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Front Matter, Michigan Law Review Dec 1933

Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front Matter for Volume 32, Issue 2 of Michigan Law Review


Banks And Banking -- Stop-Payment Orders Releasing Bank From Liability For "Inadvertent" Payment Dec 1933

Banks And Banking -- Stop-Payment Orders Releasing Bank From Liability For "Inadvertent" Payment

Michigan Law Review

In an action by a depositor against his bank for money paid out on a check in violation of a stop-payment order, the bank interposed the defense that the terms of the order excused it if it should pay through "inadvertence or accident," and that the check was so paid. It was held that the bank was not liable. Hodnick v. Fidelity Trust Co., (Ind. App. 1932) 183 N. E. 488.


Evidence-The Unchastity Of A Female Witness As A Ground For Impeaching Her Veracity Dec 1933

Evidence-The Unchastity Of A Female Witness As A Ground For Impeaching Her Veracity

Michigan Law Review

The underlying question which we propose to consider is this: Has the trait of chastity any such definite correlation with that of veracity that courts are justified in using the former as a criterion of the latter? It must be apparent from even a brief survey of the decisions in this field, and the reasons given therefor, that on this question the courts are swayed far more than ordinarily by their emotional reactions. Buttressed with sentiments that cannot fail to stir the heart of the male in any monogamous community and riveted with references to religion as well as the …


Bills And Notes-Warranty Of Qualified Indorser -When Instrument "Valueless" Dec 1933

Bills And Notes-Warranty Of Qualified Indorser -When Instrument "Valueless"

Michigan Law Review

In an action based upon the vendor's warranty in the sale of a note as set forth in the N.I.L., sec. 65 (4), it being alleged that the maker was insolvent and the mortgaged property worth much less than the debt at the time of the transfer of the note and that both such facts were known to the transferor, held, a ruling sustaining a demurrer should be affirmed. Leekley v. Short, (Iowa 1933) 249 N. W. 363.


Workmen's Compensation-Right Of Dole Employee To Compensation Dec 1933

Workmen's Compensation-Right Of Dole Employee To Compensation

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff, a citizen on the relief rolls of the defendant city, was put to work in accordance with a scrip relief plan under which persons receiving aid were "required" to work if they were able. They were paid a stipulated amount of script per hour, which was exchangeable for goods at the city store. The plaintiff was injured while using a wheelbarrow in line of duty in so working in the city park, and claimed the right to workmen's compensation under the statute as an employee of the city. The court held, by a five-to-three division, that the …


Banks And Banking - Liability Of Bank For Paying Check After "Stop-Payment Order" Dec 1933

Banks And Banking - Liability Of Bank For Paying Check After "Stop-Payment Order"

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff drew a check on the defendant bank in which he had deposited sufficient funds to meet his order. Before the check was presented, the plaintiff telephoned the defendant bank to stop payment. He described the check as to payee, date, number and amount and in the course of his conversation informed the bank employee that he was "Shude, from the Anchor Steel Co." The countermanding order was applied to the account of the Anchor Steel Co. and plaintiff's check was payed. Held, plaintiff should recover. Shude v. American State Bank, 263 Mich. 519, 248 N. W. …


Constitutional Law - Interstate Commerce - Motor Carrier Operating Within - Single State As A Link In Interstate Transportation, Paul G. Kauper Dec 1933

Constitutional Law - Interstate Commerce - Motor Carrier Operating Within - Single State As A Link In Interstate Transportation, Paul G. Kauper

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff was engaged in business as a common carrier of goods by motor vehicle. He transported goods between the docks of Los Angeles harbor and points in and around Los Angeles, but all the goods which he carried were originally shipped in from or were consigned to destinations outside the State. His operations, however, were independent of the operations of connecting carriers. The California Railroad Commission ordered the plaintiff to cease operations until he secured a certificate of public convenience and necessity. Held, on review, that the plaintiff was engaged in interstate commerce, and that the Commission's order …


Bills And Notes-Bonds Payable At Office Of Trustee Which Becomes Insolvent After Due Date But Before Bonds Presented, Ralph W. Aigler Dec 1933

Bills And Notes-Bonds Payable At Office Of Trustee Which Becomes Insolvent After Due Date But Before Bonds Presented, Ralph W. Aigler

