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Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Note And Comment, Gordon Stoner, Grover C. Grismore, Stanley E. Gifford, Stuart S. Wall

Michigan Law Review

What is a Public Purpose Justifying the Expenditure Therefore of Money Raised From Taxation - A recent Ohio case raises a question which is frequently discussed in connection with the activities of cities, i. e., 'what is a municipal or public purpose for the accomplishment of which city funds raised from taxation may be expended. The council of the city of Toledo passed an ordinance authorizing the expenditure of $1000 for the purpose of establishing a municipal moving-picture theater. The auditor refused to pay over to the director of public service the fund thus appropriated and mandamus was sought by …

Nature Of Legal Rights And Duties, Joseph W. Bingham

Michigan Law Review

One cannot long talk on a legal topic without using the words right and duty or some synonyms. It is familiar hearsay that a purpose of law is to create, delimit, and protect rights and to define and enforce duties. Therefore it is of importance to inquire what is meant by "a right" and by "a duty" when we use these terms in legal discussion. The question is a linguistic one; but in the process of finding the proper answer, we shall have to analyze some of our common sorts of mental concepts and perhaps shall finish with a clear …

Note And Comment, George E. Kennedy, Louis P. Lackey, John R. Rood, Gordon Stoner, Ralph W. Aigler

Michigan Law Review

The Law School -As a result of the increased requirements for admission, which are now in their second year of operation, the attendance at the Law School is less than that of last year, though the decrease is less than was anticipated at the time of the adoption of the higher requirements. The entering class (the second, under the new standard) is about thirty larger than that of last year. There are no changes in the teaching staff, and none of great importance in the curriculum.

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

University Of Michigan Department Of Law Annual Announcement 1913 - 1914 And Catalogue Of Students 1912-1913, University Of Michigan Law School

Law School Announcement and Bulletins

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Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front Matter for Michigan Law Review Vol 11 (1912-1913)

Some Reflections On The Law As To Monopoly Of Trade, S S. Gregory

Michigan Law Review

Paul and the other apostles were brought before the Council of Israel for preaching the doctrines of Christ contrary to the mandates of that body. Gamaliel, a Pharisee and a doctor of the law, stood up in the Council and said: "Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men. And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone; for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye can not overthrow it; lest haply …

Note And Comment, Edwin C. Goddard, Ralph W. Aigler, Robert L. Mayall, Charles A. Wagner, Hester E. Yntema

Michigan Law Review

The Effect of the Carmack Amendment to the Hepburn Act Upon Limitation by Common Carrier of the Amount of their Liability - Two cases, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States on March 10, 1913, may be considered together. They are developments of the cases reviewed in II MICH. L. Rev. 460. Plaintiff shipped two boxes and a barrel of 'household goods" under an agreement that the goods, in case of loss, should be valued at $5 per hundred-weight. One box, weighing not over 200 pounds and actually worth $75, was lost. The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed …

Relations Between Equity And Law, Wesley Newcomb Hohfield

Michigan Law Review

At the last annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools, Professor Walter W. COOK contributed an interesting address on Equity and its relation to Law. Taking as his more specific subject, "THE PLACE OF EQUITY IN OUR LEGAL SYSTEM," the speaker began his discussion with an extensive quotation from MAITLAND'S LECTURES ON EQUITY,--a work cordially welcomed by that distinguished scholar's many admirers upon its posthumous publication in the fall of 1909.

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

Banks and Banking - Right to Set-off Deposit Against Debt Due Bank - L. Bank set off a matured debt due to it by a depositor against the amount due by the bank to the depositor, all of which was done after the death of the depositor and after appraisers appointed to set apart a year's support to his widow had made a return, setting apart the amount due by the bank to the decedent. Held, that the bank exercised its right of setoff too late, Luthersville Banking Co. v. Hopkins (Ga. 1913) 77 S. R: 589.

