COMMERCIAL LITIGATION

Doug represents business and property owners in disputes before Kentucky trial and appellate courts. He has handled small cases and large cases, from forcible detainers, promissory notes, and the defense of landlord lawsuits, to the enforcement of complex build-to-suit leases and ground leases, securities fraud, condemnation defense, and disputes over restrictive covenants and boundaries affecting entire neighborhoods.

REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS

  • Defended a major pharmacy retailer in a $1.5 million build-to-suit lease dispute. The defendant was awarded client costs and attorneys’ fees.
  • Negotiation of condemnation actions brought by the Kentucky Dept. of Highways.
  • Represented nonresident client in the protest of a $125,000 tax assessment. The Kentucky Dept. of Revenue claimed the taxpayer was a Kentucky resident due to frequent trips to monitor and maintain his Kentucky farm. The case was dropped by the Commonwealth with no assessment against the taxpayer.
  • Represented an adjacent landowner to challenge a two foot “spite strip” reserved around a residential neighborhood, and to challenge covenants that prohibited a platted neighborhood roadway from being used to access the plaintiff’s adjacent land. The circuit court overturned the “spite strip” and declared the illegal covenants to be null and void.
  • Represented a landowner in an interlocutory appeal to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, arising from  a temporary injunction issued by the Madison Circuit Court, which had prohibited the plaintiff from crossing a “spite strip” reserved around a residential neighborhood pending further order from the trial court. The Kentucky Court of Appeals overruled the circuit court’s temporary injunction.
  • Represented a private lender on appeal to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, appealing an adverse decision by the Fayette Circuit Court. The Court of Appeals found that the attempted payment of a promissory note, which payment was later set aside as preference in bankruptcy, did not serve to discharge the co-makers of the promissory note.
  • Defended a construction company against claims that a sewer line was negligently constructed. The defense argued that the plaintiff’s  claims were barred by the parties’ written contract, by Kentucky’s Notice And Opportunity to Repair Act, by applicable statutes of limitations, and by Kentucky’s Economic Loss Rule.
  • Represented the Commonwealth of Kentucky before the Tax Exempt Organizations Branch of the Internal Revenue Service defending the tax exempt status of bond issues totaling more than $100 million in value. The Internal Revenue Service dropped the action after meetings with Cabinet staff and legal counsel in Washington, D.C
  • Represented the Kentucky Industrial Revitalization Authority on appeal, in which the Kentucky Supreme Court denied an open records request by Whirlpool Corporation seeking a confidential analysis of the General Electric laundry machine manufacturing facility in Louisville, Kentucky in connection with G.E.’s application for tax credit financial incentives from the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.

PUBLISHED DECISIONS

  • White/Reach Brannon Rd., LLC v. Rite Aid of Kentucky, Inc., 488 S.W.3d 631 (Ky.App. 2016)
  • Wagner v. Giles, 209 S.W.3d 489 (Ky.Ct.App. 2006)
  • Hoy v. Kentucky Industrial Revitalization Authority, 907 S.W.2d 766 (Ky. 1995)