land originally owned by Glenn and Vanilda Hammonds through some family trusts. The Hammondses had a house that sat mostly on one lot but overlapped a few feet over the lot Living Trust, bought several lots in Spring Hill. One of the lots was Lot 52, and there was an existing house located on the lot immediately to the north. Our lawsuit generally concerns questions that have arisen because that house...
BUSER, J. This appeal involves a contractual dispute between a home builder, Kirk's Remodeling and Custom Homes, Inc. (Kirk's), and the homeowners, George and Vicki Hewitt (the Hewitts). The Hewitts purchased their newly built home from Kirk's. Upon completion of the construction, Kirk's gave the Hewitts an express warranty that promised to provide a house free from defects in materials or workmanship; Kirk's also promised that if defects arose during the 1-year warranty period, Kirk's would...
ARNOLD-BURGER, J. Jorge Diaz challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support his convictions for two counts of aggravated false impersonation. The factual basis for the criminal charges arose following a collision when Diaz signed a traffic citation and notice to appear in the Hutchinson Municipal Court using a false name, appeared in municipal court and pled no contest to the traffic charges using the same false name, and signed a promise to pay the fines also using the false name....
ARNOLD-BURGER, J. Landowners seek a declaratory judgment that a determinable fee mineral interest scheduled to revert to them at such time as oil and/or gas is no longer produced from the land terminated under the deed provisions in 1985. However, the deed conveying the mineral interest incorporated a pre-existing oil and gas lease on the land that deemed the payment of shut-in royalties to be constructive production. Although oil and/or gas was not being produced at the end of the term of the...
POWELL, J. The Hanover Insurance Co. (Hanover) appeals the denial of its own motion for summary judgment and the granting of Dun-Par Engineered Form Company's (Dun-Par) cross-motion for summary judgment. The district court granted Dun-Par's claim to recover the unpaid balance due Dun-Par, a sub-sub-subcontractor, from the Subcontract Payment Bond bought from Hanover by the subcontractor, Vanum Construction Co., Inc. (Vanum). Hanover challenges the district court's interpretation of the...
HILL, J. Leo Butler appeals the district court's denial of his challenge to an order of partial distribution in his deceased son's estate. Leo, who is not an heir, claims he is entitled to more money from the pension settlement received from his son's former employer. The district court ruled that Leo should have appealed the court's order allocating the pension benefits within 30 days of its entry, 4 years earlier, and is now out of time to make such a challenge. We agree. Because Leo did not...
LEBEN, J. Phillip Messer failed field-sobriety tests after a traffic stop and then failed an evidentiary breath test at the police station. At that point, having been told that he had the right to secure additional alcohol-concentration testing, Messer asked the officer for an independent blood test. Rather than taking Messer to a hospital to get a blood test, the officer told Messer that he could get that test on his own after he was released. Messer was able to leave within 45 minutes of his...
ARNOLD-BURGER, J. Keith Lumry, a former employee of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI), sued the KBI as well as three of his former supervisors in their individual capacities for violating his rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and for retaliatory discharge in violation of the Kansas Minimum Wage and Maximum Hours Law (KMWMHL). Because the undisputed facts lead us to the conclusion that two of the supervisors named in this action do not meet the definition of "employer"...
POWELL, J. In this appeal, we are faced with the unenviable task of imposing a hard lesson — that a party is bound by the contract he or she signs even if it creates (in the eyes of some) an unfair or harsh result. We are also called upon to answer what appears to be a question of first impression — whether, in a divorce proceeding, a prior oral separation agreement, put on the record, assented to by the parties under oath, and approved by the court controls over a subsequent written...
ATCHESON, J. This case requires the court to decide a narrow, if seldom litigated, question: If a state fails to properly apply its own procedures for adopting administrative regulations to an agency policy, does that failure create a federal constitutional due process violation in favor of persons affected by the policy The Sedgwick County District Court ruled that Plaintiff Nicholas Taylor suffered a constitutional injury when Defendant Kansas Department of Health and Environment did not...
GREEN, J. This interlocutory appeal under K.S.A. 60-2102(c) involves a class action brought by a royalty owner in Seward County, Kansas, on behalf of all royalty owners who were paid royalties from Oil Producers, Inc. of Kansas (OPIK), which owned the working interest or which operated Kansas wells from January 1, 1996, to the present. The plaintiff, L. Ruth Fawcett Trust, with Les Spaulding as the Trustee (Fawcett) claimed that OPIK had underpaid royalties, and sought recovery of the...
McANANY, J. The Faye M. Stephens Trust appeals the termination of its oil and gas lease covering 150 acres owned by Wanda Sieker for failure to develop the lease. One hundred and sixty acres was originally leased by Sieker's predecessor, Emma Vogelsang, in 1950. A producing well was drilled in 1951 and occupied 10 acres of the tract. The remaining 150 acres remained undeveloped. The Facts The parties are well acquainted with the facts, which are set forth in the district court's well...
STANDRIDGE, J. The district court granted James Allen's motion to dismiss the vehicular homicide charge against him for lack of sufficient evidence. The State appeals this dismissal, arguing that Allen had no right to a preliminary hearing on the motion, the State should not have been required to provide evidence of an aggravating factor independent of a traffic infraction, and the State provided sufficient evidence that Allen committed vehicular homicide. For the reasons stated below, we...
STANDRIDGE, J. Daniel and Sara Zimmerman (the plaintiffs) brought a legal malpractice claim against attorney Richard Brown and Richard's law firm, Brown, Isern & Carpenter (the defendants), related to the sale of the plaintiffs' Quixtar (formerly Amway) business to Richard and his wife. Marlene Brown, Richard's wife, was also originally named as a defendant but was later dismissed from the action. The defendants moved for summary judgment on grounds that the doctrines of in pari delicto and...
