Law Commons^™

Limited Liability For Corporate Shareholders: Myth Or Matter-Of-Fact, Rutheford B. Campbell Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

One of the most important and firmly entrenched concepts of modern corporate law is the concept of limited liability. The digests abound with ringing phrases granting the owners of corporations immunity from liability beyond their initial investment. There are, however, numerous cases in which the courts have denied the owners of corporations the protection of limited liability and have held the owners liable for an obligation incurred by the corporation. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the theories under which the owners of corporations have been held liable for the contractual obligation of corporations.

Kentucky Law Survey: Criminal Procedure, Rutheford B. Campbell Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article provides a survey of Kentucky legal developments in the area of criminal procedure. The Kentucky Court of Appeals has had an especially active year in the criminal procedure area. Since the nature of this article does not permit extended commentary on all of the Court's decisions, discussion will be limited to the more significant cases, which deal with automobile inventory searches, waiver of constitutional rights, and plea bargaining.

Kentucky Law Survey: Torts, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article provides a survey of Kentucky legal developments in the area of tort law. The topics covered in this discussion include: negligence per se, res ipsa loquitur, the legal duty of a land owner, parental liability for the acts of children, the last clear chance doctrine, products liability, private nuisance, and public nuisance.

Kentucky Penal Code: The Culpable Mental States And Related Matters, Robert G. Lawson

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

All efforts to improve the criminal law of this commonwealth prior to 1972 were directed toward relatively narrow problems. Legislative changes in the law had been made from time to time, almost always without conscious regard for the manner in which related principles were affected. Defects of considerable importance resulted. The criminal law became substantially disjointed and difficult of administration. Unjust and inequitable treatment of offenders was more prominent than its opposite. In some instances sanctions were clearly inadequate for the type of behavior sought to be controlled. In others they were grossly disproportionate to the social harms used to …

Venue Of Civil Actions In Kentucky, William H. Fortune

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The purpose of this paper is primarily to analyze Kentucky’s venue statutes, and secondarily to suggest the path to reform. The paper is divided into four parts. Part I is a brief history of the confusion in Kentucky between jurisdiction and venue. Some exposure to this history is essential to an understanding of the older cases, which in some areas are the only cases in point. Part II is an analysis of the four major venue statutes in KRS Chapter 454: KRS § 452.400—actions involving land; KRS § 452.450-actions against corporations; KRS § 452.460—actions for personal injury or property damage; …

Criminal Law Revision In Kentucky: Part Ii—Inchoate Crimes, Robert G. Lawson

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Kentucky, like other jurisdictions, imposes criminal sanctions for conduct that is designed to achieve a criminal result but fails for some reason to accomplish its anti-social objective. Such conduct is punishable, if at all, as criminal attempt, criminal conspiracy, or criminal solicitation. In looking toward revision, attention should be focused initially upon the objectives to be promoted by classifying unsuccessful, anti-social conduct as criminal behavior.

First: There is obviously need for a firm basis for the intervention of law enforcement agencies to prevent a person dedicated to the commission of a crime from consummating it. In determining that basis, attention …

Lawyer Supply And Demand In Kentucky Over The Next Decade, Alvin L. Goldman

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Projecting future needs is a painstaking and hazardous affair. Avoiding such pain, however, is even more hazardous. There is good reason to attempt to project the next decade's need for, and potential supply of, new lawyers in Kentucky. Adequate legal services are an important ingredient in orderly economic growth and an essential element in preserving a free society. On the other hand, an over-abundance of lawyers can depress the economics of the profession to the point at which its ability to sustain desired standards of ethical conduct and to attract a high caliber of new talent are both threatened. Moreover, …

Criminal Law Revision In Kentucky: Part I—Homicide And Assault, Robert G. Lawson

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

At the present time the Kentucky Commission on Law Enforcement and Crime Prevention and the Legislative Research Commission are jointly engaged in a project designed to revise the state's substantive criminal law. This effort is justifiable only if the existing law is defective and the "revision will result in significant improvement in [criminal law] administration." A cursory examination of the criminal statutes, with no reference to case law, leaves not the slightest doubt as to the need for revision. Until now no major attempt at revision has ever been undertaken in this state. As a consequence, the statutes are devoid …

Sentencing: The Good, The Bad, And The Enlightened, Rutheford B. Campbell Jr., Bill Cunningham

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In June, 1968 the Kentucky Crime Commission, in keeping with legislative instruction, made certain recommendations for a change in Kentucky's current treatment of crime and punishment. Within its report was a suggestion that sentencing in all non-capital criminal cases be rendered by the judge instead of the jury. Thus, it must be emphasized that this discussion is confined only to sentencing in noncapital cases.

The authors have arrived at a definite recommendation which is offered at the conclusion of the paper. It is our opinion that the suggestion outlined is not only the most efficient and proper but also the …

The Law Of Presumptions: A Look At Confusion, Kentucky Style, Robert G. Lawson

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Over the years the term “presumption” has been used by virtually all courts to “designate what are more accurately termed inferences or substantive rules of law.” It has also been used as a “loose synonym for presumption of fact, presumption of law, rebuttable presumption, and irrebuttable presumption.” To this list the Kentucky Court of Appeals had added mandatory presumption, presumptive evidence, and prima facie case. Perhaps of more significance than the indiscriminate use of terminology is the extent to which courts have used “presumptions” to describe judicial reasoning of various kinds and to perform chores more appropriate to unrelated procedural …

Legislative Reapportionment—The Kentucky Legal Context, Robert G. Lawson

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In its continuing role as guardian of citizens’ constitutional rights, the Supreme Court in Baker v. Carr unlocked widespread concern for equal representation in state legislatures. Having been suppressed for two decades in which an amazing shift of population has occurred, the question of reapportionment and what to do about it had become one of great importance. In November, 1960, apportionments of 30 state legislatures had been challenged in state and federal courts. In addition, ten cases of an electoral character are presently on the docket of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Apart from the legal implications and …