Month: April 2019

Supreme Court affirms district court decision based on file-stamp date of document

The Kansas Supreme Court today upheld the Wyandotte County District Court’s dismissal of a petition alleging medical malpractice and negligence claims in a case where the plaintiff’s husband died.

Several doctors and other medical personnel were among those named as defendants in the lawsuit.

According to court documents, the district court clerk file-stamped the petition, indicating it was received one day after the statute of limitations period had expired.

The lawyer for the plaintiff argued that the petition was timely because she filed the petition one day earlier, but it was rejected by the clerk.

The attorney argued the statute of limitations should not have barred her filing because the petition was electronically submitted before the statute of limitations ran, and the attorney promptly responded when the clerk returned it because of an electronic filing issue.

The supreme court, however, stated that there was no evidence in the record to support the assertion that the attorney timely submitted the same petition as the one eventually file stamped by the clerk. The attorney failed to meet the evidentiary standard required when responding to a motion to dismiss with facts outside the pleadings, according to the court.

The supreme court stated the district court had appropriately granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss.

$55.9 million tobacco settlement received in Kansas

A $55.9 million payment from the annual tobacco settlement has been received by Kansas, according to Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

According to the attorney general, the amount of the payment is consistent with the estimate provided last fall to consensus revenue estimators.

The annual payment reimburses the state for funds previously appropriated by the Legislature to pay the current fiscal year’s cost of programs financed from tobacco settlement proceeds.

Each year the Legislature appropriates funds that will not be received until the following April, and then reimburses that amount when the annual payment is received, because of the timing of the payment and the state budget cycle, according to the attorney general’s office.

Kansas has received more than $1.1 billion from the participating tobacco manufacturers since the first payment was made in 1999. The payments were intended to offset the costs of tobacco-related illness and diseases that are borne by Kansas taxpayers through government-paid medical benefits. Kansas is one of 46 states that made claims in a lawsuit against the tobacco companies in the late 1990s.

Although the Kansas Consensus Revenue Estimating group met on Thursday to revise revenue estimates up slightly for the coming years, Gov. Laura Kelly on Thursday urged legislators to remain cautious. Estimates increased a total of $14.9 million for fiscal years 2020 and 2021.

“Kansas has been on a roller coaster for the last eight years and we must allow adequate time to recover and rebuild,” Kelly said in a news release. “It’s encouraging that revenue remains stable as a result of steady, responsible tax policy, but we must remain cautious.”

In the news release, Kelly pointed out the Federal Reserve had recently lowered its forecast on economic growth for 2019 from 2.3 percent to 2.1 percent.

Shooting suspect arrested

A suspect in a “shots fired” case was taken into custody on Wednesday near 78th and Tauromee, according to a social media post by the Kansas City, Kansas, police chief.

The man had a loaded pistol and three magazines with him, according to the police chief. He was a previously convicted felon, the chief stated in a social media post.