Tag: Campbell Mercer

The Kentucky Supreme Court has declined a request to review the case over how the name of legendary bluegrass musician Bill Monroe can be used.

This means that the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruling stands, and that the Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Music Foundation can continue to use the name of Bill Monroe after the Ohio County Industrial Foundation had asked the court to hear their case over the issue of the use of the name of the Father of Bluegrass Music.

The panel concluded that county officials meant to grant the festival the legal right to use Monroe’s name, but failed to formalize the agreement in writing before a dispute occurred in 2004.

The Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Music Festival of Kentucky Inc. have wanted to use the name Bill Monroe in promoting the festival that takes place each year in Rosine, Kentucky, on a farm adjacent to his old home place.

The issue isn’t resolved yet, though.

The Ohio County Industrial Foundation and Bill Monroe’s son, James Monroe, have obtained a temporary injunction in Tennessee to prohibit Campbell Mercer, Director of the Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Music Foundation of Kentucky Inc., from using the name.

In a statement Mercer said ……….

“We still have to go back to Tennessee and ask the judge to lift the injunction. There’s a little more legwork. He said in the past that he would give deference to the Kentucky courts. So, we’re hoping when we show him the Kentucky Supreme Court decision that this will all be over.”

The statement continued ……

[The Jerusalem Ridge Foundation of Kentucky Inc. said it plans to] “reassume the Bill Monroe name and to use it to further the tourism and economic development interests of Ohio County, its citizens, the surrounding area and the entire state of Kentucky.”

There isn’t enough time to change the name of this year’s festival, but Mercer expects Monroe’s name to be in the festival’s title next year.

The feud between the Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Music Foundation and the Ohio County Industrial Foundation has been on-going for over a decade and it seems as though it will never end.

Initially, the issue centred on the rights to the Monroe name as used by the now-defunct Bill Monroe Foundation.

This year’s Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Festival takes place from October 3rd through to 6th.

It appears that the legal dispute surrounding the use of Bill Monroe’s name in association with the Jerusalem Ridge festival near Rosine, KY is still simmering.

On January 11, the Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling that had enjoined Campbell Mercer and the Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Music Foundation from using the Monroe name. The action was initially brought by the Ohio County Industrial Foundation, which owns and maintains the Bill Monroe Homeplace property. The appellate court ruled that the Industrial Foundation had previously granted Jerusalem Ridge the rights to use Monroe’s name, as Mercer had alleged.

But now Ohio County has filed a petition with the Court of Appeals seeking a rehearing, according to a piece in the Evansville Courier & Press over the weekend. There is no indication yet as to whether the rehearing will be granted, or whether the Industrial Foundation – a private non-profit established in the 1960s to manage an industrial park in the county and promote jobs – will seek a hearing by the Kentucky Supreme Court should it be denied.

The festival is a cherished event, as it had been held until 2012 on the property where Bill Monroe was born. The small home where Bill was raised, after the log cabin in which he was born was destroyed by fire, was restored by the Bill Monroe Foundation (now the Jerusalem Ridge Foundation) and opened to the public as a tourist destination in 2001.

Campbell Mercer, an independent Kentucky veterinarian and director of the Jerusalem Ridge Foundation and festival, tells us that he thought the January ruling would mark the end of this controversy.

“I had hoped that the Appeals Court decision would bring all the sides together.

Bill Monroe’s names doesn’t need to be a political football. We had been using the Monroe name since 2004, and Bill’s son James was fine with it.

Then the Industrial Foundation shut us down from using the name during Bill’s centennial in 2011.”

The 2012 Jerusalem Ridge festival was held on a parcel of land adjacent to the homeplace, which Mercer purchased for that reason. The Jerusalem Ridge Foundation is continuing to renovate the facility, but Campbell says that he remains unsure where the festival will be held this year.

“We’re still moving ahead, continuing to upgrade the new farm.

Our 2012 attendees liked this new site; it’s Monroe land, and belonged to Bill’s grandfather. But I still have a soft spot for the original homeplace. I hope that we can merge the two properties eventually”

I just think it’s really important that we stay independent.”

We’ll report whatever else we can learn about Jerusalem Ridge 2013.

The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled last Friday (1/11) in an ongoing legal battle between the Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Music Foundation and its director, Campbell Mercer, and Ohio County (KY) Industrial Foundation over the use of Bill Monroe’s name in promoting the Jerusalem Ridge festival.

The dispute had arisen about the promotion of the festival on land adjacent to that encompassing the Bill Monroe Homeplace. Mercer had been hired by the county in 2001 to manage the Monroe property following his death, and to promote it as a tourist destination for bluegrass fans.

As part of this arrangement, Mercer presented the Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Festival each year, featuring music in the Monroe vein. Until 2012, that is, when the relationship between Ohio County and the festival fell apart. Mercer was set to move the festival to property he owns alongside the former festival site, believing that the Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Music Foundation had received the right to promote the event under the aegis of Bill Monroe.

A 4-day festival was held last year on Mercer’s property, which led to Ohio County bringing an action against Jerusalem Ridge, resulting in a ruling against the festival.

According to an Associated Press story Friday morning, the Appeals Court ruled in favor of Mercer, who argued that Ohio County had made verbal commitments to assign the use of Monroe’s name for the festival after they had struck a deal with James Monroe, Bill’s heir, in 1999 for the use of his father’s name and likeness.

The appeals court decision reverses a lower court, which found that Ohio County held the intellectual property rights to Monroe’s name and could stop the festival from using it.

Judge Joy A. Moore, writing for a three-judge panel, concluded that county officials meant to grant the festival and its director legal right to use Monroe’s name, but failed to formalize the agreement in writing before sour notes struck the relationship when the festival’s director and officials had a falling out in 2004.

At this point, we have been unable to ascertain whether this court decision is final, or whether the county may pursue further litigation. We will follow up on as soon as we have additional information.