Michigan Law Review

In Morley v. University of Detroit, decided May 16, 1933, the Supreme Court of Michigan reaches a conclusion not only of intense interest as a matter of legal doctrine, but also tremendously important, if followed, in determining the location of losses that may run into large sums. The defendant had floated a large bond issue secured by trust mortgage to a Trust Company. Among the obligor's undertakings in the mortgage was one to the effect that it would punctually pay the principal and interest of every bond according to the terms of the bond and coupons and would "deposit …


Constitutional Law-Strike As Interference With Interstate Commerce Dec 1933

Constitutional Law-Strike As Interference With Interstate Commerce

Michigan Law Review

Whether the federal courts have jurisdiction to apply the mailed fist of the injunction to the settlement of strike disputes sometimes depends on whether the strike is deemed an interference with interstate commerce. Thus, the Supreme Court held in the recent case of Levering & Garrigues v. Morrin that relief must be denied a group of New York structural steel fabricators who sought to enjoin the boycott activities of the iron workers union, because " . . . the sole aim of the conspiracy was to halt or suppress local building operations as a means of compelling the employment of …


Constitutional Law - Interstate Commerce - State Regulation Of Motor Carriers - Highway Conservation, Paul G. Kauper Dec 1933

Constitutional Law - Interstate Commerce - State Regulation Of Motor Carriers - Highway Conservation, Paul G. Kauper

Michigan Law Review

In conformity with the Texas statute regulating contract carriers, the plaintiffs applied for permits to operate as contract carriers in interstate commerce. The Texas Railroad Commission denied the application on the grounds that the proposed use of the highways would unreasonably interfere with their use by the general public and would constitute an undue burden on said highways. Held, by a three-judge court, that the Commission was acting within its authority in refusing the application on these grounds, that such refusal was valid as to interstate motor carriers, and that evidence supported the Commission's findings, consequently the bill to …


Banks And Banking-Liability Of Drawee Bank For Payment On Forged Indorsement Dec 1933

Banks And Banking-Liability Of Drawee Bank For Payment On Forged Indorsement

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff's depositor gave to A a check, payable to A and B, in return for a chattel mortgage and a note, both signed by A and B. The check was indorsed and presented to the defendant bank for collection. The plaintiff paid the check, debiting the drawer's account. Two years later, when the note came due, it was found that B's name had been forged to the note, the mortgage, and the check. Plaintiff then credited its depositor's account with the amount of the check, and now seeks to recover from the defendant. The court held that …


Constitutional Law - Bank Reorganization Legislation - Composition With Depositors And Other Creditors, Maurice S. Culp Dec 1933

Constitutional Law - Bank Reorganization Legislation - Composition With Depositors And Other Creditors, Maurice S. Culp

Michigan Law Review

Twenty States and the federal government now have laws permitting the reorganization and reopening of insolvent or failing banks. The usual statute provides for the reorganization of a bank upon some plan approved by a large majority of the general creditors of the institution; the plan must also have the approval of state banking officials and of a court of general jurisdiction, although the last is by no means a universal requirement. The reorganization, when approved, becomes binding upon all depositors and general creditors of the bank regardless of consent. By the terms of a few statutes, non-assenting creditors are …


Torts - Imputed Negligence - Passenger In Private Carrier For Hire Dec 1933

Torts - Imputed Negligence - Passenger In Private Carrier For Hire

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff hired Hilton, a private carrier, to drive her from Detroit to Ann Arbor. Hilton's car collided with a car driven by the defendant, both Hilton and the defendant being negligent. Held, that the plaintiff could recover, as the negligence of a private carrier for hire will not be imputed to a passenger riding in his conveyance. Three judges dissented; the four concurring judges refused to join Justice McDonald in his opinion expressly overruling the whole doctrine of Thorogood v. Bryan. Lachow v. Kimmich, 263 Mich. 1, 248 N. W. 531 (1933).


Bank Reorganization And Recapitalization In Michigan, Ellis B. Merry Dec 1933

Bank Reorganization And Recapitalization In Michigan, Ellis B. Merry

Michigan Law Review

On January 2, 1933, 420 state and 68 national banks were operating in Michigan. On February 13, the Governor of Michigan proclaimed a banking holiday for eight days which was extended in effect on February 22. On March 4, the President proclaimed a national banking holiday until March 9. Under the provisions of the President's proclamation lifting the national banking holiday, 198 state and approximately 30 national banks were reopened by the appropriate authorities as "sound" banks. State bank conservators assumed the management and custody of 215 state banks which did not open, on appointment by the Commissioner of the …


Corporations - Pledge Of Stock - Statutory Liability Of Pledgee Dec 1933

Corporations - Pledge Of Stock - Statutory Liability Of Pledgee

Michigan Law Review

The owner of shares of bank stock pledged them to defendant corporation to secure a loan. Defendant had the bank issue a new certificate to it in its own name. On the failure of the bank plaintiffs, creditors, sought to hold defendant for "double" liability under statute. Held, under the Montana statute providing that pledgees should not be personally liable as stockholders, defendant was not liable despite the fact that the bank's records did not show it to be a pledgee. Mitchell v. Banking Corp. of Montana, (Mont. 1933) 24 Pac. (2d) 124.


