Law Commons^™

Personal Property-Liens-Artisan's Lien On Unimproved Goods For Improved Goods Delivered Under A Single Contract, Warren K. Urbom S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Pursuant to a contract a partnership delivered to defendant a carload of paper upon which defendant had agreed to print certain forms in accordance with instructions to be given by the partnership. Thereafter a corporation succeeded to the assets and assumed the liabilities of the partnership and gave to the defendant instructions for a desired printing. A portion of the paper was printed and delivered to the corporation, the remaining unprinted paper being held by the defendant under a claim of a statutory lien for the printing actually completed. Plaintiff, assignee of the trustee in bankruptcy of the corporation, sued …

Torts-Assault And Battery-Use Of Traps To Protect Property From Felonious Taking, Charles E. Oldfather S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff brought an action for personal injuries. Defendant planted two sticks of dynamite in the floor beneath the door of his mining warehouse in order to prevent repeated thefts of personal property from the building. The dynamite was rigged to explode when the door was opened. Plaintiff, with the intent of stealing whatever he could, broke the lock, opened the door, and from the ensuing explosion received leg and foot injuries. Plaintiff's act was a statutory felony. Defendant testified that he in good faith thought that the amount of dynamite used would merely frighten the plaintiff. Trial court held the …

Real Property-Tenancy By Entireties-Creation By Deed From Husband To Husband And Wife, Richard P. Matsch S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

H owned real estate in fee simple. His wife, W, joined with him in a warranty deed conveying the land to themselves with the expressed intention of creating a tenancy by entireties. H died and his heirs challenged W's right to take the fee by survivorship. The trial court held that a tenancy by entireties had been created and the wife properly took the fee. On appeal, held, affirmed, one judge dissenting. An Arkansas statute providing that a married man may convey "the interest specified in the deed" directly to his wife permits a husband, already owner …

Trade-Marks And The Monopoly Phobia, Beverly W. Pattishall

Michigan Law Review

If it can be said that trade-mark rights are, in fact, monopoly rights, it must be added that they are monopoly rights justified in the same way that one's own particular physiognomy is a monopoly or one's rights enumerated in the first ten amendments to the Constitution are individual monopolies.

Restraints On Alienation Of Legal Interests In Michigan Property: Iii, William F. Fratcher

Michigan Law Review

In England the impossibility of inter vivos creation of interests in expectancy in chattels and the unsuitability for the purpose of the devices of bailment and contract have tended to restrict attempts to restrain the alienation of chattels to the trust device and provisions in wills for forfeiture on alienation. The trust device involves equitable interests, which are beyond the scope of this study. In connection with a bequest of the use and occupation of chattels for life or a term of years the English courts would probably sustain the validity of a provision for forfeiture on alienation by way …

Evidence-Privilege-Confidential Communications Between Husband And Wife, James I. Huston

Michigan Law Review

Husband sued for divorce alleging that wife drank excessively and humiliated him in public by her conduct, and that she continually made false and profane accusations designed to make his life unbearable. As proof of the latter charge, plaintiff was allowed to introduce in evidence a wire recording of conversations between plaintiff and defendant in their bedroom. Plaintiff's son by a previous marriage had, by prearrangement with plaintiff, installed in their bedroom a microphone connected to a wire-recorder in the son's adjoining bedroom, with which recordings were made of four separate conversations between plaintiff and defendant. The recordings substantiated plaintiff's …

Restraints On Alienation Of Legal Interests In Michigan Property: Ii, William F. Fratcher

Michigan Law Review

"Estate for life" is a generic term embracing interests in land of several types. The duration of such an estate may be measured by the life of the tenant himself, by the life of some other person, by the joint lives of a group of persons (i.e., the life of the member of the group who first dies), or by the life of the survivor of a group of persons. In the last two cases the tenant himself may or may not be a member of the group. When the duration of the estate is measured by the life of …

Citizenship-Expatriation-Distinction Between Naturalized And Natural Born Citizens, Gordon I. Ginsberg S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff's father, a native of Germany, was naturalized in the United States in 1896. In 1901, he returned to Germany with his American wife, and plaintiff was born in that country in 1905. Plaintiff made occasional visits to the United States, but was at all times domiciled in Germany. He served in the German army during World War II. In 1947, upon refusal of his application for a passport as a citizen of the United States, he came to this country on a temporary visa and brought a declaratory judgment action for adjudication that he was a citizen. The trial …

Real Property-Landlord And Tenant-Transfer By Lessee As Sublease, Not Assignment, John S. Slavens

