The Kentucky Supreme Court docket, reversing decrease courtroom rulings, ordered that damages be awarded in a lawsuit filed by two house owners in opposition to a consignor.
Hickstead Farm and Ken Ramsey claimed base financial damages of greater than $350,000 as a result of proceeds due from the sale of a number of of their horses in 2013 weren’t acquired from Dapple Stud and Dapple Gross sales. In response to the Supreme Court docket opinion, a considerable portion of the sale proceeds have been allegedly diverted by then-Dapple supervisor Mike Akers.
After extended litigation that included two stops within the Kentucky Court docket of Appeals, the excessive courtroom dominated Oct. 24 that each decrease courts erroneously determined Ramsey and Hickstead didn’t maintain an enforceable contract with Dapple. The Supreme Court docket ordered Fayette Circuit Court docket in Lexington, the place the case originated, to calculate applicable damages.
Ramsey consigned seven horses to Dapple to be bought on the Fasig-Tipton October 2013 Fall Yearling Sale and on the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2013 December Blended Sale in trade for a flat payment of $1,500 and a 3% fee on proceeds over $20,000, “in keeping with prior dealings between Ramsey and Dapple Stud,” Chief Justice Lawrence VanMeter wrote. Fasig-Tipton subsequently despatched checks totaling $161,084.35 to Dapple Stud.
Hickstead agreed to make use of Dapple Stud to promote two horses on the 2013 Keeneland September Yearling Sale on phrases much like the Ramsey deal.
“These transactions have been (additionally) in keeping with prior dealings,” VanMeter wrote. After the horses bought, Keeneland issued a verify to Dapple for $513,500.
In response to particulars within the courtroom ruling, “Akers apparently transferred (the Ramsey) funds to his private or enterprise accounts.” Within the Hickstead transactions, “In response to an affidavit from Jeffrey Bowen, one in all Dapple Stud’s managing members, Hickstead was owed $495,000, after Dapple Stud’s fee and bills. Dapple Gross sales subsequently remitted $294,482 to Hickstead, leaving an unpaid steadiness of $200,518. Bowen alleged that Akers wrote a verify from Dapple Gross sales’ account to his individually owned company, Mike Akers, Inc., which had adopted the assumed identify of Dapple Bloodstock.”
Writing for the courtroom, VanMeter concluded, “On the time the consignment contracts have been agreed, Dapple Stud’s and Dapple Gross sales’ longtime supervisor was Mike Akers, who apparently misappropriated moneys from Dapple Gross sales’ checking account into which sale proceeds had been deposited. Akers’ post-sale actions, nonetheless, don’t alter Dapple Stud’s obligations below its contracts with Ramsey and Hickstead.”
Civil litigation in opposition to Dapple started 10 years in the past. Ramsey and Hickstead initially prevailed in Fayette Circuit Court docket on their claims for breach of contract, however the Court docket of Appeals reversed the rulings and despatched the matter again to the decrease courtroom for additional improvement of the info.
Ramsey and Hickstead misplaced the second spherical in Fayette Circuit Court docket and have been ordered by choose Kimberly Bunnell to make restitution to Dapple as a result of, earlier than their judgments for breach of contract have been overturned by the courtroom of appeals, Dapple “had paid, a minimum of partially, the sale proceeds to Hickstead and Ramsey,” in response to VanMeter. Kentucky Court docket of Appeals judges Glenn E. Acree, Donna Dixon and J. Christopher McNeill affirmed Bunnell’s resolution, earlier than the Supreme Court docket reversal.
Presumably Dapple can be ordered to return the restitution cash to Hickstead and Ramsey together with some other quantities due below the contracts and could also be responsible for curiosity, punitive damages, and legal professional charges.
Hickstead and Ramsey additionally pursued claims in opposition to Akers, however not till 2020. The Supreme Court docket affirmed dismissal of these claims by the decrease courts, agreeing they have been filed too late. A search of Kentucky and federal courtroom dockets by BloodHorse for legal fees in opposition to Akers didn’t yield any outcomes.