Torts - Principal And Agent - Liability For Negligent Driving Dec 1933

Torts - Principal And Agent - Liability For Negligent Driving

Michigan Law Review

Defendant company's salesman, driving his own car while selling defendant's washing-machines on a commission basis over a large territory, and with no regulation by the defendant except as to the terms of the contracts the salesman might make, negligently collided with plaintiff's car. Held, a salesman driving his own car, with no more supervision than existed here, is an independent contractor for whose negligence his employer is not liable. Stockwell v. Morris, (Wyo. 1933) 22 Pac. (2d) 189.


Book Notes, Michigan Law Review Dec 1933

Book Notes, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This department undertakes to list and, when possible, describe briefly current books on law and matters closely related thereto.


Carriers - Damages From Preferential Rates Nov 1933

Carriers - Damages From Preferential Rates

Michigan Law Review

The Interstate Commerce Commission held that defendant railroad was discriminating against complainants in forcing them to pay the blanket rate for lumber dealers plus a short-line charge, and made an order to "cease and desist," but further held that the record would not support an award of damages, The Supreme Court of the District of Columbia refused a mandamus to compel the Commission .to award damages, but on appeal the Court of Appeals held that the writ should issue. On certiorari from the United States Supreme Court, held, judgment of Court of Appeals reversed and petition for mandamus denied …


Constitutional Law -Interstate Commerce -Navigable Waters -Validity Of Federal Water Power Act Nov 1933

Constitutional Law -Interstate Commerce -Navigable Waters -Validity Of Federal Water Power Act

Michigan Law Review

The Federal Power Commission found that the plaintiff's proposed hydroelectric development on the non-navigable New river in Virginia would affect interstate commerce on the navigable Kanawha river to which the New river was tributary. The Commission thereupon tendered the plaintiff a standard or major form license for the project. Such a license, had it been accepted by the plaintiff, would have subjected it to all the provisions of the Federal Water Power Act of 1920, including those concerning the regulation of rates, issuance of securities, expropriation of excess profits, amortization reserves, and recapture at the end of fifty years on …


Banks And Banking -Trust Funds - Deposits For A Special Purpose Nov 1933

Banks And Banking -Trust Funds - Deposits For A Special Purpose

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff had an arrangement with defendant bank whereby receipts of certain of plaintiff's branch stores were to be deposited daily with defendant, and the latter was to transmit each day by draft to a bank in Pittsburgh for plaintiff's credit all sums in excess of a dormant balance of $2,000. Drafts covering two days' deposits were in process of transmission to the Pittsburgh bank when defendant bank was taken over by the Comptroller of the Currency. The deposits represented by these drafts were made at a time when defendant's officers and directors knew the bank to be insolvent, though negotiations …


State Taxation Of Interstate Motor Carriers, Paul G. Kauper Nov 1933

State Taxation Of Interstate Motor Carriers, Paul G. Kauper

Michigan Law Review

Although in point of years motor carrier transportation is in .ll. its infant stage, it has exhibited such prodigious growth as to take rank today as a business of huge proportions. In 1932 there were in the United States about 40,000 motor vehicles engaged in common carrier passenger service. Their operations for the year produced a gross revenue of $348,000,000, as compared with $612,000,000, produced by electric railway passenger operations, and $376,000,000, produced by steam railroad passenger operations.


Federal Practice - Appeal And Error - Single Appeal From State Court Involving Consolidated Suits Nov 1933

Federal Practice - Appeal And Error - Single Appeal From State Court Involving Consolidated Suits

Michigan Law Review

Three national banks brought separate suits in a state court against the same defendants to annul a tax assessment, claiming that the act authorizing such assessment violated a federal statute. The suits were consolidated for the trial of this main issue but a separate judgment was rendered in favor of each bank. The defendants took three separate appeals to the state supreme court, but only one transcript was sent up and the appeals were docketed and argued as one case. In a single opinion the court annulled the judgments appealed from. The plaintiffs took a single appeal to the Supreme …


