Law Commons^™

The Economic Aspects Of Inflation, Leonard L. Watkins

Michigan Law Review

In every large industrial country there is a considerable group that urges inflation as a path to national prosperity. They have made least impression on monetary policies in countries that experienced severe inflation during the war and post-war years. But in the United States, where war-time inflation was relatively moderate and where losses in the recent depression have been especially severe, inflationary measures have been adopted and agitation persists for the adoption of still more radical policies.

Effects Of Inflation On Private Contracts: Germany, 1914-1924, John P. Dawson

Michigan Law Review

The German experience with inflation is unique not only in the magnitude of the ultimate disaster but in the wealth and variety of the record which it left behind. From that experience we may still learn much. The problems presented at successive stages of the German inflation differ in degree but not in kind from those which appear in any major shift in the general level of prices. The devices, legal and economic, for restoring an equilibrium thus destroyed must be essentially the same in any great country organized, as Germany was, for specialized, large-scale production. From a study of …

Banks And Banking - Bank Stock Holding Company As Fraud On Double Liability Statute

Michigan Law Review

The question as to when, to prevent evasion of a statutory liability, a court will look behind a corporate entity in order to hold individual stockholders liable has been raised in two recent cases. The first, a federal case, involved the Detroit Bankers Company, a Michigan corporation formed for the purpose of holding and investing in bank stocks. Each corporate stock certificate of the holding company contained an "agreement" that the holder of the stock would be liable for his pro rata share of any assessment for which the corporation might become liable as a result of the failure of …

Contracts - Illegality - Effect Of Partial Illegality

Michigan Law Review

It has long been accepted that the illegality of part of a contract does not necessarily make the entire contract unenforceable. However, it is difficult to predict in a given case whether or not the court will hold that recovery may be had upon the lawful part of the contract. It is often said that such recovery will be allowed when the illegal portion of the contract can be clearly separated from the lawful part, but .even when stated in such broad terms - so broad in fact that it is of little help in solving the problem - the …

Corporations-Tort Liability Of Independent Taxi Owners' Associations

Michigan Law Review

(a) In order to meet the competition of the large taxicab companies a number of taxi drivers owning their own cabs join together to advertise under a common name, establish a more efficient phone service, and secure the benefits of large-scale garage service. For this purpose a non-profit-sharing corporation is organized, to the expenses of which each driver contributes initiation fees and dues. (b) In order to avoid the liabilities which attend the ownership of cars one of the large taxi companies sells its cabs to the drivers. The drivers now pay the company a certain compensation in "dues" for …

Constitutional Law - Home Owners Loan Corporation Act - Penalties Clause

Michigan Law Review

An indictment under the penalties clause of the Home Owners Loan Corporation Act, brought before the promulgation of authorization of charges for services rendered, was dismissed on the ground that, prior to such authorization, the act was not sufficiently definite to satisfy the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. United States v. Willard, (D. C. W.D.Mich.No.4057, September 27, 1934) 2 U.S.LAW WEEK, index p. 99.

Contracts - Assignment- Unsealed Assignment Of Sealed Instrument

Michigan Law Review

Defendants sold and conveyed their grocery business by a bill of sale under seal and covenanted not to engage in a like business within a one-mile radius for a period of three years. The purchaser assigned the bill of sale by an instrument not under seal to the plaintiffs. When the defendants opened a competing business in violation of their agreement, the plaintiffs filed a bill in equity asking that the defendants be restrained. Held, that an injunction should issue, notwithstanding the bill of sale was sealed while the assignment was not. Adamowicz v. Iwanicki, (Mass. 1934) 190 …

Criminal Law And Procedure - Right Of Defendant To Accompany Jury On View-Due Process

Michigan Law Review

During the trial of appellant in the Massachusetts courts for murder the jury was sent to view the scene of the crime. The accused asked that he be allowed to accompany them, invoking the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment. Permission was refused. At the view, judge and counsel being present, a stipulation was entered into as to changes which had occurred since the crime. Upon conviction, appellant appealed to the United States Supreme Court asserting that there had been a denial of due process. Held, four justices dissenting, that there had been no denial of due process since no …

