Law Commons^™

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Administrators--Right to Convey Inchoate Homestead; Agency--Scope of Authority--Sunday Contract; Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors--Action to set Aside; Bankruptcy--Discharge--Debt Created in Fiduciary Relation--Laundry Agent; Bills and Notes--Banks--Payment of Draft to Impost--Liability to Drawer; Chattel Mortgages-Validity--Mortgagor's Possession and Power of Sale in Ordinary Course of Business; Constitutional Law--Due Process at Law--Forfeiture of Lands for Failure to Pay Taxes; Constitutional Law--Local Option Law--Use of Liquors in Religious Worship--Discrimination; Contract for the Benefit of Third Persons--Enforcement by Beneficiary--Assignment; Corporations--Oral Subscription to Stock--Statute of Frauds; Corporations--Promissory Notes--Proof of Execution; Courts--Jurisdiction of State Court to Enjoin a Receiver Appointed by Federal Court; Damages--Automobiles--Frightening Horses--Excessive Speed; …

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Action to Quiet Title--Venue--change of Venue; Agency--Secret Commission--recovery of both Secret and Stipulated Commission; Attorney and Client--Attorney's Lien--Fund in Court; Bankruptcy--Discharge--New Promise; Bankruptcy--Exemptions--discharge; Bankruptcy--Judgment in Bastardy--Discharge; Banks and Banking--Trust funds--Misappropriation--Subrogation; Contracts--Agreement for Advertising in Street Cars--Breach While Executory--Measure of Damages; Contracts--Agreement to Build with Materials Furnished by Owner--Destruction by Vis Major; Conveyance of Pretended Title--Maintenance--Adverse Claimant--Real Party in Interest; Corporations--Fiduciary Relation Existing Between Directors and Stockholders; Corporations--Fiduciary Relation Existing Between Stockholders and Directors; Courts--Limited Jurisdiction--Effect of Counterclaim; Criminal Law--Burden of Proof--Reasonable Doubt--Insanity--Contradictory and Inconsistent Instructions; Criminal law--Evidence--competency of Wife--Manner of Showing Incompetency--Suppression of Evidence; Damages--Exemplary Damages Where Actual Damage Purely …

Some Legal Aspects Of Special Assessments, Frank L. Sage

Articles

Taxes have been defined as "the enforced proportional contributions from persons and property levied by the state by virtue of its sovereignty for the support of the government and all public needs." The essential elements that we will notice particularly are two; first, that the contributions are proportional, that is, levied upon all in the same class according to some impartial standard, and second, that taxes can be levied for public purposes only.

The Northern Securities Decision, Horace Lafayette Wilgus

Articles

March 14 the Supreme Court of the United States decided one of the most important cases that has been before it for a number of years. The litigation referred to is the Northern Securities case. The question involved was whether the control of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railway companies through the ownership of the majority of the stock of each of those companies by the Securities company violated the national anti-trust act. The majority of the Supreme Court held it did, but four of the judges dissented.

Collateral Attacks Based On Irregularities, John R. Rood

Michigan Law Review

Should judicial action ever be held void on collateral attack by reason of any departure from the prescribed mode of procedure? To discuss this question is the purpose of the present article. The magnitude of the subject will forbid the discussion of any specific departures or modes of procedure in detail. Numberless decisions and discussions on specific points will be found scattered through the books where these points are severally treated. If anything need be said, the comprehensive view is the one most needing attention, and least liable to receive it, because text-writers to a great extent, and the courts …

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Agency--Action by Undisclosed Principal; Agency--Authority to Sell Land--Notice of Revocation by Record; Agency--Good Faith--Commissions; Bankruptcy--Intent of Insolvent; Carriers--Damages for Loss of Market--Carriage of Goods Destined for Enegies--Seizure of Ships; Constitutional Law--Cigarettes--Original Package; Constitutional Law--Municipal Corporations--Validity of Ordinance Requiring Union Label; Constitutional Law--Vested Rights--Alimony; Contract--Rescission as Affecting Rights of a Stranger to the Consideration; Contract--Public Policy--Agreement to ASsist Attorney to Secure Clients; Courts--contempt--Publication of Evidence in Newspapers; Criminal law--burglary--Sufficient Breaking; Criminal Law--Embezzlement; Damages--Exemplary--Parol License--Revocable--Trespass; Damages--Reversing Judgment for Defendant in Order to Give Plaintiff Nominal Damages; Deeds--Grantees--Constructions; Deeds--Reservation--Construction--Extent of Property; Deeds--Reservation--effectin Equity--Implied Trust; Fraudulent Conveyance--Who are Creditors--claimant in Tort Action; Highways--Street Car …

