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Articles 61 - 90 of 96

Full-Text Articles in Legal Remedies

Declaratory Judgments, Edson R. Sunderland Jan 1923

Declaratory Judgments, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

The Connecticut legislature passed an act in 1921 authorizing courts to make binding declarations of rights. The act was attacked as unconstitutional on the same ground raised by the supreme court of Michigan against the Michigan Declaratory Judgment Act in the case of Anway v. Railway Co., 211 Mich. 592, 12 A. L. R. 26i namely, that declaring rights was not a judicial function. But the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut sustdined the act as in no way contravening the constitution.


Basis Of Relief From Penalties And Forfeitures, Edgar N. Durfee Jan 1922

Basis Of Relief From Penalties And Forfeitures, Edgar N. Durfee

Articles

The equitable principle of relief from penalties and forfeitures is so far elementary as almost to defy analysis. Many, perhaps most, of the judicial explanations of the principle have based it upon interpretation or construction, appealing to the doctrine that equity regards intent rather than form. Yet a logical application of this doctrine would lead to results very different from those which have actually been arrived at in the decisions. Thus, a stipulation in a mortgage that the mortgagor waives his equity of redemption can hardly be interpreted as meaning that he does not waive it, yet all such stipulations …


Emotional Disturbance As Legal Damage, Herbert F. Goodrich Jan 1922

Emotional Disturbance As Legal Damage, Herbert F. Goodrich

Articles

MENTAL pain or anxiety the law cannot value, and does not pretend to redress, when the unlawful act complained of causes that alone. Lord Wensleydale's famous dictum in Lynch v. Knight will serve as a starting point for this discussion. His lordship's notion of mental pain is evidently that of a "state of mind" or feeling, hidden in the inner consciousness of the individual; an intangible, evanescent something too elusive for the hardheaded workaday common law to handle. Likewise, in that very interesting problem regarding recovery for damages sustained through fright, it is always assumed, tacitly or expressly, that mere …


Mutuality In Specific Performance, Edgar N. Durfee Jan 1922

Mutuality In Specific Performance, Edgar N. Durfee

Articles

Prior to the present century, the subject of mutuality in specific performance was an unsolved puzzle. The decisions of the courts were in the main wise, but the attempts both of courts and text writers to formulate a statement of the principle governing these decisions were far from happy. After two centuries of litigation and discussion, the current formula was that the remedy must be mutual, must be equally available to both parties. The worst fault of this formula was its plausibility. Equality is equity, and perfect equality between the parties to a contract is not attained unless remedies are …


The Rule Of Law And The Legal Right, Joseph H. Drake Feb 1921

The Rule Of Law And The Legal Right, Joseph H. Drake

Articles

IT IS a common experience with a teacher of law to find in every department of the subject a number of hard knots that have resisted all the efforts of the courts and jurists to split them. These usually take the form of a hopeless contrariety of decisions, or of decisions which are impeccable in their logic but offend against what we usually speak of as a sense of natural justice. It is customary for us to dismiss these with a statement that the majority of decisions or the weight of authority favors the one conclusion or the other, and …


The Courts As Authorized Legal Advisors Of The People, Edson R. Sunderland Jan 1920

The Courts As Authorized Legal Advisors Of The People, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

It is doubtful whether American legal institutions have witnessed a more far-reaching procedural reform since New York adopted its Code of Civil Procedure in 1848, than the movement toward the authorization of judicial declarations of rights which has received its chief impetus from legislation enacted in three American States during the past year. A somewhat timid step in this direction was taken by the New Jersey Chancery Practice Act of 1915, but it disclosed a want of confidence in the broad effectiveness of the remedy. Now for the first time American legislation has definitely committed itself to the principle that …


Liability Without Fault, John B. Waite Jan 1920

Liability Without Fault, John B. Waite

Articles

In Ives v. South Buffalo Ry. Co., 201 N. Y. 271, appeared, as a basis for the decision, the statement that "When our Constitutions were adopted, it was the law of the land that no man who was without fault or negligence could be held liable in damages for injuries sustained by another. That is still the law." Mr. Justice McKenna has recently voiced the same idea. In his dissenting opinion in Arizona Copper Co. v. Hammer, 39 Sup. Ct. Rep. 553, he contends that the Workmen's Compensation Act of Arizona is unconstitutional, because, "It seems to me to be …


Attorney's Lien For Services - Set-Off Of Judgments, Edson R. Sunderland Jan 1920

Attorney's Lien For Services - Set-Off Of Judgments, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

Anglo-Saxon judges, as members of the legal profession, have shown an admirable freedom from professional bias and class selfishness in dealing with questions involving the rights and privileges of members of their profession. With every opportunity offered for treating lawyers as a favored class, they have been able to maintain a detached and objective attitude toward them. Indeed, the courts seem to have preferred to be charged with excessive severity in dealing with their brethren of the bar rather than give the slightest ground for suspicion that they were capitalizing their power in the interest of the legal fraternity.


