Landlord sought recovery of unpaid rent and costs to repair damage to the residence which was not returned in the condition that it was rented. Trial court awarded recovery of all amounts including attorneys’ fees under KRS 363.660, tenant’s willful breach of the lease. The Court of Appeals reversed on the attorneys’ fee issue holding that “leaving property in less than perfect condition did not render tenant’s noncompliance with rental agreement “willful”. In what is surely to end up be the significance of the ruling, the Court of Appeals held that to properly plead for recovery of attorneys’ fees, it must be plead “in the body of the complaint” to provide adequate notice even under notice pleadings standards. Making the claim for fee recovery only in the ad dandum clause is now insufficient. (Note, the Court of Appeals erroneously included a final page to the opinion listing random attorneys who were not involved in the case which was picked up by Westlaw and remains in the published version.)
Landlord/tenant/KRS 363.660/attorneys’ fee recovery/willful breach/pleading fee recovery
