Maggard v. Kinney

OPINION OF THE COURT BY JUSTICE HUGHES

Ten years ago in Breathitt County Board of Education v. Prater, 292 S.W.3d 883 (Ky. 2009), this Court recognized that the denial of a substantial claim of absolute immunity entitled the claimant to an immediate appeal. Noting that immunity entitles the possessor to be free from the burdens of litigation, not merely liability, and that such entitlement could not be fully vindicated following a final judgment, we authorized an exception to the final judgment rule for appellate jurisdiction, an exception patterned on the federal collateral order doctrine.…