Note And Comment, Edwin C. Goddard, Jack M. Hendrick, Wilson W. Mills, Samuel H. Morris, George A. Cram

Michigan Law Review

The Effect of the Carmack Amendment to the Hepburn Act Upon State Laws as to Limitation by Contract of the Amount of the Liability of a Common Carrier - Three recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States involving the construction, of the Carmack Amendment to the Hepburn Act may be considered together, as the second was governed wholly and the third largely by the decision of the first. In the first case plaintiff delivered to defendant express company at Cincinnati, Ohio, a diamond, ring consigned to Augusta, Georgia. The package was never delivered, and plaintiff recovered judgment …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

Bankruptcy - Jurisdiction Depending on Principal Place of Business, Residence or Domicile - B, a domiciled resident of New York, employed by an express company in New York City in the capacity of a rate clerk, moved to New Jersey in igo8 for the purpose of acquiring a residence which would give the courts of that state jurisdiction of a contemplated divorce proceeding against his wife. He retained his position with the express company in New York, and in 1911 he secured a divorce in New York, the sole ground of jurisdiction of the New York court being that the …

Is The Doctrine Of Consideration Senseless And Illogical, Henry Winthrop Ballantine

Michigan Law Review

In a recent article Dean ASHLEY, a distinguished authority on contracts, takes the somewhat paradoxical position of being at the same time counsel for the defense and also prosecutor of the doctrine of consideration. While defending it against various relaxations and modifications which have been suggested to accomplish more rational and just results, which he denounces as subterfuge and unwarranted usurpation of legislative power by the courts, he also, as it were, saws off the branch he is sitting on, by contending that the time has now come, either for the courts themselves to overrule the entire doctrine, or for …

Ingenuity Of The Infringer And The Courts, Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

The person who imitates a trademark has by common consent come to be described as a "pirate." At the time the designation was first applied, it was more or less appropriate. The pirate saw and coveted his neighbor's successful business, and like any MORGAN, TEACH, SHARKEY, or L'OLLONOIS, sighting a fat galleon laden with plate wallowing in the trade winds, homeward bound from the Indies, he laid himself alongside and took what he wanted. He counterfeited marks and labels as exactly as he could, not as he dared. There was no limit to his impudence. He was deterred only by …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

Bankruptcy - Judgment for Breach of Promis, Aggravated by Seduction, Not Dischargeable - Petitioner 'had secured a judgment against the bankrupt for the breach of a promise to marry, seduction under such promise having been pleaded in aggravation of damages; the common law rule prevails in New York and a woman may not maintain an action for her own seduction. The District Court (196 Fed. 571), viewing this as a judgment grounded solely in contract, and not in tort as "for -will-ful and malicious injury to the person or property of another," or for "seduction of an unmarried female," held …

Note And Comment, Ralph W. Aigler, Robert L. Mayall, Sidney E. Doyle, Burke W. Shartel

Michigan Law Review

The Character of User In Prescription - As the possession of the claimant in a case of adverse possession must be shown to have been adverse in order to ripen into title, so also must the user in prescription be shown to have been adverse during -the endure prescriptive period. As to the burden of proving the adverse character of the possession in the first case there seems to be doubt whether there is a presumption of adverseness by showing open possession and acts of ownership, or whether there is a burden upon the claimant to go further. See 2 …

Declarations In The Course Of Duty Herein Of Refreshing Recollection, A N. Whitlock

Michigan Law Review

The law of evidence is largely a law of exceptions. Lawyers and judges are not so frequently troubled with the question as to whether a certain bit of testimony is relevant, as they are in determining whether a certain bit of relevant testimony is admissible. In other words, the bulk of the law of evidence is concerned with exceptions to the general proposition that everything that is relevant is admissible. It should be noted that relevant is used as meaning "logically probative." The hearsay rule, various rules. With reference to opinion evidence, real evidence and evidence of character and the …

Note And Comment, George S. Burgess, Samuel H. Morris, William T. Hoffman

Michigan Law Review

Ten-Hour Labor Laws - The United States Supreme Court will soon have another opportunity to pass on the questions involved in that thorn. in the flesh of social reformers-the Bakeshop Case-if, as is probable, a case recently decided by the Mississippi Supreme Court is carried higher. Last year Mississippi enacted a sweeping ten-hour law making it unlawful for persons, firms or corporations engaged, in manufacturing or repairing "to work their employees more than ten hours per day except in cases of emergency or -where public necessity requires." Defendant, engaged in the manufacture of lumber and in the repair of its …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