Does The Power To Alienate In Fee Simple Defeat An Executory Devise?, Bradley M. Thompson

Articles

Under the common law one who held an estate in lands in fee simple absolute was the sole owner of such lands, and his right to enjoy the estate and exercise all the powers and privileges incident thereto could not be restricted by the devisor or grantor. The rights and privileges incident to an estate in fee simple constituted the estate-they were all essential, they were its bone, sinew and blood, and in the absence of any one of them the estate was regarded as less than a fee simple. Among those essential rights were the right of possession, the …

The "Torrens Acts": Some Comparisons, James H. Brewster

Articles

The widespread discussion during the last ten years of the general scheme of registration of title to land, popularly known as the "Torrens System," has served to satisfy most disinterested lawyers and laymen of the general merits of the system. Consideration of the matter has been confined to no one section of the country, but has extended from Maine to California, and from Oregon to Texas. The result has been that laws embodying the general principles of the system have been enacted in six states, and proposed laws are before the legislatures of several others. The fact, however, that some …

Northwestern Railway Situation, Horace Lafayette Wilgus

Articles

What promises to be the most important corporate litigation that has or is likely to come before the Supreme Court for many years is involved in the various suits against the Northern Securities Company. To understand its full significance, it is desirable to recall something of the railroad history of the western states.

Right Of Jury To Review Decisions Of The Court Upon The Admissibility Of Evidence As Illustrated In The Law Of Dying Declarations, Victor H. Lane

Articles

In the discussion of this question, it is thought that the present condition of the law can be made most satisfactorily to appear by gathering the declarations of various courts found in illustrative opinions, and a good portion of this article will attempt this collection. Where the courts of particular states have not spoken upon this particular question, and cases illustrating the principle as applied to confessions exist, they have been used. And in a few instances cases involving the law of the admissibility of confessions have been used, though there were cases involving dying declarations, because they were more …

Does The Power To Alienate In Fee Simple Defeat An Executory Devise?, Bradley M. Thompson

Articles

Under the common law one who held an estate in lands in fee simple absolute was the sole owner of such lands, and 1hisright to enjoy the estate and exercise all the powers and privileges incident thereto could not be restricted by the devisor or grantor. The rights and privileges incident to an estate in fee simple constituted the estate-they were all essential, they were its bone, sinew and blood, and in the absence of any one of them the estate was regarded as less than a fee simple.

Power To Appoint To Office--Its Location And Limits, Floyd R. Mechem

Articles

At no other time in the judicial history of this country, if the evidence of the reported cases is to be relied upon, have there been so many and so bitter contests over all of the questions growing out of the title to public offices, as during the last ten or twelve years. This is undoubtedly largely accounted for by the fact that within that period a large number of the states have put in operation radically changed methods of conducting elections, based upon or practically incorporating what is popularly known as the Australian ballot system. In making these changes, …

The Relation Of The Federal And The State Judiciary To Each Other, Horace R. Lurton

Michigan Law Review

In the very cordial invitation extended to me by the distinguished President of your Bar Association to participate in the observance of this occasion it was urged that I should make a short address upon the relations of the Federal and State Judiciary to each other. As a reason for my taking this particular subject it was suggested by him that I had had the advantage of a considerable service under both systems.

