Opinion
No. 09-5001.
July 20, 2009.
On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.
Charles Jayne died in Kentucky in September 2004 when a drunk driver struck his vehicle. Within a month of Charles's death, an Indiana court appointed his son, Todd Jayne, administrator of Charles's estate. Seven months later, a Kentucky probate court appointed John Ford as administrator of the same estate. In April 2006 — eleven months after Ford's appointment — Ford brought a wrongful death action in Kentucky. The defendants removed, and the district court dismissed the suit as barred by Kentucky's one-year wrongful death statute of limitations, see Ky. Rev. Stat. 413.180, holding that the limitations period began running when the Indiana court appointed Todd. Ford timely appealed.
The sole issue presented by this appeal concerns whether Kentucky's wrongful death statute of limitations commenced when an Indiana probate court appointed an administrator of the decedent's estate. The district court concluded that it did, and we discern no error in that determination. Because our review of the record, the applicable law, and the parties' briefs convinces us that the district court's memorandum opinion carefully and correctly set out the facts and the governing law, a full opinion from this court would be duplicative and serve no jurisprudential purpose. We therefore affirm the district court judgment dismissing the wrongful death claim as untimely, adopting the reasoning of the district court's December 2, 2008, opinion. See Ford v. RDI/Caesars Riverboat Casino, LLC, No. 3:06-CV-243-H, 2008 WL 5109750 (W.D.Ky. 2008).