Law Commons^™

Federal Courts - Decisions Of State Intermediate Courts As State Law To Be Applied By Federal Courts, Spencer E. Irons

Michigan Law Review

The Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that a federal district court in Ohio was not bound by a decision of the Cuyahoga County Court of Appeals to the effect that in a case of wrongful transfer of shares of stock, a demand and refusal was necessary to start the statute of limitations running. On certiorari, held, that, in ascertaining what the state law is, lower state court decisions are data which are not to be disregarded by a federal court, unless it is convinced by other persuasive data that the highest court of the state …

Husband And Wife-Wife's Right To Recover For Loss Of "Consortium" Due To Injury To Husband From Wrongful Sale Of Liquor, William C. Whitehead

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued for loss of her right of consortium occasioned by the illness and death of her husband as a result of a sale of liquor by defendant in violation of a state statute. Defendant demurred on the ground that there was no cause of action granted by the statute for damages flowing from such an illegal sale. Held, an action for injury to the wife's right of consortium was available at common law. Swanson v. Ball, (S. D. 1940) 290 N. W. 482.

Municipal Corporations - Debt Limitations - Validity Of Revenue Financing Bonds, James W. Deer

Michigan Law Review

The state of Ohio created a building authority to which it transferred for a period of twenty-five years certain hospitals and public land. In return the authority promised to repair the hospitals and to construct a number of new buildings. Bonds to the amount of $7,500,000 were issued by the authority on a resolution pledging the income to be derived from the property pursuant to a twenty-three year rent and bond retirement agreement with the department of welfare. The department promised to charge its patients enough to meet these obligations, and to make payment possible a statute was passed allowing …

Municipal Corporations - Home Rule Amendments - Conflict Between Local And State Law, William L. Howland

Michigan Law Review

The petitioner, on behalf of the city of Akron, applied for a writ of mandamus to compel the board of health of the city to apply the municipal civil service regulations to the employees of the board. In 1912, Ohio had adopted a so-called "home rule amendment" to its constitution, under authority of which the city had formulated its charter. By statute, each city in Ohio constitutes a city health district, and the officers thereof are appointed by the mayor of the city with the consent of the city council. The state statutes make no express reference to civil service …

Zoning - Municipal Corporations - Due Process - Restrictions On Power To Change Zoning Plan Previously Adopted, Edmund R. Blaske

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff owned several lots in a subdivision which the defendant city changed from a class "B" residence district to a class "C" residence district. In an action for a declaratory judgment the plaintiff asked the court to pronounce the amendment making pie change void. The declaration contained the following allegations: that there was already sufficient undeveloped class "C" property to satisfy present and future building needs; that the change was made at the instance of private persons, for their benefit, and not in the public interest; that the new classification would decrease the value and enjoyment of the plaintiff's …

Curbing The Supreme Court-State Experiences And Federal Proposals, Katherine B. Fite, Louis Baruch Rubinstein

Michigan Law Review

The avalanche of proposals introduced in the last session of Congress seeking to curb the power of the Supreme Court to declare legislative acts unconstitutional and President Roosevelt's recent message to Congress on the judiciary have focused attention on the problem of the function of that Court in our governmental system.

This article does not take sides in the controversy. Its purpose is merely to review the developments in the four states, Colorado, Ohio, North Dakota and Nebraska, which by amendments to their constitutions have sought to place curbs on their supreme courts, and also to classify the proposals which …

Municipal Corporations-Regulation Of Gas Stations-Delegation To Property Owners Of Power To Modify Zoning Restrictions

Michigan Law Review

A city ordinance prohibited the installation of gasoline filling stations within the city except after obtaining the written consent of 51 per cent of the property owners within a radius of six hundred feet from the site. Relator, without obtaining the required consent, asked for a writ of mandamus, which was refused. The court held the regulation not arbitrary but substantially relating to the public safety and welfare, and not a delegation of legislative powers. State ex rel. Standard Oil Co. v. Combs, 129 Ohio St. 251, 194 N. E. 875 (1935).

