Evidence Commons^™

Procedure And Evidence -- 1961 Tennessee Survey (Ii), Edmund M. Morgan, Joel F. Handler

Vanderbilt Law Review

Construction of Pleading--(a) Conclusions.- In an action by the administratrix of a decedents estate the allegations in the complaint that the intestate had a policy of insurance on his life for $1,500 and was induced by the fraud of defendant to make defendant the beneficiary by which she was able to collect the money upon his death and "that this $1500 insurance money is the property of the estate and defendant is accountable to complainant as administratrix of the estate" are sufficient as against ademurrer on the ground that the complaint fails to show any right or title in complainant …

Edmund M. Morgan, Sam L. Felts

Vanderbilt Law Review

Professor Morgan's subject in this Survey is Procedure and Evidence, the field of his greatest contribution to the law. Its importance cannot be overestimated; for no laws can be better than they actually work in practice. As he emphasizes, the whole purpose of the rules is specifically to define the area of dispute, and to provide the best methods for solving it. In short, the problem, the same for both the practitioner and the judge, is that of mastering the materials of the controversy. Morgan throws a flood of light upon every phase of this problem. Under his extraordinary powers …

Procedure And Evidence--1959 Tennessee Survey, Edmund M. Morgan

Vanderbilt Law Review

This survey of Procedure and Evidence is in most respects merely a horizontal digest of the cases which have been published between June 1, 1958, and June 1, 1959. Only a few decisions are of the character and importance that would call for comment in regular course in a law review like the Vanderbilt Law Review. Many of them are mere illustrations of inexcusable disregard by counsel of our applicable statutes and rules and previous decisions of our appellate courts interpreting them. Whether this sort of treatment of the subject is justifiable is open to serious question. The answer depends …

Procedure And Evidence -- 1958 Tennessee Survey, Edmund M. Morgan

Vanderbilt Law Review

Construction and Sufficiency on Demurrer: A pleading must be construed in the light of matters judicially noticed; an allegation of facts from which the inference of the existence of an essential fact is no more reasonable or is less reasonable than an inference of its non-existence is not the equivalent of an allegation of that essential fact. ...

Thus in an action against a Pension Board for money due, a demurrer to the bill of complaint specifying only the failure to allege a ground of recovery does not raise the question whether the decision of the Pension Board is made …

Procedure And Evidence -- 1956 Tennessee Survey, Edmund M. Morgan

Vanderbilt Law Review

To one who has not inherited the Tennessee system of procedure and has not yet "first endured, then pitied, then embraced" it, it presents some startling contrasts. There is an astounding inter-mingling of the modern, which seeks to make procedure the servant of substance, with the ancient, that has in most jurisdictions been relegated to the legal attic or to a museum of procedural antiques. In an action instituted by warrant in the Court of General Sessions of Shelby County and tried de novo on appeal in the circuit court, the warrant is a summons and cannot serve as a …

Criminal Law And Procedure -- 1954 Tennessee Survey, Clyde L. Ball

Vanderbilt Law Review

Most of the criminal law cases in the Tennessee courts during the past year have dealt with matters of procedure. The basic principles derived from these cases are treated in the Procedure and Evidence article of this 1954 Survey.' However, those cases of especial interest and significance will be considered here in somewhat greater detail. In addition to procedural matters there were a few cases which turned on concepts basic in the substantive law of crimes.

Substantive Law

Homicide: Tennessee has enunciated and followed a rule which states that driving an automobile while intoxicated is an act malum in se, …

Procedure And Evidence, Edmund M. Morgan

Vanderbilt Law Review

Demurrer: The Tennessee cases reiterate the orthodox proposition that a demurrer admits the facts alleged or averred in the pleading to which it is interposed.' It is perhaps unnecessary to note that this proposition is true only when the problem concerns the sufficiency of the allegations or averments in the pleading. In truth, the demurrer is merely a default as to the facts and a tender of issue on the law. If the demurrer is overruled and the action is for unliquidated damages, the plaintiff's averment as to the amount of the damages is not taken as true; he must …