Law Commons^™

Father In Jail, David C. Baldus

Michigan Law Review

A review of Making Fathers Pay: The Enforcement of Child Support by David L. Chambers

The Haitian Vacation: The Applicability Of Sham Doctrine To Year-End Divorces, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines the propriety of applying the sham doctrine to tax-motivated divorces. Section I outlines the evolution of the sham doctrine from its exposition in Gregory v. Helvering through its expression in two different tests for commercial transactions. Section II then studies the relationship between state divorce law and the marital status provisions of the Internal Revenue Code to demonstrate the clear congressional preference for incorporating state law by reference rather than creating an independent federal law of marriage. It also examines the history of the 1969 Tax Reform Act in a vain effort to discern a congressional desire …

Comparative Reflections Of The "New Matrimonial Jurisprudence" Of The Roman Catholic Church, Charles Donahue Jr.

Michigan Law Review

A recent review of some developments in the law of the Roman Catholic Church concerning the annulment of marriages suggested to me that these developments might be of interest to an audience wider than that composed of those professionally or religiously concerned with the activities of the Church's tribunals. In particular, these developments may reveal something about the problem of incorporating the findings of modern psychology and psychiatry into a legal system, about the ways courts behave when confronted with social change, and perhaps even about the problematic relationship between law and morality. What follows, then, is a series of …

Marital Agreements In Contemplation Of Divorce, Barbara Klarman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Romantic notions that marriage is forever are beginning to give way to the more realistic assessments that marriages indeed may not last. The pressure has been mounting for ways to provide economic planning to parties in the relatively likely event that their marriages terminate in divorce. The purpose of this article is to focus on one method of obtaining such planning: the marital agreement setting forth the support and property distribution which the parties would follow in the event of divorce. This article will review the law regarding marital agreements in contemplation of divorce as it exists in the United …

Lay Divorce Firms And The Unauthorized Practice Of Law, Arthur R. Miller

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Effective January 1, 1972, Michigan adopted a no-fault divorce law. Since that time, at least two firms in the Detroit area have gone into the business of providing assistance to people wishing to process their own divorces. These enterprises, which have been dubbed divorce firms or divorce kit firms, have come under heavy attack from the organized bar. The State Bar of Michigan has instituted court proceedings against one firm for the unauthorized practice of law, and a court on its own initiative has already issued an injunction against the other. These cases raise two important issues: whether the divorce …

Rheinstein: Marriage Stability, Divorce, And The Law, Robert F. Drinan, Michael Wheeler

Michigan Law Review

A Book Review of Marriage Stability, Divorce, and the Law by Max Rheinstein

Divorce Law Reform In Michigan, B. H. Lee

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Few social questions touch the individual so intimately and foster such widely divergent views as the question of divorce. From those who regard marriage as a perpetual and indissoluble bond instituted by God to those who consider it a terminable contract between a man and a woman, every shade of opinion can be found. The subject of marital breakdown is neither new nor peculiar to our age. As one author has said: "The breakdown of marriage with provisions for divorce and remarriage is a phenomenon widely recognized in Babylonian, Hebrew, Greek and Roman law." Nevertheless, ever since Christianity established a …

California Family Law Act, Meredith A. Nelson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

California's Family Law Act has been heralded as the first major change in the State's divorce provisions in one hundred years. The Act is an attempt to remedy two major criticisms of current divorce practice both in California and throughout the United States. First, those advocating reform believe that laws controlling the granting of divorces are in conflict with modem concepts of marriage and divorce. Many divorce laws impose punitive sanctions in an attempt to deter those who would otherwise seek a divorce. Second, notwithstanding their intent, divorce laws have not, in fact, reduced the frequency of divorce. The inability …

An Inquiry Into The Utility Of "Domicile" As A Concept In Conflicts Analysis, Russell J. Weintraub

Michigan Law Review

No attempt is made here to conduct an exhaustive case study of any one particular area in which the concept of "domicile" is used as a tool for analysis in the conflict of laws. A number of thorough and useful studies have been made in narrow areas and are cited at appropriate places in the body of this article. Instead, this article will review the use of "domicile" in analyzing certain typical conflicts problems, particularly its use as the contact or pointing word in choice of law rules concerning the testate and intestate distribution of movables, and, as is newly …

Reasonable Separation Agreement Executed On Understanding That Wife Would Obtain Foreign Divorce Is Invalid-Viles V. Viles, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In July 1951, plaintiff and her husband, both New York residents, separated under a temporary agreement entitling the wife to 400 dollars a month for support. Soon thereafter, the husband urged his wife to divorce him, but she would not assent unless he raised her support payments to 459 dollars per month. This increase was embodied in a permanent separation agreement, executed in October 1951, which the husband signed on the oral understanding that the wife would obtain a divorce in the Virgin Islands. The wife journeyed to the Virgin Islands and, in December 1951, obtained a valid divorce decree. …

Chancery Practice On The American Frontier: A Study Of The Records Of The Supreme Court Of Michigan Territory, 1805-1836, William Wirt Blume