Note And Comment, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Constitutional Law--Unlawful Delegation of Legislative Power; Fraudulent Conveyances--Estoppel Against Married Woman; Ackknowledgment Taken and Certified by a Stockholder of Corporation Mortgage or Grantee; Constitutional Law--Power of the Legislature to Abridge the Authority of Courts to Punish for Contempt; Special Assessments--right of Taxpayer to Defent Upon the Ground that IMprovements were not Properly Made; Judgements--Estoppel to Maintain Subsequent Action for Different Cause; Anti-Trist Act--Discrimination in Favor of Certain Classes; Courts--Conflict of Jurisdiction--Creditor's Bill; Garnishment--Possession to Charge Garnishee; Judgements--Satisfaction by Levy; Jugements--Execution Sales--Right of Defendant on Reversal

Note & Comment, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Announcement; Note and Comment: The Right of a De Jure Officer to Recover Salary or Fees Paid to a De Facto Officer; Exemplary Damages Where Acutal Damages Merely Nominal; Seduction--Fiction of Service; Negligence--Druggist Selling Proprietary Medicine Without Knowing Contents; Physician--Duty to Respond to Call; Wills--Contract to Make--Fraud in Obtaining Charity--Relief in Equity; Sale--Bank Cashing Draft Drawn Against consignment of Goods as Purchaser--Liability Upon Express or Implied Warranty of Title or Quality; Voters--Right to Vote for Candidate whose Name is not on the Official Ballot; Constitutional Law--Fourteenth Amendment--Due Process--Equal Protection; Statute of Limitations--Failure to Leave Subjacent Support in Mining--When Statute begins …

Preferences Arising From Trust Relations, Harry B. Hutchins

Articles

Where property has once been impressed with a trust, the quality inheres therein and in the proceeds thereof so long as the trust relation continues, provided the rights of a bonafide purchaser for value and without notice do not intervene and identification remain possible. The trust impress, in the absence of a superior equity, at once places property in the preferred class. In equity, trust property belongs to the cesiui que trust, and his claim to it cannot be defeated by the insolvency or dishonesty of the trustee, if it constitutes, in an identifiable form, a part of the trustee's …

Authority Of Allen V. Flood, Horace Lafayette Wilgus

Articles

In the case of Allen v. Flood, one of the Lords asked this interesting question, "If the cook says to her master, 'Discharge the butler or I leave you,' and the master discharges the butler, does the butler have an action against the cook?"' This, Lord Shand said, was the simplest form in which the very question in Allen v. Flood could be raised.

Recent Decisions

Michigan Law Review

Agency--Ratification--Knowledge Necessary; Agency--Undisclosed Principal--Defence Against Agent; Bailments--Action by Bailee against Third Person; Bankruptcy--Homestead Exemption--State Law not Enforced; Bankruptcy--Homestead Exemption; Bills and Notes--Cashier's Check--Indorsed for Illegal Consideration; Carriers--Street Railway--Track Used by Another Company; Chattel Mortgage--Sufficiency of Description; Conflict of Laws--Statute of Frauds--Statute Affecting Remedy--Representations as to Another's Credit; Constitutional Law--14th Amendment--Class Legislation--License Law; Evidence--Physical Examination of Plaintiff in Personal Injury Suit; Insurance--Construction of Terms of Indemnity Policy; Insurance--Agreement to Issue New Policy--Effect of Failure to Surender Old Policy and Make Demand Within Time Stipulated; Landlord and Tenant--Covenant for Re-Entry--Re-Entry by Ejectment Only--Summary Proceedings; Landlord and Tenant--Covenant Not to Assign--Runs with the …

Equity 1900-1901 3rd Year, Donald Frank Matheson

Thompson Rare Book Collection

This notebook was used by D. Frank Matheson, an alumnus of Dalhousie Law School, Class of 1901, in his third year Equity Law class.

The Matheson Notebooks are a collection of seven bound notebooks used by Frank Matheson during his time at Dalhousie School of Law between 1898 and 1901. In 2018, they were found in the basement of a Lunenburg law firm and donated to Schulich School of Law. There are two or three notebooks from each year of Matheson’s studies, ranging slightly in size and style. The notebooks have pages made from linen rags, are bound with paper …

Equity: 1899-1900 Second Year, Donald Frank Matheson

Thompson Rare Book Collection

This notebook was used by D. Frank Matheson, an alumnus of Dalhousie Law School, Class of 1901, in his second year Equity Law class.

The Matheson Notebooks are a collection of seven bound notebooks used by Frank Matheson during his time at Dalhousie School of Law between 1898 and 1901. In 2018, they were found in the basement of a Lunenburg law firm and donated to Schulich School of Law. There are two or three notebooks from each year of Matheson’s studies, ranging slightly in size and style. The notebooks have pages made from linen rags, are bound with paper …

Cases On The Law Of Evidence, Horace L. Wilgus

Books

A casebook supporting Evidence course in any Law curriculum. The work is arranged in three sections: Part I: Relevancy; Part II, Proof; and Part III, Production and Effect of Evidence. There is further organization into 113 topical Sections as described in the Table of Contents. The author provides no introductory remarks.

