''Commonwealth v. Donoghue'', 250 Ky. 343, 63 S.W.2d 3 (1933), was a case decided by the
Kentucky Court of Appeals
The Kentucky Court of Appeals is the lower of Kentucky's two appellate courts, under the Kentucky Supreme Court. Prior to a 1975 amendment to the Kentucky Constitution the Kentucky Court of Appeals was the only appellate court in Kentucky.
The ...
involving
conspiracy
A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agr ...
based on
common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omniprese ...
criminal offenses imported through
reception statutes
A reception statute is a statutory law adopted as a former British colony becomes independent by which the new nation adopts, or receives, the English common law before its independence to the extent not explicitly rejected by the legislative body ...
.
Background
M. Donoghue and others ran the Boone Loan Company in
Kenton County
Kenton County is a county located in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 169,064, making it the third most populous county in Kentucky (behind Jefferson County and Fayette County). Its ...
, which was accused of charging
usury
Usury () is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is ch ...
rates of interest, or
loan sharking
A loan shark is a person who offers loans at extremely high interest rates, has strict terms of collection upon failure, and generally operates outside the law.
Description
Because loan sharks operate mostly illegally, they cannot reasonably ...
. The judge created the crime in the case: "a nefarious plan for the habitual exaction of gross injury".
Decision
The Court of Appeals upheld the ability of judges to create
common law crimes
Common law offences are crimes under English criminal law, the related criminal law of some Commonwealth countries, and under some U.S. State laws. They are offences under the common law, developed entirely by the law courts, having no specific ...
in the state of
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...
.
Later developments
In 1975 a Kentucky state statute, KRS 500.020, prohibited the prosecution of common law crimes in Kentucky, rendering the decision in ''Commonwealth v. Donoghue'' to be of no further effect.
See also
*''
State v. Palendrano
''State v. Palendrano'', 120 N.J. Super. 336, 293 A.2d 747 (Law Div. 1972), was a legal case decided by the New Jersey Superior Court, Law Division, holding that the common law offense of being a common scold was no longer a crime despite the ...
'', a similar case in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...
which reached a different conclusion.
References
{{reflist
U.S. state criminal case law
1933 in United States case law
Kentucky state case law
1933 in Kentucky
Kenton County, Kentucky
Informal finance
Common law offences