MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER DANNY C. REEVES, District Judge. This matter is pending for consideration of Defendant Jack Conway's renewed motion to dismiss. [Record No. 36] Conway, the Kentucky Attorney General ("AG"), seeks dismissal of Plaintiff Merck Sharp & Dohme Corporation's ("Merck") complaint on abstention grounds. For the reasons explained below, the AG's motion will be denied. I. Background 1 The matter underlying this action arose from Merck's marketing and distribution of the...
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER DAVID L. BUNNING, District Judge. I. INTRODUCTION This action arises out of a seven-year-old's allegation that he was sexually abused by his school counselor, Plaintiff Richard Wesley. After investigating the allegation, Defendant Joanne Rigney, a detective with the Covington Police Department, submitted a Complaint and Affidavit to a Kentucky district court judge setting forth facts to establish probable cause that Plaintiff committed sexual abuse in the first...
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER AMUL R. THAPAR, District Judge. Defendant Jimmy Nelson lied on his homeowner's insurance application. Almost everyone lies. But lying has its consequences. Some liars, like Pinocchio, pay physical penalties for their fabrications. Others find themselves immortalized in the English language, their names eponymous with their deceits: Charles Ponzi for purveyors of predatory financial schemes, Benedict Arnold for traitors, and Baron M nchausen for delusional...
MEMORANDUM OPINION WILLIAM O. BERTELSMAN, District Judge. This matter is before the Court on Appellant Charles Schaffner's appeal from an Order of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky granting the United States Trustee's motion for sanctions against Appellant. The Court heard formal oral argument on this matter on October 11, 2012. Having heard the parties, and having reviewed this matter thoroughly, the Court now issues this Memorandum Opinion. Factual...
MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER JOSEPH M. HOOD, Senior District Judge. This matter is before the Court on Defendants Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG) and Lexington-Fayette Urban County Division of Police's (LFUCDP) motion to dismiss (D.E. 4), Defendants Monte Corbett and Abigail Dillingham's motion to dismiss (D.E. 3), Defendants Katie Rhea and Ray Samuel Wilson's motion to dismiss (D.E. 5), and Defendant Alizabeth Graham's motion to dismiss (D.E. 11). In his response, Plaintiff...
OPINION AND ORDER BERTELSMAN, Senior District Judge. This is a third-party bad faith action against an insurer arising out of a medical malpractice suit brought against its insureds in state court in Kentucky. This matter is before the Court on defendant's motion for summary judgment (Doc. 94). The Court heard oral argument on this motion on October 5, 2012, and the parties thereafter submitted supplemental authorities. (Docs. 136, 137). After further study, the Court now issues the...
MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER AMUL R. THAPAR, District Judge. Tip O'Neill insisted that, "All politics is local." See Tip O'Neill & William Novak, Man of the House: The Life and Political Memoirs of Speaker Tip O'Neill (1987). The parties here probably wish that were not the case. Oberdeen Click, the Plaintiff, alleges that, Randy Thompson, the Defendant, fired him from his job with the county parks department in 2009 because he supported the Democratic Party. Click further alleges that...
MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER GREGORY F. VAN TATENHOVE, District Judge. Though it would be an exceedingly rare occurrence for any person to physically assault another without as much as a fleeting trace of hate in his or her heart, Congress has seen fit to provide special federal protections against designated "hate crimes." The United States alleges that when David Jenkins and Anthony Jenkins kidnapped Michael Pennington and assaulted him, they did so on the basis of Pennington's sexual...
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER DAVID L. BUNNING, District Judge. I. INTRODUCTION These cases were removed from the Campbell and Kenton County Circuit Courts in February of 2012. Once removed, the Defendant Library Board or Trustees filed motions to dismiss on several grounds. Upon reviewing the merits of those motions, the Court, sua sponte, ordered supplemental briefing as to the applicability of the Tax Injunction Act to the claims raised by Plaintiffs. That briefing having now been...
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER HENRY R. WILHOIT, JR., Senior District Judge. This matter is before the Court upon Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment [Docket No. 31]. I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY A. Audrie Nixon At the time this civil action was filed, Audrie Nixon was attending the second grade at McKell Elementary School, in Greenup County Kentucky. She is a Type I diabetic. On September 5, 2008, the school adopted a plan for accommodating Audrie's condition pursuant to Section...
MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER AMUL R. THAPAR, District Judge. Location matters. When King Leonidas and the Greeks chose to make their stand at Thermopylae, the narrow mountain pass "largely neutralize[d]" the Persians' strong cavalry and enabled the Greek force to inflict massive casualties on a Persian army more than twenty times its size. See Ben Dupr , Where History Was Made: Landmarks of World History from Thermopylae to Ground Zero 11-12 (2009). During the American Revolutionary War,...
MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER GREGORY F. VAN TATENHOVE, District Judge. The Plaintiff, Tammy Lee Wagner, brought this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 405(g) to obtain judicial review of an administrative decision of the Commissioner of Social Security ("Commissioner") denying Wagner's application for Supplemental Security Income ("SSI"). For the reasons set forth herein, the Court will deny Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment [R. 7] and grant the Defendant Commissioner's Motion for Summary...
OPINION AND ORDER KAREN K. CALDWELL, District Judge. This matter is before the Court on the second Motion for Summary Judgment (DE 22) filed by the Defendant Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company. 1 For the following reasons, the Court will GRANT Liberty's motion. The issue in this case is whether the Plaintiffs are entitled to recover $250,000 under the Underinsured Motorist ("UIM") coverage of their insurance policy with Liberty or whether they are entitled to recover that amount for both...
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER DANNY C. REEVES, District Judge. This matter is pending for consideration of cross-motions for summary judgment filed by Plaintiff Tammy R. Lamb ("Lamb" or "the Claimant") and Defendant Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security ("the Commissioner"). [Record Nos. 9, 10] Lamb argues that the administrative law judge assigned to his case erred "when he ignored the opinions of [Lamb's] treating physicians that she suffers from fibromyalgia" [Record No. 9-1, p....
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER JOSEPH M. HOOD, Senior District Judge. Plaintiff Melody Shropshire ("Plaintiff"), a Kentucky resident, filed this action in Fayette Circuit Court against Unum Life Insurance Company of America ("Unum"), a Maine company, and her former employer, Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government ("LFUGC"). On May 23, 2012, Unum filed a Notice of Removal [DE 1], removing the above-referenced matter from Fayette Circuit Court, alleging that this Court has jurisdiction...
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER DANNY C. REEVES, District Judge. This matter is pending for consideration of the motion for summary judgment filed by Defendants Jonathan W. Gassett, individually and in his official capacity as Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR), and John Does 1-10, unknown KDFWR employees, in their individual and official capacities. [Record No. 34] The defendants argue that there are no genuine issue of material fact to be resolved...
MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER GREGORY F. VAN TATENHOVE, District Judge. Before the Court are the Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment filed by the Plaintiff James Murray and the Defendant Fred Pennington. In their respective motions, the parties assert they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law because there are no genuine issues of material fact. For the reasons stated below, Murray's Motion for Summary Judgment will be DENIED, and Pennington's Motion for Summary Judgment will be DENIED in...
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER KAREN K. CALDWELL, District Judge. This matter is before the Court on the cross Motions for Summary Judgment filed by Plaintiff, John Browning, and Defendant, Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security ("the Commissioner"). [DE 9, 10]. For the reasons set forth below, the Court will GRANT the Commissioner's motion and DENY Plaintiff's motion. I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY On September 22, 2008, Plaintiff filed a claim for Disability Insurance...
OPINION AND ORDER KAREN K. CALDWELL, District Judge. This matter is before the Court on the parties' briefs regarding the Plaintiff's entitlement to attorney's fees. In a prior opinion, this Court denied the Plaintiff's motion for attorney's fees. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed that opinion and remanded it to this Court to reconsider the issue. McQueary v. Conway, 614 F.3d 591 (6th Cir. 2010). For the following reasons, the Court again finds that the...
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER DAVID L. BUNNING, District Judge. Plaintiff brought this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 405(g) to obtain judicial review of an administrative decision of the Commissioner of Social Security. The Court, having reviewed the record and the parties' dispositive motions, reverses and remands the Commissioner's decision for further clarification. I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY Plaintiff Lisa A. Blevins filed an application for supplemental security...
