Schuyler W. Jackson

This case involved Southwestern Bell Telephone Company's application to the Kansas State Corporation Commission for an intrastate rate increase to generate additional revenue, which the Commission granted only in part after hearings based on its determination of the reasonable value of the Company's property using original cost less depreciation. The Company sought judicial review, and the district court ruled the Commission's order unreasonable and unlawful, set it aside, and issued a temporary stay allowing collection of higher rates pending further proceedings. On consolidated appeals, the Supreme Court of Kansas addressed the statutory standards under G.S. 1949, 66-110 et seq. for valuing utility property in rate-making, the deductibility of license contract fees paid to AT&T, and the scope of judicial review of the Commission's findings. The majority held that the Commission's valuation and order were supported by the record and within its authority, reversing the district court, while a dissent argued for an intermediate valuation approach and modification of the lower court's judgment.

business & regulatoryprocedure

In Stubbs v. Crouse, the petitioner filed an original habeas corpus petition challenging his second-degree murder conviction and enhanced sentence under Kansas's habitual criminal statute, arguing that the statute could not apply because it was not referenced in the information. The court denied the petition, determining that the prior felony convictions had been properly established at sentencing through the defendant's own testimony and other evidence, making the enhanced sentence valid regardless of notice in the charging document. The opinion noted that the underlying facts and issues had already been addressed in the direct appeal in State v. Stubbs, where the defendant had admitted the prior convictions, and concluded that habeas corpus relief was not warranted.

criminal lawprocedure

This case involved a state appeal in a criminal prosecution for armed robbery, where the defendant had been acquitted by a jury after the trial court excluded fingerprint evidence from an apartment search and other testimony. The court addressed reserved questions about whether the apartment had been abandoned by the defendant, who had used a false name and never signed a lease, such that police could lawfully search it without a warrant and admit the fingerprints. It reasoned that the lack of a signed lease and the tenant's departure meant the premises were abandoned, making the search valid under precedents like Abel v. United States, and that evidence of the defendant's aliases at a motel plus a jury instruction on flight and disguise should also have been allowed. The court sustained the appeal on these evidentiary issues but noted the acquittal prevented any retrial or reversal.

criminal lawprocedure

This case concerned a developer's promise to dedicate a lakeside tract in an upscale subdivision as a public park, which influenced home purchases by members of the homeowners association. After the association incorporated and spent over $1,400 improving the site, the developer refused to convey the tract for park use and instead sought to sell it for residential development. The association sued to enforce the conveyance. The court held that the developer was estopped from invoking the statute of frauds because of the buyers' reliance on the representations and the association's expenditures, and it ordered the developer to deed the property to the association for park or lake use only, subject to a small payment and a reverter clause if the use changed. The ruling rested on equitable principles preventing fraud through changed plans after inducing reliance.

property

The case involved the conviction of Wesley Cooper Miles, Sr., for statutory rape of his thirteen-year-old stepdaughter. On appeal, the defendant challenged the assistant county attorney's participation in the trial, the admission of statements made in his presence regarding the acts, and rebuttal testimony about a bruise on his wife's arm. The court affirmed the conviction, ruling that the trial court committed no reversible error in excluding the attorney as a witness while permitting him to argue the case, allowing the statements as evidence of consciousness of guilt, and admitting the impeachment evidence.

criminal lawprocedure

This case involves a divorce petition filed by a husband alleging his wife's incurable insanity for more than five years, during which she had been in and out of mental institutions. The trial court sustained a demurrer to the petition based on the statutory requirement for institutionalization. The Kansas Supreme Court reversed, interpreting the amended statute to require only five years of insanity, not continuous five-year institutionalization, with the key evidence being agreement among three court-appointed physicians that the condition is incurable. The case was remanded for further proceedings allowing the divorce if the medical condition is met.

family lawprocedure