Law Commons^™

Rufus W. Peckham And Economic Liberty, James W. Ely, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is striking that Rufus W. Peckham has received so little scholarly attention and remains without a biography. He was, of course, the author of Lochner v. New York (1905), one of the most famous and contested decisions in the history of the Supreme Court. Moreover, Peckham wrote important opinions dealing with contractual freedom, antitrust law, eminent domain, dormant commerce power, and the Eleventh Amendment. Indeed, Owen M. Fiss maintains that Peckham and David J. Brewer were intellectual leaders of the Fuller Court, "influential within the dominant coalition and the source of the ideas that gave the Court its sweep …

Harmonization Through Condemnation: Is New London The Key To World Patent Harmony?, Max S. Oppenheimer

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Since 1790, when two U.S. patent applicants have claimed the same invention, the patent has been awarded to the first inventor. Today, the United States stands alone in the industrialized world, and many argue that the United States should, in the interest of world patent harmony, change its system so as to award a contested patent to the first applicant. Of the arguments advanced to justify the change, the only ones that withstand scrutiny are that "all the other countries are doing it" and the hope that some concessions in other aspects of intellectual property or trade might be obtained …

The "Public Use" Of Private Sports Stadiums: Kelo Hits A Homerun For Private Developers, Cristin F. Hartzog

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Part I of this note briefly discusses the principle of eminent domain and the evolution of the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Takings Clause. Part II analyzes the application of the Court's interpretations of the "public use" requirement of the Takings Clause on the issue of whether it is proper for a state to exercise its power of eminent domain pursuant to a stadium development project. Finally, Part III offers a solution to the conflict between property owners' interests in keeping their land and cities' interests in creating economic growth.

The Right To Stay, Patrick M. Mcfadden

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

People often fight for their homes. Once established, homes are vital centers of life, and their threatened loss generates predictable resistance. This Article shows how the human desire not to be moved is protected by the law. Such protection can be found in both U.S. domestic and international law, although the two systems of law vary widely in their approach. Since World War II, international scholars and lawmakers have been deeply concerned with promoting the legal rights of people to leave and return to their own countries. This Article emphasizes a different, but equally important right: the right of people, …

Constitutional Limitations On Governmental Participation In Downtown Development Projects, David M. Lawrence

Vanderbilt Law Review

The purpose of this Article is to investigate the constitutional boundaries that surround the most common forms of governmental participation. Part II of the Article discusses the constitutional limitations on property transactions in which the government either uses its power of eminent domain to condemn land for private downtown development, acquires land for the same purpose through a voluntary sale by the owner of the land, or subsidizes private development by its method of conveying property to the developer. Part III of the Article then discusses the problems that arise when a downtown project includes both public and private facilities, …

The Private Use Of Public Power: The Private University And The Power Of Eminent Domain, Charles Fels Special Projects Editor, N. T. Adams, Richard Carmody, Margaret E. Clark, Randolph H. Lanier, James C. Smith, Robert M. White

Vanderbilt Law Review

The study which follows attempts to trace, in a necessarily limited fashion, the evolving use of eminent domain on behalf of private interest groups throughout the last century and a half of American legal history. Part One of the study traces the broadening scope of eminent domain in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries, focusing on the direct use of eminent domain by private interest groups as a key element in the increasing breadth of the power. Part Two delineates the process whereby one modern private interest group-an informal aggregation of American colleges and universities-succeeded in acquiring …

"Just Compensation" For Lessor And Less, John D. Johnston, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The increase in large-scale federal and state programs utilizing the power of eminent domain have made evident the lack of eminent domain concepts and procedures which will facilitate the completion of these programs without undue delay, while concurrently providing adequate compensation for the damage inflicted upon individual property owners. In focusing upon the measure of compensation payable when the interests of lessors and lessees are taken, Professor Johnston questions the validity of two generally accepted concepts of existing doctrine, the market value approach to compensation and the unit valuation approach to apportionment. He points out that, although a judicial reassessment …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Conflict of Laws--Torts--Law of Jurisdiction with Predominant Interest in Resolution of Issue Applied

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Constitutional Law--Owner of Private Subdivision May Refuse To Sell to Negroes

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Eminent Domain--Compensation for Substantial Impairment of Riparian Owners' Right of Access Denied

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Taxation--Professional Service Corporations--Kintner Regulations Held Invalid

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Taxation--Recovered Charitable Contributions, Previously Claimed as Deductions, Are Gross Income In Year of Receipt

Real Property - 1963 Tennessee Survey, Thomas G. Roady, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

I. DEEDS

A. Construction

B. Suit to set aside deed

C. Restrictive covenants

II. TITLES

A. Easements

B. Actual Possession as Notice to Purchaser

III. EMINENT DOMAIN

A. Right to Incidental Damages

B. Value of Fee and Leasehold

C. Determination of Area Condemned

D. Liability of City for Land Condemned

E. Procedural Problems

IV. LEGISLATION

Real Property -- 1962 Tennessee Survey, Thomas G. Roady, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

I. Deeds

A. Construction

B. Suit to Set Aside Deed

C. Boundary Disputes

II. Titles

A. Dedication

B. Easements

C. Avulsion, Accretion, Reliction

III. Eminent Domain

A. Right to Incidental Damages

B. Value of Leasehold

C. Measure of Damages for Diversion of Stream

D. Determination of Area of Land Condemned

E. Liability of City for Land Condemned Within Its Boundaries

IV. Landlord and Tenant

A. Liability of Landlord for Injury to Employee of Tenant Due to Defective Condition of Premises

B. Right of Landlord to Enforce Forfeiture Clause.

Real Property -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, Thomas G. Roady, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Probably no area of the law is fraught with more confusion than that involving construction of clauses in deeds and wills which impose some restraint on the conduct of grantees or devisees- seemingly not in the best interest of society. Clauses which tend to deter grantees or devisees from marriage or remarriage have constituted a fertile source of litigation for centuries. And though the stated rules of law prohibit and restrict the use of marriage or remarriage as a condition to vest or divest interests in real property, there are very few cases in which the courts in this country …