General Laws For The Government Of The Town Of Horse Cave, Hart County, Ky, Kentucky Library Research Collections

Research Collections

Booklet describing the laws and governance of the town of Horse Cave, KY in Hart County, 8 pages, published by Record Book and Job Print of Horse Cave, KY; John Altsheler, Chairman and J. M. Perkins, Clerk.

The "Law Reports", Nathan Abbott

Articles

The period between the years 1860 and 1870 marks an interesting stage in the history of law reporting. Within this period a system of reporting that had existed for upward of three centuries came to an end, and an experiment was begun whereby it was hoped to produce reports not merely in a new way, but reports that were to be materially different in form and substance from those of the previous system. The conception of the enterprise and its successful accomplishment is due to the energy and discretion of one man, whose history of the affair, after twenty years …

Constitution Makers [Propositions And Motions] (July 19, 1889)

Newspapers

Lists propositions and motions that were read for the first and second times and referred to committee. Describes the judicial system as being modeled on California's.

A Manual Of Equity Pleading And Practice, Bradley M. Thompson

Books

The following manual is intended simply as an introduction to the study of Equity Pleading and Practice, and to the course of lectures delivered upon that subject. The manual has been divided into lectures for the purposes of indicating the ground which a particular lecture will cover. It is expected that the student will master the printed synopsis before attending a given lecture.

The Remedies For The Collection Of Judgments Against Debtors Who Are Residents Or Property Holders In Another State, Or Within The British Dominions, Thomas M. Cooley

Articles

Whenever a party who has obtained a judgment in one state or county has occasion to take proceedings for its enforcement in another, he finds-perhaps to his surprise-that his judgment as such has no extra-territorial force, but that in other jurisdictions it is merely evidence of a settled demand, upon which judgment must be obtained in a new suit before there can be process for its enforcement. A creditor cannot, for example, upon a judgment recovered in New York, have an execution in Pennsylvania; for courts issue executions only upon their own judgments; and while it would no doubt be …

Compensation Of Experts, Henry W. Rogers

Articles

The law relating to the compensation of experts is somewhat unsettled, and the cases are not numerous in which the subject has been considered. This very fact, however, lends additional interest to the subject, and the question is one of great importance. In some of the States the law expressly provides that when a witness is summoned to testify as an expert he shall be entitled to extra compensation. Such a provision may be found in the laws of Iowa, of North Carolina, and of Rhode Island.

Reports Of Cases Determined In The Court Of Chancery Of The State Of Michigan, E. Burke Harrington, Thomas M. Cooley

Books

Originally published in 1845, covers cases from 1836-1842. Cited as: Harr. Ch. (2ed) and commonly known as Harrington's chancery reports.

From the Preface to the Second Edition: "Harrington's Reports having been for some time out of print, the undersigned ... has taken charge of a new edition....

"Some improvement ... has been introduced, particularly in the head notes... The original paging has been preserved, for the convenience in tracing former references." Thomas M. Cooley, Ann Arbor, October 1872.

The Limits To Legislative Power In The Passage Of Curative Laws, Thomas M. Cooley

Articles

There has always been some regret that, when the Federal judiciary was called upon to interpret and apply the prohibition in the Constitution of ex post facto laws,1 it did not reach the condlusion that retrospective laws were forbidden, as well where they applied to civil rights as when they concerned criminal liabilities or penalties. The famous twenty-ninth chapter of the great charter placed the protection of liberty and property upon the same basis, and the power to reach the one by indirection is subject to the same objections in principle, that could be urged against the power to reach …

Rules Of Court. Rules, At Law And In Equity, Wiliam C. Anderson

Books

Regulating the Practice of the courts of common pleas, and the separate orphans' court, and the courts of the oyer and terminer and quarter sessions of the peace of the county of Allegheny, commonwealth of Pennsylvania; also, of the Supreme court and of the board of pardons of said commonwealth together with a digest of decisions and acts of assembly on the subject of general rules of court.