Law Commons^™

Constitutional Law - Eminent Domain - Condemnation Of Riparian Lands Under The Commerce Power, George F. Lynch S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The power of the United States to regulate commerce comprehends a right to control navigation and the means of navigation. To the extent necessary for the enjoyment of this power the government may condemn riparian property. The federal power of eminent domain is limited by the mandate of the Fifth Amendment which requires just compensation for private property taken for a public use. Usually, the standard of just compensation is the market value of the property, taking into consideration the most profitable uses for which the property is suited and likely to be used at the time of the taking, …

Torts - Nuisance - Personal Annoyance As Sole Injury, Michael Scott

Michigan Law Review

Several thousand sales slips, mistakenly printed to bear plaintiff's telephone number, were supplied to the defendant store and were circulated widely by the latter's employees incident to normal sales transactions. Calls from defendant's customers soon burdened plaintiff's telephone, and despite numerous complaints by plaintiff over a two-year period, defendant refused or neglected to terminate use of the incorrect slips. On appeal from judgment for plaintiff in a suit for damages, held, affirmed. Defendant's acts resulted in an actual invasion of plaintiff's right to enjoy her property without unreasonable interference. Damages for personal annoyance and inconvenience alone are allowable in …

Negligence - Breach Of Duty - Liability Of Telephone Company For Failure To Relay Fire Alarm, Cyril Moscow S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Upon discovering a fire within his business building, plaintiff immediately went to the telephone and dialed the operator. After telling her his address and requesting that she call the fire department, he left the telephone to fight the fire. The message was not transmitted. When the fire department finally arrived in response to an alarm by a neighbor, the fire was out of control and the entire building was destroyed. Plaintiff sought damages, alleging that the telephone company held itself out to the public as willing to convey messages in case of emergency, and that failure to transmit his message …

Restitution - Waiver Of Tort And Suit In Assumpsit - Amount Of Recovery Where There Has Been A Sale, Charles B. Renfrew S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In a prior action one of the defendants obtained a judgment against the plaintiff. The present action for conversion was brought because of an allegedly irregular execution sale of plaintiff's business property under that judgment. The trial court granted defendants' motion to dismiss on the ground that the action was barred by the statute of limitations. On appeal, held, affirmed. The applicable statute of limitations was not tolled by fraudulent concealment and plaintiff, having elected his remedy in tort, was not entitled to a trial in an action of assumpsit on the theory of a contract implied by law. …

Corporations - Shareholders - Majority Liability For Improper Stock Redemption By Corporation And For Misrepresentations In Private Stock Purchases From Minority Holders, James M. Tobin

Michigan Law Review

In 1942 a seemingly innocuous suit was brought against the Axton-Fisher Tobacco Corporation to determine the propriety of the alteration of a stock redemption. In 1955 Judge Leahy of the Federal District Court for Delaware handed down an opinion on the damages and relief to be given in the case in what he hopefully termed was the final phase of this famous litigation. It is the purpose of this comment to appraise the basis of the recovery allowed by Judge Leahy. Two readily distinguishable problems will be treated: (1) the nature of relief from a stock redemption called by fiduciaries …

Sales - Contributory Negligence - Use As A Defense In Action For Breach Of Implied Warranty, Thomas S. Erickson

Michigan Law Review

Defendant installed an oil burner in plaintiff's apartment building. The burner failed to function properly and exploded two months after installation. There was no evidence that the furnace was repaired subsequent to the explosion. Plaintiff continued to use the furnace for four years until a second explosion caused considerable damage to the building. Upon inspection, the cause of the explosions was found to be a defective system of heating and piping the oil. Plaintiff brought this action for breach of implied warranty to install the furnace in a good and workmanlike manner and recovered consequential damages. On appeal, held, …

Restitution - Recission - Measure Of Restitution Required Of Rescinding Vendee Of Executed Land Contract, Donald W. Shaffer S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff vendee sought to rescind an executed contract for the sale of an inn, alleging fraud in the inducement. The lower court granted rescission and ordered repayment to the plaintiff of that part of the purchase price already paid over to defendant- vendor, less $2,500, which was found to be the fair or reasonable rental value for the period of the plaintiff's possession. Both parties appealed, defendant claiming a higher rental figure and plaintiff asserting that no rental should be allowed. Held, the plaintiff should be charged rent measured by the value of the benefits which accrued to him …

