Law Commons^™

Contracts -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, Paul J. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

I. Offer and Acceptance--Notification of Acceptance Before Notification of Revocation--Duration of Offer with Fixed Expiration Date

II. Implied and Quasi Contract--Claim for Services Where Family Relationship Involved

III. Parol Evidence Rule--Application of Rule to Third Party Not a Party to the Written Instrument--Pre-existing Duty as Consideration

IV. Exculpatory Contracts--Contracting Against Liability for Consequences of Own Negligent Conduct

V. Agreement in Restraint of Trade-Agreement of Seller of Business Not to Compete--Enforcement of Restraint in Area Greater than Required to Protect Purchaser

Bills And Notes -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, John A. Spanogle Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Tennessee courts decided three cases involving commercial paper this year. The Tennessee Supreme Court decided one case which, unless it is clarified in the near future, may upset principles which were heretofore well-established. Of the two cases decided by the appellate courts, one adopted a rule well-known in other jurisdictions, and the other adopted a sound minority view on a question not settled by the Uniform Negotiable Instruments Law.

Procedure And Evidence -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, Edmund M. Morgan

Vanderbilt Law Review

In this article no mention is made of the numerous reiterations of the rule that in considering a motion for a directed verdict, the trial court must deny the motion where there is any material evidence that would warrant a jury in finding against the moving party. Nor is there noted the many, many applications of the courts' settled practice to deny a petition to rehear which merely reargues matters which counsel insist were improperly decided after argument and full consideration. Again, it must be said that this survey is in most respects a mere "horizontal digest." Thus far the …

Morgan's Role Of Leadership In Evidence Law Reform, Charles T. Mccormick

Vanderbilt Law Review

There are two types of reformer-the meek and insinuating kind that wear down resistance like water falling on a rock, and the scrappy kind that carry the war into the enemy's country. Morgan is of the latter type.Five years active trial practice in Duluth gave him the savor of evidence rules in action.His first campaign for the betterment of evidence law was his work as chairman of a distinguished committee of lawyers, law teachers and judges set up by the Commonwealth Fund to propose reforms in the law of evidence. Under Morgan's leadership the committee "determined to develop a new …

The Theory Of Criminal Discovery And The Practice Of Criminal Law, David W. Louisell

Vanderbilt Law Review

To crystallize in a few words the motif of a career as varied and comprehensive as that of Eddie Morgan would in any event be difficult, but it is doubly so for a life devoted, as his has been, to stuff as vital and dynamic as procedure and evidence. For me, his work most fundamentally is to be characterized as a quest for greater rationality in the adjudicative process. Whether one thinks of his analysis of the hearsay rule,' or his rationale of the admissions exception to it, or his treatment of the dead man's statute, or his study of …

Practical Difficulties Impeding Reform In The Law Of Evidence, Edmund M. Morgan

Vanderbilt Law Review

"The World Do Move" was the subject of an address by Judge Joseph C. Hutcheson to members of the Association of American Law Schools shortly after the decision of the Supreme Court in Funk v. United States.' He used the opinion in that case as evidence that the courts do likewise even in matters of procedure when legislatures lag. With his usual finesse and subtle sense of humor, he did not specify the rate of motion or mention the magnitude of the movement. The time lapse was a mere 144 years and the memorable advance was from the position where …

The Hearsay System: Around And Through The Thicket, John M. Maguire

Vanderbilt Law Review

All these complicated rules about hearsay are very strange for us, our judges having the right to evaluate the importance of what a witness says or a paper may prove. In this regard, the position of our judges is much freer than yours; in general a German judge can refuse any means of evidence only if he thinks that the fact to be proved is without relevance to the case, or if he accepts the fact to be proved as true, or if the evidence cannot be reached or in his opinion is only designed to delay the procedure. The …

Vicarious Admissions And The Uniform Rules, Judson F. Falknor

Vanderbilt Law Review

The admissibility of extra-judicial utterances as "vicarious admissions" under the Uniform Rules of Evidence would be regulated by Rule 63 (8)(a) and Rule 63 (9), quoted in the margin. Adoption of these rules would work substantial changes in existing doctrine; changes which the informed consensus may ultimately deem desirable, but which, nonetheless, appear to deserve somewhat more penetrating discussion than has so far been engendered. I hasten to make it clear that I do not necessarily oppose the proposals; merely that I have some doubts which have not as yet been resolved. One further preliminary word: the proposals of the …

Edmund M. Morgan, Sam L. Felts

Vanderbilt Law Review

Professor Morgan's subject in this Survey is Procedure and Evidence, the field of his greatest contribution to the law. Its importance cannot be overestimated; for no laws can be better than they actually work in practice. As he emphasizes, the whole purpose of the rules is specifically to define the area of dispute, and to provide the best methods for solving it. In short, the problem, the same for both the practitioner and the judge, is that of mastering the materials of the controversy. Morgan throws a flood of light upon every phase of this problem. Under his extraordinary powers …

Judicial Notice -- Excerpts Relating To The Morgan-Wignore Controversy, John T. Mcnaughton

Vanderbilt Law Review

Author's Note: These two excerpts are from the author's preliminary draft of his proposed revision of the judicial notice chapter of Wigmore on Evidence. The excerpts are submitted for publication in this Edmund M. Morgan issue of the Vanderbilt Law Review for two reasons: First, because of the important role played by Professor Morgan in the recent development and articulation of the law of judicial notice and, second, because Professor Morgan and Dean Wigmore stand at opposite poles in the argument over judicial notice. At least they do with respect to one significant particular. They do not differ with respect …

Edmund M. Morgan, Austin W. Scott, John W. Wade

Vanderbilt Law Review

Everyone who knows him well speaks of him as Eddie Morgan--or simply as Eddie. This includes his colleagues, whether they are at the same school or another one; his students, though this is privately, of course, when they are talking about him among themselves; and his former students. Especially his former students. No matter whether they have been out of school for many years or just a few years, they ask about him in the same way. The face and the voice disclose an admiration for him and a touch of awe, and yet at the same time a different …

Rochin And Breithaupt In Context, James R. Richardson

Vanderbilt Law Review

Modern scientific methods of fact-finding present evidentiary problems of admissibility which are grounded in reliability of the process, validity of the technique employed and desired policy objectives. In the final analysis, these three facets of the problem are all indivisibly interrelated since, in order to determine acceptable policy, scientific process and application of that process must inevitably be considered in the light of the concept of due process even though due process as such may not be posed affirmatively in any particular decision.' Moreover, it must be recognized that these factors will be present in varying degrees of intensity, dependent …