Evidence - Federal Practice - Competency Of Wife To Testify In Defense Of Husband In Criminal Case

Michigan Law Review

The defendant, being tried in a federal district court on an indictment for conspiracy to violate the prohibition law, offered his wife as a witness in his behalf. The district court, following what it concluded to be the established rule of the federal courts, refused to allow her to testify. The circuit court of appeals affirmed this ruling without discussing the point. Certiorari was granted by the Supreme Court, limited to the question as to what law was applicable in determining the competency of the wife. Held, that the federal courts have the power to determine for themselves the …

Innkeepers - Statutory Construction - Hospital As Hotel

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff hospital claimed a lien upon the personal effects of a deceased patient left in their possession. An Iowa statute defines a hotel, for the purposes of its operator's lien, as including "inn, rooming house, and eating house, or any structure where rooms or board are furnished, whether to permanent or transient occupants." The term "guest" is defined to include "any legal occupant of any hotel as herein defined." Held, that "structure" as used in the statute refers to one used for the entertainment of ordinary individuals, as in the case of the structures enumerated; and that a hospital, …

Gifi's Causa Mortis - Validity Of Gift Of Entire Estate

Michigan Law Review

A donor, being in extremis, told by a doctor that he was dying, and having no near relatives, gave three bunches of keys to a donee with whose family he had lived for ten years, with the statement, "'If I am going to die, everything I have belongs to this woman." This was held to be a valid gift causa mortis of so much of decedent's property as was thereby made available. In re Elliott's Estate, 312 Pa. 493, 167 Atl. 289 (1933).

Municipal Corporations - Immunity Of City From Tort Liability - Attractive Nuisance

Michigan Law Review

The minor plaintiff, a child of eleven, was injured when she fell from a swing in a playground maintained by the defendant, and struck a jagged stone which protruded from the surface of the earth about eight feet beyond the base of the swing. She and her parents joined as plaintiffs in this suit, alleging that the defendant was negligent in failing to keep the ground around the swing in a reasonably safe condition and free from dangerous objects upon which a child might fall. Held, the defendant is liable for its failure to keep the earth around the …

Federal Regulation Of Motor Carriers, Paul G. Kauper

Michigan Law Review

Regulations pertaining to public safety include such matters as requirements concerning drivers' licenses, safety equipment, clearance lights, maximum speed limits, and others of a similar nature. It has already been pointed out that the states in the absence of federal regulation can enforce safety regulations of this kind against interstate motor carriers. It has also been shown that federal regulation in this field is desired in order to relieve interstate motor carriers from diverse and conflicting state laws. The only limitation upon the right of the federal government to impose such regulations upon interstate motor carriers is the general requirement …

Aliens-Right Of Illegally Present Alien To Sue-Tortsplaintiff's Violation Of Statute

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff was injured when struck by an automobile operated on the public way by defendant Long. He brought two suits in tort, one against Long, the other against Adamski, the owner of the car. Defendants contested his right to sue on the ground that he was in the country admittedly in violation of the immigration laws. They offered the further objection that his illegal presence made him a trespasser on the highway, and hence, under the Massachusetts doctrine, he was ineligible to maintain a suit arising from mere negligence. Held, plaintiff's unlawful residence in the country was no …

Bills And Notes - Holder's Right On Contract To Pay Checks

Michigan Law Review

Defendant bank agreed to honor checks drawn by a cattle buyer and carry them as cash items until funds were deposited from sales of stock. During an illness of the buyer the bank authorized buyer's agent to continue the practice, without informing said agent of large overdrafts on the account. The agent ordered the bank to draw a sight draft on a Chicago commission house and credit it to the account for the purpose of covering, among others, a check given to plaintiff, who apparently knew nothing of the arrangement between the drawer and drawee. The bank, however, applied the …