Michigan Law Review

The act of Congress of January 11, 1805, which created Michigan Territory out of Indiana Territory, provided that the new territory should have a government "in all respects similar" to that provided for the Northwest Territory by the Ordinance of 1787. The Ordinance had provided for the appointment of a court to consist of three judges who should have "a common law jurisdiction. "

Wills - Revocation By Change In Circumstances - Effect Of A Separation And Property Settlement Agreement, Paul R. Haerle

Michigan Law Review

Testator's will, executed in 1944, named his wife executrix and sole devisee. One month before his death in 1952 he entered into a detailed separation and property settlement agreement with her in which, though not referring directly to the will, the wife released any present, future or after-acquired interest in the same realty as was devised in the will. The widow's offering of the will for probate was contested by the heirs. The lower court directed a verdict for the contestants on the ground that the agreement operated to revoke the will. On appeal, held, reversed. Since neither a …

Criminal Procedure-Extradition For Non-Support Under Section 6 Of The Uniform Criminal Extradition Act, David D. Dowd, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner had been divorced while residing in the State of California and ordered to pay $30 per month to his wife for the support of three minor children. After moving to New Mexico he defaulted in the payments. The Governor of California requested the extradition of the petitioner under section 6 of the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act to answer the charge of failure to provide for minor children. Petitioner questioned his detention under the order for extradition by seeking a writ of habeas corpus in an original proceeding before the Supreme Court of New Mexico. Held, writ denied. Section …

Interstate Recognition Of Custody Decrees: Law And Reason V. The Restatement, Albert A. Ehrenzweig

Michigan Law Review

After days of bitter contest, a weary judge dissolves the marriage bond and, lacking Solomon's sword, allots the child to his mother. Thus the stage is set for the second act of the tragedy. Craving a new life for herself and her child, the mother moves to another state, and the father, seeing his right of visitation thus put in jeopardy, pleads the mother's removal in the original court which, loyal to the more faithful citizen, now awards custody to him. Should a judge of the mother's new home state heed this change? And again, what should be done if …

Taxation-Federal Income Tax-Payments Under Written Agreement Incident To Divorce, David W. Rowlinson S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner and her husband separated in January 1919 after marital difficulties. The following sequence of events transpired in the next four months: the husband employed detectives to follow his wife and discover evidence on which a divorce action could be predicated; petitioner instituted proceedings for legal separation; a separation agreement was executed under which the husband was to give petitioner an initial payment of $200,000 and subsequent annual payments of $30,000 for her life; the husband began a suit for divorce to which petitioner counterclaimed for a divorce; a divorce was decreed in favor of petitioner. Petitioner did not ask …

Negligence-Liability For Negligence Of Minor Driver Imputed To Person Signing M:Rnor's Application For Driver's License, George D. Miller, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

A father signed his daughter's application for a driver's license in accordance with the terms of a Utah statute, which required that the application for a minor's driver's license be signed by the parent or guardian, and imputed liability for the minor's negligence or wilful misconduct to the person signing the application. Before the daughter reached her majority (i.e., eighteenth birthday), the following events took place: (1) her mother was given sole custody of her in a divorce action; (2) she married; and (3) she negligently drove her car against the plaintiff, who brought suit against the daughter, her husband, …

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 …

Conflict Of Laws-Full Faith And Credit-Custody Decrees, James I. Huston

Michigan Law Review

Husband and wife, living in Ohio, were separated in 1945, the only child going to live with the paternal great-grandfather in Pennsylvania. Husband and wife were divorced in Ohio in April 1949. Custody of the child was awarded the wife, but because of the wife's defective vision the child was to remain temporarily with the great-grandfather; it was further provided that the custody question could be relitigated after eighteen months. On October 26, 1949, the wife got a further Ohio decree awarding her sole custody. The great-grandfather refused to surrender the child, and wife filed a petition for habeas corpus …

Coming Into Equity With Clean Hands, Zechariah Chafee, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

The preceding article proposed to examine eighteen differing groups of cases which are commonly supposed to present the clean hands doctrine as a maxim of equity, and then proceeded to consider eight such groups. Ten groups still require attention. The first five of those already considered fell within the exclusive jurisdiction of equity, and the next three within the concurrent jurisdiction, which is continued for a considerable part of the present article. After discussing suits for specific performance of unfair contracts and of illegal contracts, I dealt with miscellaneous tort suits by a person charged with crime. We now turn …

Conflict Of Laws-Domicile Of Child Living With Mother, Charles E. Becraft S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff and defendant, husband and wife, were domiciled in New York. Because of temporary unemployment, plaintiff took his wife and minor child to Connecticut. He later returned to New York and resided in the apartment the family had formerly occupied. The wife and child did not return to New York, and the court found that she had at all times intended to remain in Connecticut and establish a domicile there. Plaintiff at all times intended to make New York his permanent residence. When defendant would not return to New York, plaintiff brought action for separation in a New York court, …

Illegal Conditions And Limitations: Effect Of Illegality, Olin L. Browder, Jr

Michigan Law Review

IN earlier articles the writer undertook to explore that miscellaneous and somewhat neglected field of law in which public policy is held to nullify the efforts of persons to impose certain types of conditions and limitations on dispositions of their property.' Such provisions most commonly take the form either of conditions subsequent or executory limitations, but occasionally appear as conditions precedent or special limitations. Unlike provisions which run afoul of the rule against perpetuities or the rules against restraints on alienation, the provisions in question usually prescribe conduct on the part of beneficiaries which is not directly related to the …