Extraterritorial Effect Of The Equitable Decree, Willard T. Barbour May 1919

Extraterritorial Effect Of The Equitable Decree, Willard T. Barbour

Articles

ANYONE whom the study of equity has led into the by-paths of V Canon Law will recall that the Sext ends with a splendid array of imposing maxims, not improbably the source of the Latin maxims with which every lawyer is familiar. The inveterate habit formed by the ecclesiastics of expressing a legal principle in a short and crisp formula persisted when they came into the courts of law and is peculiarly in evidence among the chancellors of the fifteenth century. What may at first have been merely casual became through repetition a habit and the result has been to …


Liability Of Manufacturer To Remote Vender For Defective Automobile Wheel, Horace Lafayette Wilgus Jan 1919

Liability Of Manufacturer To Remote Vender For Defective Automobile Wheel, Horace Lafayette Wilgus

Articles

Plaintiff. in February, 19O9. purchased from the Utica Motor Car Company, a Cadillac six-passenger touring car, manufactured by the Cadillac Motor Car Company, of Michigan. The Utica company was a dealer in motor cars, and purchased to resell; it was the original vendee, and the plaintiff was the sub-vendee. The car was used very little until July 31, 1909, when the plaintiff, an experienced driver, while driving the car on a main public road in good condition, at a speed of 12 to 15 miles per hour, was severely and permanently injured by the right front wheel suddenly breaking down …


A New Function For Courts - Declaring The Rights Of Parties, Edson R. Sunderland Jan 1919

A New Function For Courts - Declaring The Rights Of Parties, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

In a recent opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States Justice Holmes makes this interesting observation:- "The foundation of jurisdiction is physical power, although in civilized times it is not necessary to maintain that power throughout proceedings properly begun." Paraphrased, the statement comes to this: In early times the basis of jurisdiction is the existence and the constant assertion of physical power over the parties to the action, but as civilization advances the mere existence of such power tends to make its exercise less and less essential.


Boycott - Medical Association, Horace Lafayette Wilgus Jan 1919

Boycott - Medical Association, Horace Lafayette Wilgus

Articles

The opinion of McCardie, J., (without a jury), in Pratt v. British Medical Association (1919), I K. B. 244, (noted in the MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW, June, 1919, p. 704), brilliantly reviewing the English cases, merits a fuller statement of the facts and principles involved than was possible in a short note. The action was by Doctors Burke, Pratt, and Holmes, against the British Medical Association and four of its officers, for damages for conspiracy, slander and libel.


Liquidation Of Damages By Pre-Estimate, Joseph H. Drake Jan 1919

Liquidation Of Damages By Pre-Estimate, Joseph H. Drake

Articles

A freshly minted phrase, if attractive in form, even though it connotes no new idea, will frequently have as extensive a circulation, even in our supreme courts, as would a real concept. In a contract for building two laboratories for the Department of Agriculture, the contractor had agreed that the United States should be entitled to the "fixed sum of $200, as liquidated damages * * * for each and every day's delay" in the completion of the buildings. The court decided that this was a stipulation for liquidated damage because it was the result of a "genuine pre-estimate" of …


The Writ Of Prohibition - Procedural Delay, Edson R. Sunderland Jan 1918

The Writ Of Prohibition - Procedural Delay, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

A disheartening recrudescence of procedural red-tape is found in a recent decision of the Supreme Court of Ohio. A contest arose over the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission to fix telephone rates in Cleveland. The Commission was engaged in a determination as to the reasonableness of a schedule of rates filed by the telephone company, when a petition was filed in the Common Pleas Court for an injunction against the charging of rates other than those fixed by a city ordinance. Believing that under the statute the Public Service Commission had exclusive jurisdiction over the subject of rates, and …


Power Of The U.S. Supreme Court To Enforce Judgments Against States, Henry M. Bates Jan 1918

Power Of The U.S. Supreme Court To Enforce Judgments Against States, Henry M. Bates

Articles

Four and one-half centuries later the "sovereign state" of Virginia sued the "sovereign state" of West Virginia to recover a sum of money alleged to be due upon the agreement of West Virginia to assume its proportionate share of the debt of the old state of Virginia. The suit was brought in the Supreme Court of the United States, which after prolonged consideration rendered judgment for the plaintiff. No execution or other compulsory process was issued, however. But now after delays for various reasons and pretexts urged by West Virginia the court is compelled to face the problem of what …