Practice And Procedure - Direction Of Verdict - Scintilla Rule

Michigan Law Review

In an action to recover from the defendant gas company damage to the plaintiff's building caused by a gas explosion resulting from a defective pipe, the plaintiff's only evidence to prove the defendant's duty to repair it was that the pipe was used exclusively for the conveyance of the defendant's gas, and that the meters to which the pipe was connected were owned and controlled by the defendant. The trial court, by virtue of the scintilla rule, submitted the case to the jury which rendered a verdict for the plaintiff. Held, the scintilla rule no longer prevails in Ohio, …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Fishing Rights In The Public Waters Of Michigan

Michigan Law Review

The Ne-Bo-Shone Association, Inc., is an Ohio corporation which owns property on both banks of the Pine River for some distance. Following the decision of the Michigan Supreme Court in Collins V. Gerhardt that the stream is navigable and public, the complainant association was ordered to remove obstructions in the stream which hampered the free use of the stream by the public for fishing purposes. Thereupon complainant sought an in junction against certain public officials from taking action to remove these obstructions, claiming that it has the right to exclude the public from this portion of the Pine River, and …

Presumptions - Constitutional Validity Of Statute Establishing Proof Of Reputation As Prima Facie Evidence Of Commission Of Crime

Michigan Law Review

The rise and sway of the gangster as a menace to American social and economic security has led, of late, to the employment of unique means of combating lawlessness. Faced by a tremendous increase in the difficulties lying in the path of those seeking the conviction of professional criminals for major crimes, the police and prosecutors often turn towards a means of fighting crime originally devised to make life uncomfortable for petty off enders. The enforcement of the pistol laws and the vagrancy statutes against millionaire gangsters, and repeated arrests on suspicion, have been resorted to as a means of …

Conflict Of Laws - Mistake Of Foreign Law As Mistake Of Fact

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued in Ohio to set aside a deed of Ohio land given by the plaintiff, a resident of that state, in exchange for Texas lands deeded by the defendant who was also a resident of Ohio, for mistake as to defendant's title to the Texas land resulting from a Texas statute of which both parties were ignorant at the time of the transaction. Held, a mistake of foreign law is a mistake of fact authorizing equitable relief. Miller v. Bieghler, 123 Ohio St. 227, 174 N.E. 774 (1931).

Statutes-"Reasonable Speed"-Interpretation

Michigan Law Review

In an action for damages arising out of an accident the instruction was given :that the intersection was a closely built-up portion of the city within the meaning of sec. 12003, 110 Ohio Laws p. 138 which provided, "A rate of speed greater than fifteen miles an hour in the business or closely built-up portions of a municipal corporation or more than twenty-five miles an hour in other portions thereof * * * shall be prima facie evidence of a rate of speed greater than is reasonable and proper." Upon each corner of the intersection there were buildings two or …

Crimes-Former Jeopardy-Prosecution In Two Counties For A Continuous Act

Michigan Law Review

Defendants transported liquor by a single, uninterrupted act from A county to B county in the same state. Having been convicted and fined in B county for the transportation within its boundaries, they were later indicted in A county for that part of the transportation which took place in that territory. A plea of former jeopardy was sustained by the trial judge, and on appeal this holding was affirmed by a divided court, which held, the act constituted a single offense, punishable in either county, but not in both. State v. Shimman et al. (Ohio, 1930) 172 N.E. 367.

The Federal Bankruptcy Act And Its Effect On State Insolvency Laws, Evans Holbrook

Articles

Since Sturgis v. Crowninshield, 4 Wheat. 122, it has been clear that State Insolvency Laws were valid (within certain well-defined limits) during the non-existence of a Federal Bankruptcy Act, and that upon the enactment of a Federal Bankruptcy Act the State laws were superseded and suspended so far as they were in conflict with the Federal legislation. The difficulty has been in determining when there was such conflict, and it has arisen in various ways. For instance, the Federal Bankruptcy Act permits any natural person to become a voluntary bankrupt, but provides that no involuntary proceedings shall be taken against …

The Ohio "Blue Sky" Cases, Clarence D. Laylin

Michigan Law Review

The ancient notion that private fraud lies beyond the domain of public law did not long survive the statements of it that have been quoted.' Our legislation, expressing always the changing moral standards of the people, has directed the sanctions of the criminal law, step by step, ever against new forms of overreaching and imposition. Numerous illustrations might be cited to show the growing repugnance of the public mind toward frauds and cheats, and the tendency to recognize them as offenses invoking the restraint of public action as well as the redress of private injuries.

Founding Of The College Of Law Of The Ohio State University, Horace Lafayette Wilgus

Articles

It is proper for me to say, in the beginning, that I have been delegated to bear, and I have the honor to present to the College of Law of the Ohio State University, upon this occasion the sincere congratulations and most hearty good wishes of the largest University Law School in the United States--the Department of Law of the University of Michigan. In addition to this, it is with much satisfaction, and is a very great personal pleasure, that I have the privilege of joining in the festivities of this dedication of the beautiful Temple of Themis, wherein the …