Federal And State Condemnation Proceedings--Procedure And Statutory Background, William E. Miller

Vanderbilt Law Review

The development of our modern and complex society has necessitated a widespread appropriation of private property for public use. The vital importance of present-day eminent domain is emphasized by the staggering proportions of recent and proposed takings in terms of the amount of land appropriated, its monetary value, and the number of individual citizens whose property is affected. In the Middle District of Tennessee alone--of course a small part of the national total-in excess of 700 tracts or parcels of land have been condemned during the past seven and one-half years for various projects, including the Old Hickory Dam and …

Real Property -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, Thomas G. Roady, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is unfortunate that the statutes in this state on which such decisions as the instant one are based have not long since been repealed or modified. It is becoming more and more apparent that the courts cannot be expected to lessen the oftentimes arbitrary and seemingly unjust result which flows from the literal application of these statutes. The instant case would have been an excellent one in which to permit the defendant to establish the title of his grantors on the merits. But in spite of the desirability of relaxing the rigorous enforcement of such statutes, the court continues …

Constitutional Law--1960 Tennessee Survey, James C. Kirby Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Eminent Domain--Just Compensation.-Landowners sued the Tennessee Commissioner of Highways and Public Works for compensation for a taking of property for the state's superhighway program in Brooksbank v. Leech. The trial court sustained a demurrer on the ground that the suit was barred by sovereign immunity. In order to dispose of this question on appeal the supreme court first determined whether the legislature had provided an adequate statutory method for just compensation, the absence of which would have rendered the taking unconstitutional under both article I, section 21, of the Constitution of Tennessee and the due process clause of the United …

Local Government Law--1959 Tennessee Survey, A. E. Ryman, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Local government law is primarily made up of special exceptions to and provisions concerning laws of general application, both substantive and procedural. Starting with that premise, this survey is classified into two basic subsections: exceptions resulting from relations between sovereign agents, and exceptions resulting from relations between a sovereign agent and private parties. Because of a trend believed to be of significance with regard to other areas of law, the section on financial policy is considered separately as another subdivision herein.

Satisfactory review of all of the substantive legal subjects touched upon by decisions and legislation which involved local agents …

Real Property--1959 Tennessee Survey, Thomas G. Roady, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Future Interests.-The creation of divided interests in real property always carries with it problems in controlling the use and man- agement by the owner of the possessory interest. One of the most difficult problems in future interests is how to adjust the relation between the holder of a present possessory interest and the holder of a future interest in the same parcel of land. In resolving such problems many courts are influenced primarily by the nature (classification) of the future interest involved and have worked out with some degree of certainty the distribution of benefits and burdens in the simple …

Real Property -- 1958 Tennessee Survey, Thomas G. Roady, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

In Bailey v. Eagle Mountain Tel. Co.' the supreme court in an opinion by Justice Swepston affirmed the chancellor of Knox County who had sustained defendant's demurrer to a specific performance action because he regarded the following language in complainant's claim of title as creating a fee simple determinable in the grantee.

"In consideration of love and interest we have in Education, we this day deed, transfer, and convey a certain lot or parcel of land .... To have and to hold for school purposes ... so long as the aforesaid lot of land is used for the aforesaid purpose." …

Real Property -- 1957 Tennessee Survey, Thomas G. Roady Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Rule in Shelley's Case Revisited: During the period covered by this survey the Supreme Court of Tennessee handed down an opinion involving one of those problems periodically recurring in the real property field. In this decision the court revisited the Rule in Shelley's Case, pointing out the classic situation to which it applies and calling attention to the statute in Tennessee which abolished the Rule.

The question before the court was in terms of what estate the grantee, Ralph Parker, acquired where the conveyance was to "Ralph Parker and at his death to his bodily heirs." The court concluded …

Recent Constitutional Developments On Eminent Domain, John L. Bowers Jr., J. L. Boren Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Although the provisions of both state and federal law that cruel and unusual punishments shill not be imposed are considered popularly to relate only to those punishments which exist solely in the books, the provisions are not useless today. Recent cases have shown a tendency to expand the scope of the prohibition, especially with regard to excessive punishment, and to incorporate the proscription within the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. As respect, that which likely will be deemed cruel and unusual, little can be done beyond noting those situations in which the limitation has been applied. If a generalization …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Attorney and Client--Unauthorized Practice of Law--Drafting of Legal Instruments by Realtors

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Bailments--Bailee for Hire--Validity of Contract Provision Limiting Liability for Negligence

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Brokers (Real Estate)--Statement that Principal Might Take Less than List Price as Breach of Fiduciary Obligation--Breach as Defense to Action for Commission

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Corporations--Preferred Stock--Cancellation of Accrued Dividends by Charter Amendment

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Criminal Law--Evidence--Admissibility of Uncommunicated Threats under Plea of Self-Defense

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Domestic Relations--Consortium Right of Wife to Sue for Loss Due to Negligent Injury to Husband

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Eminent Domain--Lessee as Condemnor--Requirement that Compensation be Given for Improvements to Land Made by Lessee

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Evidence--Unanswered Letters--Admissibility on …