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Full-Text Articles in Law
Were Standard Oil's Railroad Rebates And Drawbacks Cost Justified?, Daniel A. Crane
Were Standard Oil's Railroad Rebates And Drawbacks Cost Justified?, Daniel A. Crane
Articles
In this essay, written for a symposium on the centennial anniversary of the Supreme Court's Standard Oil decision, I reexamine the costjustification question. In the first part, I explain why the cost-justification question is central to the entire case and its acquired and evolving historical meaning. In the second part, I review the evidence of claimed efficiencies passed on to the railroads. I conclude that there is evidence that Standard Oil passed along significant cost savings to the railroads and that these savings could have justified a portion of the rebates and drawbacks. However, I conclude that there is little …
Discovering Mr. Cook, Margaret A. Leary
Discovering Mr. Cook, Margaret A. Leary
Articles
Before I begin to tell you some of what I've learned as I've tried to discover Mr. [William W.] Cook, please ponder two questions: What are your feelings about the Law Quad buildings? Think, for example of the first time you entered the Quad; studying in the Reading Room; seeing the snowy Quad for the first time; and socializing in the Dining Room. You probably have a flood of memories connected to these buildings. The Law School has outgrown them in many respects, but the buildings will always be inspirational. Second, let me ask what you know about William W. …
Adversary Parties - Same Person As Both Plaintiff And Defendant, Edson R. Sunderland
Adversary Parties - Same Person As Both Plaintiff And Defendant, Edson R. Sunderland
Articles
Under the regulations promulgated by the Railroad Administration in 1918, all actions for injury to persons or property growing out of the possession or control of any railroad or system of transportation by the Director General of Railroads were required to be brought against the Director General. ORDER No. 50. Some courts refused to follow this order on the ground that it was contrary to the statute creating federal control. Lavalle v. Northern Pacific Railway Company, (1919), 143 Minn. 74; Franke v. Chicago & N. W. Ry. Co., (1919), 170 Wis. 71. But Order No. 50 has been generally observed, …
Public Utility Valuation - Going-Concern Value In Rate Making, Edwin C. Goddard
Public Utility Valuation - Going-Concern Value In Rate Making, Edwin C. Goddard
Articles
What is the effect of a city ordinance which proposes to a public utility company the terms on which it may dispose of its product to the users, but which is rejected by the company? As to a company not yet doing business it is clear that the ordinance when rejected becomes a mere legal nullity. It never was more than an offer that might ripen into a binding contract by acceptance. That it is by no means a nullity as to a utility actually operating in the city after the expiration of its franchise and as a mere tenant …
Public Utility Valuation, Edwin C. Goddard
Public Utility Valuation, Edwin C. Goddard
Articles
EVERY consideration of valuation of a public utility, whether for the purpose of condemnation for purchase or as a basis for fixing rates or permitting the issue of stock or bonds, must start from Sinyth v. Ames, and the rule therein laid down by HARLAN, J., at page 546: "We hold, however, that the basis of all calculations as to the reasonableness of rates to be charged by a corporation maintaining a highway under legislative sanction must be the fair value of the property being used by it for the convenience of the public. And in order to ascertain that …
Taking Of Equitable Easements For Public Use, Edgar N. Durfee
Taking Of Equitable Easements For Public Use, Edgar N. Durfee
Articles
The case of Flynn v. New York &c Railway Co., decided by the Court of Appeals of New York in April last, involves the right of an owner of land to which is appurtenant a so-called equitable easement, arising under a covenant restricting the use of other land, to compensation upon the taking of the servient land for a public use inconsistent with the restriction. A tract of land was laid out in accordance with a plan, and all, lots therein were sold and conveyed by deeds containing covenants, inter alia, that, "No building or structure for any business purpose …
The Commodity Clause Of The Hepburn Act, Edwin C. Goddard
The Commodity Clause Of The Hepburn Act, Edwin C. Goddard
Articles
The Supreme Court of the United States has added another to the interesting line of cases construing the so-called "Commodity Clause" of the HEPBURN ACT of 1906. In United States v. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Co. and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Coal Co., decided on June 21, 1915, 35 Sup. Ct. 873, the court reversed the decree of the District Court as reported in 213 Fed. 240, and found the relation and contract between the Railroad Company and the Coal Company to be in violation of the HEPBURN ACT and the SHERMAN ACT.
Adverse Possession In The Case Of The Rights Of Way Of The Pacific Railroad Companies, Ralph W. Aigler
Adverse Possession In The Case Of The Rights Of Way Of The Pacific Railroad Companies, Ralph W. Aigler
Articles
While the weight of authority is probably to the effect that railroad rights of way may be lost by adverse possession, the authorities are by no means agreed. See 12 MICH. L. REV. 144. The rights of way of certain of the Pacific Railroad Companies have been declared not to be subject to the ordinary rules as to adverse possession, on the ground that by the Congressional grants the four-hundred-foot-strips were conveyed only for railroad purposes with the ultimate possibility of reverter in the United States, which had the effect of making such lands inalienable by the railroad companies whether …
The Passing Of State Control Over Railway Rates, Edson R. Sunderland
The Passing Of State Control Over Railway Rates, Edson R. Sunderland
Articles
Congress has exclusive power to regulate interstate commerce, so far as it admits of a uniform system of regulation, and a failure on its part to regulate in a given case is tantamount to a declaration that such commerce shall remain free and unrestricted. Brown v. Houston, 114 U. S. 622; Leisy v. Hardin, 135 U. S. 100. The states are, in all such cases, without jurisdiction to regulate, irrespective of what Congress has or has not done.
