Law Commons^™

Water Rights Legislation In The East: A Program For Reform, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Expanding municipal and Industrial demand, along with increasing use of supplemental irrigation have escalated consumptive water use dramatically In the Eastern United States since World War II. This escalated use already has caused water shortages in some parts of the East, and experts predict more widespread water supply problems In the future.

As the inadequacies of the common law water rights system in a water-scarce environment have become evident, many eastern states have supplemented or replaced common law rules with some form of statutory water allocation system. Typically, these statutes establish a permit system administered by a state water resources …

A Fresh Look At Agency "Discretion", John M. Rogers

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Lawyers who represent or litigate against government agencies must wrestle so frequently with the concept of agency "discretion" that they may be forgiven for believing that the term is devoid of intrinsic meaning—a chameleon deriving substance only from its particular context. For instance, mandamus will lie only for ministerial acts, as opposed to "discretionary" ones. Agency acts that are "by law committed to agency discretion" are not reviewable in court under the federal Administrative Procedure Act (APA). However, agency actions are reviewed for "abuse of discretion." On the other hand, tort suits against the government will not be allowed for …

Karu Gene White V. Commonwealth Of Kentucky, Appellee's Brief 1980-Sc-0489

1980-1989

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Law Survey: Evidence, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Kentucky courts faced a number of significant issues in evidence law during the Survey period. Several decisions dealt with character evidence and problems arising from the admission of evidence of prior criminal acts of the accused, either as substantive evidence or for impeachment. This Survey will highlight these cases and to a lesser degree discuss cases on hearsay admissions, opinion, the Kentucky Dead Man Statute and privilege, which also were decided during the Survey period.

A Comparative Negligence Checklist To Avoid Future Unnecessary Litigation, John M. Rogers, Randy Donald Shaw

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Systems of comparative negligence, whereby the negligence of a plaintiff serves to reduce rather than to preclude tort recovery in negligence, have been adopted in thirty-nine states. The common law rule that contributory negligence is an absolute bar to recover is still the law in Kentucky, although modified by the doctrine of “last clear chance.” Kentucky may soon join the trend toward comparative negligence, however. In the last legislative session, bills to adopt comparative negligence were introduced in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. A hearing on this subject was held by the Interim Judiciary and Civil Procedure …

Kentucky Tort Law: Defamation And The Right Of Privacy, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This book review examines Kentucky Tort Law: Defamation and the Right of Privacy by David A. Elder, which was published in 1983.

Legal Ethics And Class Actions: Problems, Tactics And Judicial Responses, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Perhaps no procedural innovation has generated more controversy than the class action. As Professor Arthur Miller has observed, debate over “class action problem[s]” has raged at several different levels. For example, opponents and proponents of class actions disagree on whether such actions produce socially desirable results in an economical fashion and whether an already overburdened judiciary can handle the additional supervisory demands of the class action. Recently, a somewhat more ideological dialogue has addressed the merit of publicly funded class actions. Such questions arise only indirectly in the context of class action litigation. However, a certain hostility toward class actions …

Kentucky Law Survey: Domestic Relations, Louise Everett Graham

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In the decade since Kentucky's adoption of the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act, the state's courts have faced the task of interpreting it in domestic relations litigation. This past year was no exception. A number of problems before Kentucky courts were recurrent issues. For example, the divisibility of educational degrees acquired by one spouse again required court assessment. Similarly, issues surrounding both maintenance and child support reappeared. These recurrent issues, along with new issues requiring court solution, heavily burdened trial and appellate courts. This Survey will discuss court resolutions of significant problems in the areas of marital property, maintenance and …

Kentucky Law Survey: Criminal Procedure, William H. Fortune

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Survey covers significant criminal procedure decisions of the Kentucky appellate courts for the period July 1, 1980, to July 1, 1982. It does not include cases construing the penal code or noteworthy decisions in the Kentucky law of evidence. The author has selected the most important criminal procedure cases for treatment in the text; a number of significant cases are summarized in footnotes.

A Comparative Negligence Checklist To Avoid Future Unnecessary Litigation, John M. Rogers, Randy Donald Shaw

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Systems of comparative negligence, whereby the negligence of a plaintiff serves to reduce rather than to preclude tort recovery in negligence, have been adopted in thirty-nine states. The common law rule that contributory negligence is an absolute bar to recovery is still the law in Kentucky, although modified by the doctrine of "last clear chance." Kentucky may soon join the trend toward comparative negligence, however. In the last legislative session, bills to adopt comparative negligence were introduced in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. A hearing on this subject was held by the Interim Judiciary and Civil Procedure …

Surface Mining In Kentucky, Carolyn S. Bratt

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In 1977, Congress enacted the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. The Act, designed to protect the environment and society from the adverse effects of surface coal mining and to insure uniform minimum nationwide regulatory standards, established a comprehensive regulatory scheme for surface mining and reclamation operations of both federal and non-federal lands within the United States.

The Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation within the Department of the Interior, is charged with administering and implementing the Act. Implementation is divided into two stages. During the initial, or interim phase, all surface mining …

Discovery Of Nonparties' Tangible Things Under The Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure, Sarah N. Welling

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 26 through 37 describe procedures for pretrial discovery. While one may employ all the methods of discovery against parties, discovery methods for nonparties are much more limited. For example, with the exception of the independent action under subdivision (c), the procedures detailed in Federal Rule 34 regarding production of tangible things do not apply to nonparties. Frequently, though, a litigant must discover tangible things in the possession, custody, or control of a nonparty. Although the federal rules do provide alternative methods for the discovery of nonparties' things, the whole discovery scheme for nonparties is rather …