Blue Skies Racing Stable, LLC appealed a judgment of the Fayette Circuit Court dismissing appellee, O’Sullivan Farms, LLC from its declaratory action. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded. The controversy centered over who was entitled to ownership of a thoroughbred stallion named LIMEHOUSE. Blue Skies contended that it had a valid and binding contract to purchase the controlling interest in the horse from appellee, Vinery, Ltd. and that Vinery breached the contract by purporting to sell that controlling interest to a third party, O’Sullivan Farms, LLC, instead. Blue Skies moved for a temporary injunction to prohibit Vinery and O’Sullivan Farms from removing the horse from Kentucky and taking it to West Virginia during the pendency of the litigation. Vinery and O’Sullivan Farms opposed the motion for temporary injunction and alternatively moved to dismiss. The Court identified several errors by the trial court. First, the trial court orally overruled the motion for temporary injunction at an August 30, 2012 hearing. However, the Court held that the Court did not effectively “deny Blue Skies’ motion for a temporary injunction” because a court may speak “only through written orders entered upon the official record,” and no written findings of fact and conclusions of law were entered. Id. at *6. Second, the Court found that the trial court had no authority “to render a nonbinding advisory opinion,” and that the trial court “could not properly have disposed of the underlying merits of this dispute when simply considering Blue Skies’ motion for temporary injunction.” Therefore, the trial court erred in justifying its dismissal of O’Sullivan Farms by citing its previous “denial” of Blue Skies’ motion for temporary injunction. Third, the trial court erred by foreclosing the possibility that specific performance was an appropriate remedy for Blue Skies under the circumstances. Finally, the trial court erred by indicating that it lacked authority to unwind O’Sullivan Farms’ purported purchase of LIMEHOUSE or otherwise exercise jurisdiction over LIMEHOUSE because the horse was, at the time of the hearing on the motion to dismiss, located in another state. “The circuit court undisputedly has personal jurisdiction over O’Sullivan Farms . . . the circuit court is fully authorized to compel O’Sullivan Farms to act in relation to any property not within its jurisdiction.” Id. at *8.
Equine/personal jurisdiction/rescission of purchase/stallion interest
