Woman in legal battle with independent insurance company has no appealable claims, COA rules

A woman who spent roughly a decade in a legal battle with her employer has had her case dismissed for a lack of appealable issues.

Issues began for Christy Kenworthy in 2012, who at the time was an employee of Richmond-based Lyons Insurance. Michael Lyons, who served as president of Lyons Insurance, got into a scuffle with Kenworthy regarding the ownership of a $13,031.76 distribution check from the Wayne County Insurance Service.

The WCIS is a partnership of Wayne County insurance agents to which both Michael and Kenworthy belonged. At that time, Kenworthy also served as the secretary and treasurer of WCIS.

Michael reported to the Richmond Police Department that Kenworthy had wrongfully withheld the distribution check from Lyons Insurance. The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office filed a charge of Class D felony theft against Kenworthy in 2013, but it moved to dismiss the charge after Kenworthy sent the disputed check to Michael.

Lyons Insurance still filed a complaint against Kenworthy on multiple claims, including that she had wrongfully withheld additional WCIS distributions, deprived Lyons Insurance of $7,856.17 and that she had worked for WCIS during a time when she had been paid to provide services for Lyons Insurance.

Kenworthy responded by raising the affirmative defenses of unclean hands and duress, among others. She also asserted counterclaims against Lyons for defamation for oral and written statements made to the police and the prosecutor, unjust enrichment, conversion, fraud, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, engaging in frivolous litigation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Following years of cross-motions and trial court judgments in partial favor of both parties, a 2021 mediation resulted in Lyons Insurance settling all its claims against Kenworthy. The parties filed a stipulation of dismissal, with prejudice, as to the claims of Lyons Insurance.

Kenworthy also filed a motion for voluntary dismissal of her counterclaims pursuant to Indiana Trial Rule 41(A)(1)(b), in which she said the parties had stipulated that her counterclaims should be dismissed without prejudice. But Lyons objected, stating the parties had never agreed to such a stipulation.

The Wayne Superior Court ultimately dismissed Kenworthy’s counterclaims without prejudice but ordered that if she elected to refile any new case against Lyons based on or including the same claims, she needed to pay attorney fees incurred in the cause of action at hand. The court also retained limited jurisdiction to determine those fees should Kenworthy elect to refile, then dismissed Lyons Insurance’s claims against Kenworthy with prejudice.

Kenworthy pursued the instant appeal seeking review of the trial court’s summary judgment rulings, prompting Lyons to file a motion to dismiss in June 2021. Among other things, Lyons argued that Kenworthy was precluded from appealing any issues as to her counterclaims due to the trial court’s grant of her motion for voluntarily dismissal.

In July 2021, an appellate motions panel denied Lyons’ motion without setting forth its rationale, with Senior Judge Randall Shepard dissenting.

Kenworthy’s appeal of that decision was ultimately dismissed by the COA, which concluded she presented no appealable issues in Christy Kenworthy v. Lyons Insurance & Real Estate, Inc., and Michael E. Lyons, 21A-CC-811.

“Neither the parties’ stipulation nor the trial court’s subsequent entry of an order of dismissal on the claims of Lyons Insurance was a final judgment from which appeal could be taken,” Judge Patricia Riley wrote, citing Sartain v. Trilogy Healthcare of Hamilton II, LLC, 137 N.E.3d 1050 (Ind. Ct. App. 2019), trans. denied. “… As a result, we conclude, as did the Sartain court, that, in light of Appellate Rule 5(A), we have no jurisdiction over Kenworthy’s appellate claims relating to Lyons Insurance’s Amended Complaint, and therefore, we dismisses those portions of her appeal.

The COA further concluded that the trial court’s grant of Kenworthy’s motion for voluntary dismissal rendered her remaining appellate claims moot.

Thus, “(i)n the absence of any authority indicating that Kenworthy’s appealed issues relevant to her counterclaims are of great public importance which are likely to recur,” the COA also dismissed the portions of her appeal relating to her dismissed counterclaims.