Taxation - Federal Income Tax - Damages For Injury To Business As Return Of Capital Or Income, Eric Bergsten S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The taxpayers, owners of two movie theatres, recovered $36,000 in a compromise settlement of a Clayton Act suit against the major distributors and exhibitors. The taxpayers claimed that the amount received was a return of capital. The Commissioner claimed the amount received represented the recovery of lost profits. Held, Commissioner upheld. The evidence presented did not warrant a finding that any part of the sum recovered represented a return of capital. Chalmers Cullins, 24 T.C. 322 (1955).

Restitution - Fraud - Prospective Vendee's Rights Against Broker, Stephen C. Bransdorfer S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was retained as a real estate agent by the vendor. He listed the vendor's eighty acres and buildings for sale. Plaintiff, a prospective purchaser, offered $7,000 for the property. Defendant failed to transmit this offer to the vendor and, instead, fraudulently caused the vendor to convey to two strawmen, as purported purchasers, for $6,500. After the defendant had falsely told the plaintiff that the latter's offer for the whole tract had been rejected, plaintiff purchased seventeen acres, including the buildings, for $6,000, an admittedly fair price. The strawmen conveyed the remaining sixty-three acres to the defendant's son, defendant giving …

Family Responsibilty Under The American Poor Laws: Ii, Daniel R. Mandelker

Michigan Law Review

No substantive statutory provision fulfills the purpose for which it was enacted unless fair and efficient procedures are provided for its enforcement. Under the Elizabethan family responsibility law, enforcement was confined to the parish justices of the peace, who at that time exercised both administrative and judicial functions. The blending of administrative and judicial functions no longer being the rule in American local government, practically all of the American family responsibility statutes provide for some judicial procedure by which the support duty may be enforced. The basic issue with which the courts have been concerned in applying these statutory remedies …

International Law - United Nations - Administrative Tribunals As Adjudicators Of Disputes Arising Out Of Employment Contracts With International Organizations, Edward W. Powers S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A crucial though relatively unpublicized problem arising from the creation of international organizations is that of establishing and maintaining the staff or secretariat needed to perform the administrative functions of these organizations. Such a staff must possess not only the competence and integrity of a national civil service, but also an international loyalty or outlook which includes " ... an awareness . . . of the needs, emotions, and prejudices of the peoples of differently-circumstanced countries ... [and] a capacity for weighing these frequently imponderable elements in a judicial manner· before reaching any decision to which they are relevant."

Insurance - Recovery - Land Contract Purchaser Allowed Recovery On Both Vendee's And Vendor's Policies In Excess Of Loss, Jerome K. Walsh, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

An owner of realty entered into a contract to sell the land to the plaintiff. The vendor then took out fire insurance on his interest in the amount of $6,000 and the plaintiff obtained a policy covering his interest in the sum of $12,000, with a "three-fourths value" clause. Before performance of the contract and transfer of title, a fire occurred which caused $12,000 damage to the property. After the plaintiff paid the full contract price and took title to the property, he demanded and received an assignment of the claim under the vendor's policy. Plaintiff then brought suit on …

Maritime Lien Priorities: Cross-Currents Of Theory, Roger G. Connor

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this article is not to develop a synthesis, for no synthesis is possible, but to give an account of the general theories governing maritime lien priorities, together with a discussion of the concrete issues which arise in their application.

Rationale Of Valuation Of Foreign Money Obligations, Charles Evan

Michigan Law Review

What then should a creditor of a foreign money obligation collect where there was a delay in payment? When are damages for depreciation of foreign money recoverable? As of what time and in what currency are they to be computed? How is the value of a foreign money obligation to be measured where no damages may be had? The answers to these and other incidental questions require a thorough analysis of certain features peculiar to the law of money.

It is the purpose of this article to clarify these problems, to sum up the primary principles by which they are …