Contracts--Change Of Circumstances-Constructive Promise

Michigan Law Review

In 1921 plaintiff and defendant entered into a contract whereby defendant agreed to give plaintiff "one-half of all moneys" which should be received "from any revivals of" the play" 'Alias Jimmy Valentine' including productions in New York City, 'on the road,' or 'in stock.' " Plaintiff's share was to be mailed direct to him under division orders from wherever the play was being produced, accompanied by box office statements. It was stipulated that "all contracts . . . or other arrangements . . . affecting the title to the dramatic rights ( exclusive of motion picture rights) . . . …

Corporations-Purchase Of Notes And Mortgages As "Doing Business"

Michigan Law Review

C was engaged in loaning money in Idaho. He sold many of the notes and mortgages which he thus received to the plaintiff, a foreign corporation. It was his practice, nevertheless, to collect the interest on these notes and remit it to the plaintiff. The actual sales of the notes and mortgages occurred in Chicago. In this manner the plaintiff acquired the note of the defendant, a resident of Idaho and his mortgage on Idaho land. The Idaho statute forbids a foreign corporation "doing business" in the State to sue in its courts without taking certain qualifying steps. The plaintiff, …

Insurance - Application Of Dividends To The Purchase Of Extended Insurance

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff hospital claimed a lien upon the personal effects of a deceased patient left in their possession. An Iowa statute defines a hotel, for the purposes of its operator's lien, as including "inn, rooming house, and eating house, or any structure where rooms or board are furnished, whether to permanent or transient occupants." The term "guest" is defined to include "any legal occupant of any hotel as herein defined." Held, that "structure" as used in the statute refers to one used for the entertainment of ordinary individuals, as in the case of the structures enumerated; and that a hospital, …

Federal Regulation Of Motor Carriers, Paul G. Kauper

Michigan Law Review

By it's policy of granting financial assistance to the States for roadbuilding purposes - a policy first inaugurated in 1916 - the federal government has made substantial contributions to the development of highway transportation in the United States. In a period of seventeen years ending with the fiscal year 1933, Congress had appropriated and allocated to the several States $1,290,000,000.00 for the purpose of building good roads. Since 1921 the use of federal aid funds has been limited to the improvement of a designated 7 per cent of each State's highway mileage. By May 31, 1933, work was completed on …

Limitation Of Actions-Husband And Wife-Suspension Of The Statute Of Limitations During Coverture

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued in equity to recover for services rendered to her deceased husband for a period of six years prior to her marriage to him. Defendant, the executor of decedent, contended that she could not recover the portion of her claim which represented wages earned more than six years before a claim w.as filed with the estate. Held, the statute of limitations does not run on the claim of one spouse. against the other during the continuance of the marital state, irrespective of whether the claim arose before or during coverture. Therefore, plaintiff could now recover for the six …

Penalties As Affected By Good Faith Litigation, Robert E. Hardwicke

Michigan Law Review

There are many state laws, as well as the so-called National Emergency Acts and other federal laws, providing for the imposition of penalties for the violation of a statute, or an order or regulation of a board, commission, or executive officer. Under, the National Industrial Recovery Act, sec. 3 (f), penalties are fixed for the violation of codes promulgated thereunder. In many instances the penalties are cumulative, each day's violation being a separate offense.

The primary question here to be discussed is whether good faith litigation as to the validity of such a law, code, order or similar regulation gives …

Corporate Reorganization Under Section 77b Of The Bankruptcy Act, Jacob J. Kaplan

Michigan Law Review

In the closing hours of its legislative life the 73rd Congress adopted the amendment to the Bankruptcy Act providing for the reorganization of corporations, and designated as Section 77B. The Act was approved. by the President on June 7, 1934. The statute had had a long and checkered history in Congress. Such legislation barely failed of enactment in the preceding session when Congress first gave to natural persons availing themselves of bankruptcy procedure the right to call themselves "debtors" rather than "bankrupts," and provided a substantially similar method of reorganization for railroad corporations engaged in interstate commerce. The present statute …

Corporations -Accommodation Obligations - Effect Of "Guarantee" In Powers Section Of Statute

Michigan Law Review

The court in the principal case recognized the general prohibition against corporate accommodation obligations but held the defendant liable on the theory of consent of the stockholders. With this portion of the opinion the writer has no quarrel. But exception is taken both to the interpretation given to the statute by the court and the accuracy of the principle relied upon, as expressed in the dictum quoted.

