FRANKFORT — Seasonal workers who claimed they were promised virtually full-time jobs with the Department of Parks cannot sue to enforce oral contracts, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

        The 5-2 ruling reversed the Court of Appeals, which had re- instated part of a class-action suit in Franklin County Circuit Court. The intermediate court said the workers should have a chance to present written evidence of their contracts if they have it. The Supreme Court disagreed.

        “Even if such documents exist, they cannot be construed as constituting a written employment contract,” Justice Donald Wintersheimer wrote for the majority.

        The case dates to 1993, when the Department of Parks began requiring temporary construction and maintenance workers to sign acknowledgments that they could work no more than nine months a year. Otherwise, they would qualify for state retirement.

        The workers claimed they were promised 11 months of work a year. The Franklin County Circuit Court ruled that the department could not be sued over an oral contract, even if the workers could prove such a promise was made. Justice Wintersheimer agreed.

        The General Assembly authorized the parks commissioner to hire temporary employees, but “it did not authorize the commissioner to convert them into merit system employees and he had no statutory authority to do so,” the opinion said.

        In a dissenting opinion, Justice James Keller said the majority “puts the cart before the horse” by determining the nature of the jobs “and then concluding that a contract saying anything different would have been unauthorized.”

        Justice Janet Stumbo joined in the dissent. Also in the majority were Chief Justice Joseph Lambert and Justices William Cooper, Bill Graves and Martin Johnstone.

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