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Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Passenger Tickets As Contracts, Edwin C. Goddard

Michigan Law Review

The most important right of the common carrier of passengers is his right to compensation. He carries for hire. This compensation he ordinarily collects by selling to the prospective passenger a ticket. Of these tickets there are many varieties, from the simple rectangular bit of cardboard, with the printed statement that it is good for one ride from X to Y, to the long coupon ticket, with elaborate provisions in fine print, providing for the passenger knows not what. What is the legal character of this ticket?

Imprisonment For Debt, Richard Ford

Michigan Law Review

Imprisonment for debt is usually thought of as a barbarous custom which declined continuously as civilization and Christianity advanced and which was totally done away with long ago. The facts, however, are otherwise. It seems doubtful if history warrants any generalization to the effect that the imprisonment of debtors has been a steadily declining practice. Certain it is, that in a greater or less degree it exists today in many parts of the United States, in England, and in some other countries. Moreover, creditors are making use of it on a comparatively large scale. It is the purpose of this …

Crimes-Defense Of Property

Michigan Law Review

May one under any circumstances kill in order to prevent the loss or destruction of his property? By this question is meant killing solely to prevent loss or destruction of property; necessary homicide in self-defense is unquestionably justifiable. Much of the confusion on the question whether one may take life if necessary in defense of property is due, it seems, to a persistent tendency to treat the two questions as the same. It hardly needs statement that the body of law pertinent to self-defense is totally distinct fundamentally from that pertaining to one's powers in defense of his chattels. Practically, …

Contracts To Make Testamentary Dispositions As Affected By The Statute Of Frauds, Merrell I. Schnebly

Michigan Law Review

There are in the reports a surprising number of cases in which it is alleged that the owner of property has bound himself by contract to devise or bequeath that property to another. These promises have been made upon almost every imaginable consideration, but in the typical case the consideration is personal services rendered to the promiser during his declining years. Since these promises are so common, one concludes that this kind of contract must appeal to many persons as advantageous. There is little doubt that it of ten does enable one to secure attention of a sort he could …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Addresses Delivered At The Dedication Of The Lawyers' Club Of The University Of Michigan, June 13, 1925

About the Buildings

On April 25, 1922, Mr. William W. Cook, a graduate of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts of the University of Michigan in 1880 and of the Law Department in 1882, wrote to the Regents of the University an offer to erect for the University, at his own expense, "a law students' combined club and dormitory building." In the letter it was stated that "All dues and all profit from the operation of the building shall be used exclusively for legal research work." The gift having been accepted, a strikingly beautiful group of buildings with sleeping rooms and …

Jurisdiction Over Foreign Corporations, Maxwell E. Fead

Michigan Law Review

During the last century, the standing of foreign corporations in our law has been radically changed; and the law on this subject at the present day is far from being in a settled condition. According to the early view, a corporation could have no legal existence outside of the state of its creation. This view was perhaps best expressed by Mr. Chief Justice Taney in his famous dictum in Bank of Augusta v. Earle. "And this corporation can have no legal existence out of the bounds of the sovereignty by which it is created. It exists only in contemplation …

Jurisdiction Over Unincorporated Associations Composed Of Nonresidents

Michigan Law Review

New York has a statute which provides for suits against unincorporated associations consisting of seven or more members. It reads as follows: An action or special proceeding may be maintained, against the president or treasurer of such an association, * * * upon any cause of action, for or upon which the· plaintiff may maintain such action or special proceeding, against all the associates * * *· Any partnership; or other company of persons, which has a president or treasurer, is, deemed an association within the meaning of this section." General Associations Law (Consol. Laws of N. Y.), sec. 13. …

Pardons In Impeachment Cases, Maurice Taylor Van Hecke

Michigan Law Review

A year ago, Governor Miriam Ferguson, of Texas, approved an act of the legislature of that state, the gist of which reads as follows:

"That every person against whom any judgment of conviction has heretofore been rendered by the Senate of the State of Texas in any impeachment case, shall be and is hereby granted a full and unconditional release of any and all acts and offenses of which he was so convicted by said Senate of the State of Texas, upon any charge or proceedings of impeachment.

"That any and all penalties or punishment inflicted by or resulting from …

The Court Of Claims, J. H. Toelle

Michigan Law Review

The Court of Claims was established by Act of Congress in 1855. The original Act provided that at the commencement of each session of Congress, and at the commencement of each month during the session, the Court should report the cases upon which they should have finally acted, stating in each the material facts which they found established by the evidence, with their opinion in the case, and the. reasons upon which such opinion was founded, and the opinion of any judge who should dissent from the majority. It also directed the Court to prepare a bill or bills in …

Police Legislation Under Federal Powers

Michigan Law Review

A recent case decided by the United States Supreme Court United States v. Daugherty (Jan. 4, 1926) 46 Su. Ct. 156 (Adv. Opn. 303) sustained a conviction and sentence under the Harrison Anti-Narcotic Act, 38 Stat. 785, for "making unauthorized sales of cocaine to three different persons on different days" The indictment was in three counts, one covering each sale involved. The sentence imposed was "five years on each of said three counts. * * * * Said term of imprisonment to run consecutively and not concurrently."