Limitation Of The Amount Of The Common Carrier's Liability, Edwin C. Goddard
Limitation Of The Amount Of The Common Carrier's Liability, Edwin C. Goddard
Articles
When the case of Railroad v. Lockwood, 17 Wall. (U. S.) 357, settled the law that the common carrier can not contract against liability for losses due to his negligence, it did not put an end to the efforts of common carriers to escape liability for losses so arising.
State Regulations Affecting Interstate Commerce, Horace Lafayette Wilgus
State Regulations Affecting Interstate Commerce, Horace Lafayette Wilgus
Articles
The line between regulations of intrastate and interstate commerce is difficult to draw and hard to maintain. This is well illustrated in the recent case of St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company v. Arkansas, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States April 4, 1910, Advance Sheets, May I, 1910, p. 476, 30 Sup.Ct. 476.
The Degree Of Care Required In The Operation Of A Scenic Railway, Ralph W. Aigler
The Degree Of Care Required In The Operation Of A Scenic Railway, Ralph W. Aigler
Articles
The case of O'Callaghan v. Dellwood Park Co., - Ill. -, 89 N. E. 1005. decided by the supreme court of Illinois, October 26, 1909, is of interest because of the holding of owners and operators of scenic railways to the same high degree of care required of railroads and common carriers of passengers in general. The action was in case for the recovery of damages for injuries suffered by the plaintiff by reason of having been thrown out of a car on defendant's scenic railway. The plaintiff had paid the usual charge for the ride and was, at the …
Police Regulation Of Sleeping Car Berths, Edson R. Sunderland
Police Regulation Of Sleeping Car Berths, Edson R. Sunderland
Articles
From the time of the introduction of the sleeping car there has been a constant feud between the sleeping car companies and the travelling public in regard to the upper berths. The exigencies of the situation have, of course, made economy of space a prime requisite in sleeping car construction, and there is no doubt but that a high degree of success in this respect has attended the efforts of the sleeping car builders.
The Standard Oil Fine, Horace Lafayette Wilgus
The Standard Oil Fine, Horace Lafayette Wilgus
Articles
August 3, 1907, Judge Landis, in the United States District Court, for the Northern District of Illinois, sentenced the Standard Oil Co. to pay the largest fine ever inflicted upon any offender.1 The suit was an indictment on 1,903 counts for violations of the Elkins Rebate Law in receiving concessions on the movement of 1,903 cars of oil from Whiting, Indiana, to East St. Louis, Illinois, and from Chappell, Illinois, to St. Louis, Missouri, during the eighteen months between September I, 1903, and March 1, 1905. Four hundred and forty-one counts were withdrawn as not necessarily involved in this case. …
Need Of A National Incorporation Law, Horace Lafayette Wilgus
Need Of A National Incorporation Law, Horace Lafayette Wilgus
Articles
When the report of the Committee on Uniformity of legislation was submitted to the last American Bar Association, and consideration of the legal problems growing out of modem commercial combinations, was urged as a matter proper for discussion and action by that association, it was gravely argued by distinguished lawyers present that there was no legal problem to be solved. The Committee on Commercial Law, however, thought otherwise and said:- "The American people look to the American Bar for leadership on this question. Some one must lead. If not the lawyer, then it will be the demagogue."
The Northern Securities Decision, Horace Lafayette Wilgus
The Northern Securities Decision, Horace Lafayette Wilgus
Articles
March 14 the Supreme Court of the United States decided one of the most important cases that has been before it for a number of years. The litigation referred to is the Northern Securities case. The question involved was whether the control of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railway companies through the ownership of the majority of the stock of each of those companies by the Securities company violated the national anti-trust act. The majority of the Supreme Court held it did, but four of the judges dissented.
Northwestern Railway Situation, Horace Lafayette Wilgus
Northwestern Railway Situation, Horace Lafayette Wilgus
Articles
What promises to be the most important corporate litigation that has or is likely to come before the Supreme Court for many years is involved in the various suits against the Northern Securities Company. To understand its full significance, it is desirable to recall something of the railroad history of the western states.
Northwestern Railway Situation, Horace Lafayette Wilgus
Northwestern Railway Situation, Horace Lafayette Wilgus
Articles
What promises to be the most important corporate litigation that has or is likely to come before the Supreme Court for many years is involved in the various suits against the Northern Securities Company. To understand its full significance, it is desirable to recall something of the railroad history of the western states.
Popular And Legal Views Of Traffic Pooling, Thomas M. Cooley
Popular And Legal Views Of Traffic Pooling, Thomas M. Cooley
Articles
“Perhaps nothing in respect to the relations between the railroad companies and the public attracts more attention at the present time than the arrangements to which the name of pooling is popularly given. In railroad circles these arrangements are looked upon as necessary to prevent all railroad property becoming absolutely worthless to the stockholders, as a very large part of it is now; and those managers who are hoping to earn dividends are therefore laboring earnestly to make these arrangements effectual…. What is said will refer especially to pooling in freight traffic, but in principle it will apply to passenger …
State Regulation Of Corporate Profits, Thomas M. Cooley
State Regulation Of Corporate Profits, Thomas M. Cooley
Articles
At the time when the Federal Constitution was adopted, municipal government in America was a very simple affair, and was managed with ease and economy through local officers, who provided for the making and repairing of roads, looked after disorderly characters, abated local nuisances, and levied rates for the few and simple public needs. When the growing population of a particular locality appeared to need larger powers of local government, the legislature granted them, but they often involved little more than the holding of fairs as a means of building up local trade, the institution of a local court for …