Taxation-Income Tax-Deductions For Alimony Payments Made Under Voluntary Agreement Of Separation, William R. Hewitt S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Taxpayer and his wife voluntarily entered into a written agreement of separation. Pursuant to the agreement, taxpayer made periodic payments to his wife in discharge of his legal obligation of support. In his income tax return for 1943, taxpayer took the amount of tlie payments made for that year as a deduction from gross income under the authority of section 23(u) of the Internal Revenue Code. The commissioner disallowed the deduction and determined a tax deficiency. Upon petition to the Tax Court for a redetermination of the deficiency, the commissioner was upheld. On appeal, held, affirmed. Only alimony payments …

Conflict Of Laws-Jurisdictional Basis For Awarding Custody Of Minor Child, Charles E. Becraft S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff and his wife, domiciliaries of California, separated June 3, 1946. On Oct. 25, 1946, the wife took the minor child of the marriage to Nevada where she commenced proceedings to obtain a divorce. On Feb. 4, 1947, a final decree awarded her a divorce and custody of the child. She remarried and moved to Utah where she and the child have lived ever since. On Jan. 2, 1947, the plaintiff filed a petition in California asking for a divorce and custody of the child. On July 8, 1947, plaintiff applied for an order pendente lite to award him custody …

Domestic Relations-Recent Developments (A Service For Returning Veterans), John S. Bradway

Michigan Law Review

During the past five years family life in America has been subjected to unusual strains. The repercussions of the war, as well as the usual peacetime factors, affecting the domestic circle have received attention of sociologists and lay writers. The legal implications have not made such prompt appearance in published form.

Information as to that part of the impact of family dislocation caused by war is available in many places, none the least important being the records in the offices of legal assistance officers in the armed forces, of the Committees on War Work set up by the American and …

A Comparative Study Of Conflict Of Laws: A Review Of Volume One, Elliott E. Cheatham

Michigan Law Review

This is a notable book. It is the first volume of a comparative study of conflict of laws, undertaken at the invitation of the American Law Institute and completed with the support of the University of Michigan Law School. The author, Dr. Rabel, is a man whose great learning has been tempered and made fruitful by a distinguished and varied career as lawyer and as judge on national and international tribunals, as director of an institute of comparative law and conflict of laws serving practical as well as scholarly aims, and as author and professor of law.

The Bones Of Haddock V. Haddock, Harold Wright Holt

Michigan Law Review

It would not be fitting to say in the language of the stage that Williams v. North Carolina has drawn the curtain on Haddock v. Haddock. Rather we will shift the metaphor to say that the recent case from North Carolina has largely stripped the flesh from the earlier decision. Yet the bones of Haddock v. Haddock remain unbleached and unpulverized. Just as persons with mechanical turn of mind may frame from blocks of wood puzzles of readjustment and resetting, so courts in states that do not favor free and easy termination of marriage may still find in the …

Husband And Wife-Antenuptial Contracts, B. Bernard Wolson

Michigan Law Review

Prior to the enactment of the statute of uses the wife's dower could not be bargained away. Thus dower constituted a clog upon alienation. Antenuptial contracts therefore were not recognized. However, with the passing of the statute of uses, jointures came into existence as means of barring dower and making alienation free. Jointures were of two kinds, viz., legal and equitable. As the law developed in England both types were recognized; but as the law developed in the United States, statutes were enacted specifically providing for jointures and antenuptial contracts. Our courts generally considered them as equitable in nature. These …

The Revision Of The Treaties Of Montevideo On The Law Of Conflicts, Ernst Rabel

Michigan Law Review

In its issue of July 1940, the Revista Juridica Argentina of Buenos Aires has published the new "Tratados de Derecho Internacional Privado" of Montevideo concluded in 1939 and 1940. We are grateful to this review for apprising us of a significant event in the field of international codification.

Torts - Joint Tortfeasors - Husband And Wife - Torts Between Spouses - Immunity Of Third Persons, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued defendants, including plaintiff's husband, for jointly causing a false charge of adultery to be made against plaintiff in a divorce suit. The defendants' demurrer to the complaint was sustained in the trial court as to each and all of the defendants. Held, that although plaintiff's husband was immune from liability, a cause of action had been made out against all the rest of the defendants, and the judgment in their favor was reversed. Ewald v. Lane, (App. D. C. 1939) 104 F. (2d) 222.

Parent And Child - Duty Of Mother To Support Child When Father Is Alive, Thomas E. Wilson

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff obtained a divorce from defendant, and at the time of the divorce voluntarily undertook to care for and support their twenty-one year old son, who was afflicted with tuberculosis and unable to support himself. The son resided with his mother until his death. She instituted this action against the father to recover for the care and support of the son from the time of the divorce until his death and for funeral expenses, relying upon a statute imposing upon specified classes or relatives of poor persons a duty to maintain them, which statute the plaintiff contended imposed a duty …