Michigan Law Review

X leased lands to plaintiff for a term of years, with a provision that if property truces were assessed against the property in excess of a certain amount, plaintiff would pay X a certain proportion of the excess amount as additional rent. Plaintiff then transferred his remaining term to defendant "subject to the terms" of the overlying lease. In addition, the sublease provided for a right to cancel the sublease if defendant failed to restore in case of fire or in the event of taking by eminent domain. Subsequent to the sublease, the tax assessments exceeded the amount stipulated in …

Restraints On Alienation Of Legal Interests In Michigan Property: I, William F. Fratcher

Michigan Law Review

During the century and a half which followed the Norman Conquest, the owner of land who attempted to transfer it might meet with opposition from three interested parties, his feudal overlord, his heir apparent and his tenant. His feudal overlord might object to a transfer by way of substitution, that is, one under the terms of which the transferor did not retain a reversion; because the proposed transferee was not a suitable person to perform the feudal services due for the land. As these services were frequently of a personal or military nature such an objection was not necessarily captious. …

Promissory Estoppel: Principle From Precedents: I, Benjamin F. Boyer

Michigan Law Review

The doctrine of promissory estoppel is an outstanding modem example of the way in which the Anglo-American legal system develops significant rules and principles out of the day-to-day decisions of our courts.

Progress in the law comes about through the formulation and acceptance of generalizations. However, merely stating the results of a number of different instances does not result in clarification and simplification. That comes only when the precedents are studied with a view to discovering the ''binding thread of principle that runs through them all." Such a principle, if discovered in the course of the appraisal of a series …

The King Does No Wrong -- Liability For Misadministration, Reginald Parker

Vanderbilt Law Review

The age-old rule of the common law that a citizen may not seek redress from the government for wrongs committed by the latter is often restated in the form of two maxims. One is that "the king can do no wrong." It refers to "wrongs" in the narrower sense of the word, meaning torts and related delicts. It has its counter part if not origin in the Roman-Byzantine holding, princeps legibus solutus est.' Many modern countries and some states have abrogated the rule. The other maxim, "the sovereign cannot be sued without his consent," precludes any law suit, not merely …

Wills-Execution And Revocation Of Duplicate Wills, Richard F. Hooker

Michigan Law Review

Testatrix executed three identical copies of her will. Counsel advised her that in the event she should desire to make a new will she must destroy "both copies of the will in her possession and he would 'definitely destroy the copy' which he retained.'' Thereafter, testatrix destroyed one of the two copies retained by her and struck out an objectionable devise in the other copy. Testatrix made no attempt to alter or destroy the third copy, although she was in temporary possession of it at a later date. The legatee (plaintiff) was successful in setting aside the decree of final …

Constitutional Law-Due Process-Freedom Of Expression- Commerce Clause-Clause-"Green River" Ordinance As Applied To Door To Door Solicitation For Magazine Subscriptions, C. E. Lombardi, Jr. S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In their famous article on the right of privacy, Warren and Brandeis noted that the common law protection of the right of privacy in the home was far more highly developed than the protection given to individual privacy in other respects. "The common law has always recognized a man's house as his castle, impregnable, often, even to its own officers engaged in the execution of its commands." The common law impregnability has met perhaps its stiffest test when those attacking it have sought constitutional protection. The recent decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Breard v. City of …

Civil Procedure-Abatement-Status Of Suit Nominally Against Government Official When Official Leaves Office, Alan C. Boyd S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Often an action brought against an official of the sovereign is actually against the sovereign itself, nominally represented by the official. The status of such a suit when the official leaves office is even today not satisfactorily settled. The so-called representative suit, while at one time serving a purpose, has always been somewhat anomalous and today is antiquated and useless.

Torts-Alienation Of Parent's Affection, John J. Edman S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a minor child, brought a tort action against defendant for enticing her mother to desert her, thereby depriving plaintiff of support, maintenance, and maternal care and affection. The trial court sustained defendant's demurrer. On appeal, held, affirmed. The statutes of the state provide other means of support of the child, and he has no right of action for the deprivation of a parent's love and affection. Nelson v. Richwagen, (Mass. 1950) 95 N.E. (2d) 545.

Regulation Of Business-Trade Restraints-Business Price And Use Restrictions Accompanying Sale Of Land, Jean Engstrom S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a wholesale and retail dealer in "Marathon" products, and the smallest wholesale distributor of gasoline in Ann Arbor, sought to enjoin defendant from selling Marathon gasoline at less than the price set under the provisions of the standard dealer's contract. Defendant bad acquired his station by a deed containing a covenant expressly intended to run with the land, providing for the operation of a filling station on the land, and a ten-year agreement that aII petroleum products sold on the premises were to be supplied by plaintiff "at such prices and on such terms as are customarily furnished to …