International Law - Validity Of Soviet Decrees Nov 1933

International Law - Validity Of Soviet Decrees

Michigan Law Review

The Soviet government, by a nationalization decree, confiscated all oil lands in Russia, among them the land of plaintiffs, Russian nationals, and sold oil extracted therefrom to defendant. Plaintiffs sought an accounting, claiming that the confiscatory decrees of the unrecognized Soviet government and seizure of oil lands thereunder had no legal effect. A communication from the State Department was introduced: "The Department of State is cognizant of the fact that the Soviet regime is exercising control and power in territory of the former Russian Empire and the Department of State has no disposition to ignore that fact. The refusal of …


Taxation Of Trust Estates-Reservation Of Life Income Nov 1933

Taxation Of Trust Estates-Reservation Of Life Income

Michigan Law Review

Settlor executed a deed of trust, retaining a life income, but no power of revocation. Held, that the State of Connecticut could tax the transfer as a gift to take effect in possession or enjoyment at or after death without violating the federal constitution. Guaranty Trust Co. of New York v. Blodgett, (U.S. 1933) 53 Sup. Ct. 244.


Constitutional Law--- Status Of Courts Of District Of Columbia Nov 1933

Constitutional Law--- Status Of Courts Of District Of Columbia

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs, justices of District of Columbia courts, protested the application by the Comptroller-General of an Act of Congress reducing their salaries, alleging that they felt it their duty to have the status of these courts defined. The majority of the Court, answering questions certified by the Court of Claims; held that section l of Article III of the federal constitution applied to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia and to the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, and forbade a reduction of the compensation of the justices thereof during their continuance in office, on the theory …


Trust Mortgages - Funds Deposited With The Trustee - Right Of Receiver To Appropriate Nov 1933

Trust Mortgages - Funds Deposited With The Trustee - Right Of Receiver To Appropriate

Michigan Law Review

There are several important ways in which a receiver of a corporation may clash with the trustee under a trust mortgage as regards the use of funds deposited with the trustee. The receiver, who is acting for the benefit of the general creditors and the estate generally, often seeks to obtain funds in the hands of the trustee who represents the bondholders. Not infrequently the trust deed from which the trustee derives his authority contains provisions for the setting up by the mortgagor of a sinking fund; or for the retention of money obtained through the release of properties from …


Front Matter, Michigan Law Review Nov 1933

Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front Matter for Volume 32, Issue 1 of Michigan Law Review


Bankruptcy - Suspension Of State Statutes Regulating General Assignments Nov 1933

Bankruptcy - Suspension Of State Statutes Regulating General Assignments

Michigan Law Review

An insolvent debtor made a voluntary assignment of. all his property to the defendants for the benefit of his creditors. The plaintiff, a nonassenting creditor, brought garnishment proceedings against the defendants, contending that the state statute governing general assignments had been suspended by the National Bankruptcy Act. The Wisconsin Supreme Court was of the opinion that only that portion of the Act which provides for a discharge of the assignor from his debts was suspended. On appeal to the United-States Supreme Court the decision was affirmed. Pobreslo v. Joseph M. Boyd Co., 287 U. S. 518, 53 Sup. …


Constitutional Law - Price Fixing - Emergency Legislation, Maurice S. Culp Nov 1933

Constitutional Law - Price Fixing - Emergency Legislation, Maurice S. Culp

Michigan Law Review

The way of governmental price regulation has been hard, and such regulation has been carefully confined to businesses clothed with a "public interest." An exception has been recognized where an "emergency" occurs in a business outside of the strict utility field. However, the apparent disruption of the competitive system during the present depression has been productive of legislation seeking to overcome the evils of that system. In People v. Nebbia, the Court of Appeals of New York sustained a recent act of the legislature creating a milk control Board and authorizing the fixing of milk prices for a 12-month …


Admiralty- Loss Of Goods - Statutory Exemption Of Owner Of Vessel From Liability Nov 1933

Admiralty- Loss Of Goods - Statutory Exemption Of Owner Of Vessel From Liability

Michigan Law Review

Through the negligence of the chief engineer in putting new coal on top of old coal in a temporary bunker the steamship Galileo was rendered unseaworthy at the time the voyage commenced, catching fire and sinking. The cargo was lost. The plaintiff, cargo owner, sued the owner-operator or the ship in the federal District Court for southern New York for breach of contract to deliver at destination. On certiorari to the Circuit Court of Appeals the Supreme Court held, in affirming the decree dismissing the libel, that the defendant was relieved from liability under the federal fire statute which …