A Modern Evolution In Remedial Rights - The Declaratory Judgment, Edson R. Sunderland Dec 1917

A Modern Evolution In Remedial Rights - The Declaratory Judgment, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

In early times the basis of jurisdiction is the existence and the constant assertion of physical power over the parties to the action, but as civilization advances the mere existence of such power tends to make its exercise less and less essential. If this is true, it must be because there is something in civilization itself which diminishes the necessity for a resort to actual force in sustaining the judgments of courts. And it is quite clear that civilization does supply an element which is theoretically capable of entirely supplanting the exercise of force in the assertion of jurisdiction. This …


Options And The Rule Against Perpetuities, John R. Rood Mar 1917

Options And The Rule Against Perpetuities, John R. Rood

Articles

"The question to be discussed in this article is whether an option to buy property is void by reason of the fact that it may be exercised at a period more remote from the time of its creation than the law of the state permits contingent interest to vest."


The 'Right' To Break A Contract, Willard T. Barbour Jan 1917

The 'Right' To Break A Contract, Willard T. Barbour

Articles

It is common knowledge that the fully developed common law affords no means to compel the performance of a contract according to its terms. Does it follow from this that there is no legal obligation to perform a contract, or if obligation there be, that it is alternative: to perform or pay damages? A note in the XIV MICH. L. REV. 480 appears to give an affirmative answer to this question and at least one court (Frye v. Hubbell, 74 N. H. 358, at p. 374) has taken the same view. Probably the most forcible exposition of this position is …


Liability Of Public Officer For The Loss Of Private Funds Entrusted To His Keeping, W. Gordon Stoner Jan 1917

Liability Of Public Officer For The Loss Of Private Funds Entrusted To His Keeping, W. Gordon Stoner

Articles

There is much contrariety of decision concerning the liability of public officers for the loss of funds with which they have been entrusted. A recent case illustrates some of the more important phases of the law of such a situation. People for use of Hoyt et al. v. McGrath et al. (Ill. 1917), I17 N. E. 74. In this case the public brought an action of debt on the official bond of the clerk of court for the use of Hoyt and others. Usees had tendered into court a sum of money which the clerk took under the court's order …


The 'Right' To Break A Contract, Willard T. Barbour Jan 1917

The 'Right' To Break A Contract, Willard T. Barbour

Articles

It is common knowledge that the fully developed common law affords no means to compel the performance of a contract according to its terms. Does it follow from this that there is no legal obligation to perform a contract, or if obligation there be, that it is alternative: to perform or pay damages? A note in the XIV MICH. L. REV. 480 appears to give an affirmative answer to this question and at least one court (Frye v. Hubbell, 74 N. H. 358, at p. 374) has taken the same view. Probably the most forcible exposition of this position is …


Recovery Of Money Paid Under Duress Of Legal Proceedings In Michigan, Edgar N. Durfee Jan 1917

Recovery Of Money Paid Under Duress Of Legal Proceedings In Michigan, Edgar N. Durfee

Articles

THE case of Welch v. Beeching, recently decided by the Supreme Court of Michigan, raises puzzling problems conconcerning the recovery of money paid under pressure of legal proceedings. It is the purpose of this paper to give that case a more adequate setting, in relation to the whole field of law to which it pertains, than was provided by the brief opinion of the court. We shall not attempt to exhaust the authorities, nor to present a rounded treatment of the whole subject touched upon.


The Sheriff's Return, Edson R. Sunderland Jan 1916

The Sheriff's Return, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

When William the Conqueror found himself military master of Britain, he was confronted by a governmental problem quite different from that which has usually accompanied foreign conquest. He did not subdue a nation already organized, substituting his power for that of its former ruler in the conventional way of conquerors. Britain was a geographical unit but politically and socially it was a congeries of loosely related communities. The natural law of survival of the fittest normally operates upon peoples as upon individuals, and develops centralized power as a means of self-preservation. But Britain had a substitute for this. The sheltering …


Performance Of Legal Obligation As A Consideration For A Promise, John B. Waite Jan 1916

Performance Of Legal Obligation As A Consideration For A Promise, John B. Waite

Articles

At a time when the true reasonableness of the common law and its responsiveness to the actualities of life are under criticism, it is interesting to find several cases, within the past year, affirming the old rule that performance of a legal duty is not consideration for a promise. In Vance v. Ellison, (V. Va.) 85 S. E. 776, suit was brought to enjoin the enforcement of a deed of trust executed by plaintiff to defendant, to secure payment of $1000 promised for legal services. It was admitted that when the deed was executed the defendant was already bound by …