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Torts-Liability For Inflicting Corporal Punishment Upon A Child

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff was an eleven year old boy who had been sent by his parents to work on defendant's farm. The boy's mother had signed a written statement, giving defendant authority to discipline him if and when he broke the regulations enforced upon the farm. The plaintiff had refused to perform some of the tasks assigned him, and had told several falsehoods, whereupon the defendant had inflicted corporal punishment upon his nude body by means of a crude rubber whip about 30 inches long. Held, one standing in loco parentis has the right to punish a child under his care, …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

The Legal Position Of Foreigners In Soviet Russia, Leo Zaitzeff Dr.

Michigan Law Review

The Soviet Government has replaced the entire previous legal order by legislation of its own; it is therefore not surprising that even in well informed legal circles outside of Russia very vague and indefinite notions exist regarding the legal situation there. In the last few years moreover, many states have considered it necessary to recognize the Soviet Government. Since this recognition or even before, there have been some economic undertakings within &met territory by foreign individuals, but even these persons for the most part were entirely unfamiliar with the Soviet laws.

Have The Bench And Bar Anything To Contribute To The Teaching Of Law?, Learned Hand

Michigan Law Review

The teaching of lawyers is indeed as distinct a vocation from the practice of law, as law is from engineering or science. You have of recent years come practically to recognize it by your increasing insistence upon the teacher's exclusive devotion to his calling, so that I suppose not only has the well-worn practitioner wholly disappeared, who from his semi-antiquation delivers a course of lectures, but the part time teacher even in the prime of his powers is more and more evidently doomed. I cannot see this change as anything but happy and advantageous. If for no other reason I …

Libel--A Limitation On The Privilege Of Publishing Reports Of Judicial Proceedings

Michigan Law Review

Is a newspaper privileged in fairly publishing the substance of a petition for divorce or other pleading immediately after it is filed in court? In the recent case of Washington Times v. Hines, (1925) 5 F. (2d) 541, in the District of Columbia, it appeared that defendant had published a typically facetious newspaper account of the divorce grounds alleged in a petition filed against plaintiff. The court of appeals, reversing a judgment of the trial court for plaintiff, held that the report was as a matter of law not libellous, since the bill was not susceptible of any other interpretation …

Erring Judges Of The Thirteenth Century, William Renwick Riddell

Michigan Law Review

The Royal Historical Society (of London) has published much material of great interest to lawyers-an humble Fellow, I think none is more interesting than that published in 1906: "State Trials of the Reign of Edward the First, 1289-1293".

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

What Is An Unreasonable Search?

Michigan Law Review

In Carroll v. United States (1925) 267 U. S. 132, 45 Sup. Ct. 280, the Supreme Court held that there may be a reasonable search of an automobile without a search warrant. The recent case of Agnello v. United States (Oct. 12, 1925) 46 Sup. Ct. 4, goes far in the opposite direction with reference to the search of a dwelling house. In the latter case several defendants were convicted of conspiracy to violate the Harrison Drug Act, a felony under the federal law. Two government revenue agents had negotiated with defendants Alba and Centorino in the home of Alba …

The Power Of The Written Assertion, Gustavus Ohlinger

Michigan Law Review

In his Outline of History Mr. Wells comments on the exaggerated estimate which people generally, through reading the Old Testament account, have come to entertain of the wisdom of Solomon and of the glory and prestige of the Israelitish Kingdom during his reign. By way of contrast, the facts, which are readily available and discernable even in the scriptural narrative, reveal this much advertised monarch as a rather insignificant chieftain and his kingdom as a pawn in the policies of his powerful neighbors-a striking example, according to Mr. Wells, of the power of the written assertion over realities in men's …

Canada's Treaty Making Power, C. D. Allin

Michigan Law Review

The question of the treaty-making power of the Dominion of Canada was raised in an acute form during the negotiations between Great Britain and the United States governments over the halibut fisheries. After several years of investigation and negotiation, a draft agreement was drawn up by the American State Department and sent to the Canadian government through the British ambassador at Washington. According to the title and preamble of the treaty, the convention was drawn up between the United States and Great Britain, but by Article I, "The Nationals and inhabitants and fishing vessels and boats of the United States …

International Law--Treaties--Are The Rum Tretaties Self-Executing?

Michigan Law Review

On May 22, 1924, the United States concluded a treaty with Great Britain by which the latter power agreed that it would raise no objection to the search and seizure of its ships by American authorities on the high seas, provided there was reason to suspect that such ships were committing or attempting to commit an offense against United States laws, and provided the search and seizure were made within an hour's run of the American coast. In return the United States conceded to British ships the privilege of bringing into its ports liquor in bond in their ship stores. …

The Intention Fallacy In The Construction Of Title Retaining Contracts, Abraham J. Levin

Michigan Law Review

''Truth", said William James, "lives for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs 'pass', so long as nothing challenges them, just as bank-notes pass, so long as nobody refuses them." This can also be said of legal principles. In the interpretation and construction of conditional sales and kindred title retaining instruments the courts and lawyers and text writers have assumed that the intention of the parties governs under all circumstances regardless of whether the suit is between the original parties to the contract, or whether the issue involves the rights of third parties. So far as …

The Significance Of The Endowment, John M. Zane

Michigan Law Review

Engraven over the entrance to this building are the words "The Character of the Legal Profession Depends on the Character of the Law Schools. The Character of the Law Schools Forecasts the Future of America."