Executors And Administrators--Powers Of Co-Executors

Michigan Law Review

The powers of co-trustees are usually spoken of as "joint," while the powers of co-executors are commonly referred to as "joint and several." As it is fairly obvious that if executors have a several power they may also exercise it jointly, it might be preferable to refer to the powers of co-executors as "joint or several." For not all the powers of a co-executor are joint and several. Some are several, while others are only joint. The general rule is that a co-executor has the several power to bind the estate as to matters in the ordinary course of administration, …

Administrative Law-Judicial Review-Federal Equity "Powers

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff's testator, a resident of New York, died there and at the time of his death owned certain oil paintings on temporary loan to an Art Museum in Pennsylvania, on which the State of Pennsylvania levied an inheritance tax. Plaintiff, executor under a will disposing of the pictures, filed a bill in the Federal District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania to enjoin the defendants, tax officials of Pennsylvania, from attempting to impose or collect the inheritance tax. The bill alleged diversity of citizenship and the requisite jurisdictional amount, and further that the imposition of the tax violated the Fourteenth Amendment, depriving …

Contracts --Anticipatory Breach- Denial Of Liability As A Repudiation

Michigan Law Review

A life insurance policy provided that the insured was to be paid a certain sum per month in case of permanent disability. A dispute arose between the company and the insured as to the proper construction of the contract. The company expressed willingness to perform the contract as it construed it, but this was a refusal to pay the monthly disability income. The insured brought an action to recover total damages for anticipatory breach, of the contract to pay the permanent disability benefits. Held, that the insurer had not made such an unequivocal refusal to perform the contract as …

Corporations--Liability Of Stockholder In Non-Complying Foreign Corporation

Michigan Law Review

The defendant was a stockholder in the A corporation, incorporated in Indiana to go business there, but carrying on its principal business in Tennessee where It had failed to comply with a law requiring foreign corporations to domesticate; Plaintiff, a holder of a trade acceptance on which the A corporation was primarily liable, sued defendant in Indiana, liability on the trade acceptance having been incurred in Tennessee. The A corporation being insolvent, plaintiff sought to hold the defendant personally liable on the ground that the failure of the corporation to comply with domestication statutes of Tennessee made its stockholders liable …

Criminal Law And Procedure - Instruction As To The Reasonable Doubt Of Each Juror

Michigan Law Review

The accused in a criminal prosecution requested, in addition to a general charge on reasonable doubt, an instruction stating, "The court instructs the jury that if after the consideration of the whole case, any juror entertains a reasonable doubt of the defendant's guilt it is the duty of such juror so entertaining such doubt, not to vote for a verdict of guilty, or be influenced in so voting for the single reason that a majority of the jury might be in favor of a verdict of guilty:" This instruction was refused and the defendant appealed from his conviction. Held, …

Innkeepers - Statutory Limitation Of Liability - Necessity Of Strict Compliance As A Condition Precedent To Exemption

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff was a guest at a hotel owned by the defendant, and during that period a valuable diamond ring was stolen from his room, without negligence on the part of the defendant. In a suit to recover the value of the ring, the defendant set up a defense by way of the statute exempting innkeepers from liability upon "posting a notice in three or more public and conspicuous places in the office, elevators, or public rooms, or in the public parlors of such hotel" to the effect that the innkeeper would not be liable for any stolen property not …

Partnership-Incorporation-Liability To Previous Creditors

Michigan Law Review

The two defendants, partners in the operation of the Mulkey Motor Co., an automobile sales establishment, had indorsed promissory notes in the name of the firm and had sold them to the plaintiff. Later the defendants incorporated under the same name and continued to carry on the business as before. Thereafter the plaintiff, without knowledge of the incorporation, purchased from the defendants certain notes which were indorsed in the accustomed fashion. In an action against the defendants as partners, based on such indorsements of the latter notes, it was contended that the debt was that of the corporation. Held, …