Limitation As To The Amount Of Liability For Loss Of Goods By Carriers, Edwin C. Goddard Jan 1915

Limitation As To The Amount Of Liability For Loss Of Goods By Carriers, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

A carload of automobiles was shipped by express, under an express receipt limiting recovery to $50, unless a greater value was named and a greater carrying charge paid. The shipper knew of this stipulation, and deliberately chose the restricted liability so as to secure the lower rate. On a suit for loss of the automobiles, recovery was limited to $50. Geo. N. Pierce Co. v. Wells Fargo & Co., 189 Fed. 561, commented on in 10 MICH. L. REB. 317. The United States Supreme Court has just affirmed this decision, 35 Sup. Ct. 351.


The Rule Of Certainty In Damage And The Value Of A Chance, Joseph H. Drake Jan 1913

The Rule Of Certainty In Damage And The Value Of A Chance, Joseph H. Drake

Articles

AIthough our text-books say that the rule of certainty is "more fundamental than any rule of compensation because compensation is allowed or disallowed subject to it," (cf. SEDGWICK, EL. or DAMAGES, p. 12) nevertheless the tendency of the courts seems to be to save the equitable principle of compensation at the expense of certainty. A striking illustration of this is found in a recent case in the Court of Appeal, Chaplin v. Hicks, C. A. [1911] 2 K. B. 786. The defendant, a theatrical manager, agreed to give positions as actresses to persons chosen by the votes of the readers …


Is A Judgment Open To Collateral Attack If Rendered Without Written Pleadings As Required By Statute, Or If The Writings Do Not Comply With The Statutory Requirements?, John R. Rood Jan 1912

Is A Judgment Open To Collateral Attack If Rendered Without Written Pleadings As Required By Statute, Or If The Writings Do Not Comply With The Statutory Requirements?, John R. Rood

Articles

It is believed that no good reason can be assigned for answering the above question in the affirmative. Certainly none has yet been discovered in a careful search of the cases involving the point. And yet the assurance and unanimity with which lawyers and judges give the affirmative answer to it on first thought is indeed remarkable. For instance, Mr. Justice FIELD in speaking for the Supreme Court of the United States, on the question as to whether a judgment is subject to collateral attack if one served with process is not permitted to make any defense when he appears …


Construction Of 'Survival Act' And 'Death Act' In Michigan, Thomas A. Bogle Jan 1911

Construction Of 'Survival Act' And 'Death Act' In Michigan, Thomas A. Bogle

Articles

It is known as the "Death Act." It was enacted in i848, amended in 1873, and follows closely Lord Campbell's Act. In the, construction of these acts, troublesome questions have arisen, difficulties have been encountered, different theories urged, different views entertained, different conclusions reached, and different opinions rendered, respecting the number of actions that can be maintained under them, the circumstances that invoke one rather than the other, the measure of damages applicable, respectively, and certain questions of practice as to the joinder of counts and the amendment of pleadings. The statement would hardly he justified that all these questions …


Attachments On Unliquidated Demands, John R. Rood Jan 1910

Attachments On Unliquidated Demands, John R. Rood

Articles

If the creditor should not have the aid of attachment to recover on unliquidated demands, why not? It is true that attachment as a security for the satisfaction of the judgment that may be recovered in an action pending or just commenced was unknown to the general common law of England, and existed only in a restricted form as a special custom of London and other places in the form of garnishment till it was introduced into the New England colonies by an early statute of Massachusetts, whence its utility commended it so that it was soon adopted in all …


Surface Water In Cities, John R. Rood Jan 1908

Surface Water In Cities, John R. Rood

Articles

It is evident that no one hard and fast rule could be applied to all cases, either in city or country, without producing injustice and impolitic results. The needs and conditions in city and country are different. They usually differ widely in different parts of the same city. These considerations have induced the Supreme Court of New Hampshire to adopt the flexible rule, that: "In determining this question all the circumstances of the case would, of course, be considered; and among them the nature and importance of the improvements sought to be made, the extent of the interference with the …


Liability Of Hospitals For The Negligence Of Their Physicians And Nurses, Harry B. Hutchins Jan 1907

Liability Of Hospitals For The Negligence Of Their Physicians And Nurses, Harry B. Hutchins

Articles

Liability of Hospitals for the Negligence of their Physicians and Nurses.-This question was recently examined by the Supreme Court of Utah in the case of Gitzhoffen v. Sisters of Holy Cross Hospital Association, 88 Pac. Rep. 691 (Jan. 26, 1907), and the opinion filed may well serve as a basis for comment. The hospital association was sued for damages for injuries that plaintiff claimed to have sustained through the negligence of defendant's nurses.