Bankruptcy - Jurisdiction of the District Court Exclusive Within Its District - A trustee in bankruptcy appointed, by the District 'Court for the District of Illinois filed a petition in the District Court for the Western District of Michigan for a summary order to require the respondent to surrender to the trustee certain moneys claimed as the property of the bankrupt. The respondent was a resident of the Eastern District of Michigan, and denied the jurisdiction of the court to issue an order to be enforced in another district. Held that the jurisdiction of the District Courts, in all bankruptcy …

Practice Court Rules, University Of Michigan Law School

Miscellaneous Law School History & Publications

The purpose of the Practice Court is to afford to students of this department practical instruction in pleading both at law and in equity, under the common law system and the "reformed" or "code" procedure, and actual experience in the commencement and trial of cases through all their stages.

This booklet outlines the Practice Court Rules for 1913.

Note And Comment, Ralph W. Aigler, Wilson W. Mills, Sidney E. Doyle, Joseph J. Kennedy

Michigan Law Review

The Renvoi Theory Repudiated as a Test for Determining the Negotiability of a Note - A recent case decided by the Supreme Court of Oklahoma (Bell v. Riggs, 127 Pac. 427) involving, among others, a question as to what law governs the negotiability of a note made in one State and payable in another, though of little intrinsic value so far as that point is concerned, is of some interest because the attorney for the holder of the note made a curious attempt to adapt the renvoi theory to his case. The term renvoi is used as a convenient descriptive …

The Department Of Law And The State, Henry M. Bates

Articles

We are living in a period of extraordinary unrest. The spirit of criticism is prevalent, and no belief or creed, no institution is exempt from this questioning spirit of the time. Among social institutions perhaps none is being more relentlessly subjected to attack than the law as administered in our courts and practiced by our lawyers. It is true that much of the criticism leveled at legal institutions is unreasonable and is based upon ignorance or prejudice, but there remains a residuum of complaint which is well founded. In the very nature of things law and its administration always have …

Popular Discontent With Law And Some Proposed Remedies, Henry M. Bates

Articles

That the practice of law and the administration of justice are under the fire of popular distrust and criticism of extraordinary intensity requires no proof. A fact of which there is evidence in numerous contemporary books, in almost every magazine, in the daily papers, in the remarks, or the questions, or it may be in the sneers of one's friends, requires no further demonstration. The only questions of importance to be answered are to what extent this criticism and this distrust are well founded, what are the remedies for such defects as exist, and what are we lawyers going to …

The Effect Of The Carmack Amendment To The Hepburn Act Upon Limitation By Common Carriers Of The Amount Of Their Liability, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

Two cases, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States on March 1O, 1913, may be considered together. They are developments of the cases reviewed in 11 MICH. L. Rev. 460. Plaintiff shipped two boxes and a barrel of "household goods" under an agreement that the goods, in case of loss, should be valued at $5 per hundred-weight. One box, weighing not over 200 pounds and actually worth $75, was lost. The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed a judgment against the carrier for the full value. 91 Ark. 97, 121 S. W. 932, 134 A. S. R. 56. On …

Constitutionality Of Teachers' Pensions Legislation, Horace Lafayette Wilgus

Articles

To arrive at a safe conclusion as to the validity of legislation. providing for teachers' pensions requires some consideration of all pension legislation. A pension is defined by BOUVIER as "A stated and certain allowance granted by the government to an individual, or those who represent him, for valuable services performed by him for the country;"1 "a periodical allowance of money granted by the government for services rendered;"2 "a stated payment to a person in consideration of the past services of himself or of some kinsman or ancestor;"3 "an annuity from the government for services rendered in the past;"4 "a …

The Lien Theory Of The Mortgage--Two Crucial Problems, Edgar N. Durfee

Articles

In a recent article in this review1 the writer discussed in a general way the nature of a mortgage of real property in the states which adopt the lien or equitable theory of the mortgage. The conclusion therein arrived at was that, while the mortgage does not convey the legal title to the land until foreclosure, it does convey to the mortgagee, at the time of its execution, a present interest in the land, the general ownership of which remains in the mortgagor-an interest which is limited and special, more analogous to an easement than to general ownership; which is …

Compulsory Service In Office, W. Gordon Stoner

Articles

It was "the policy of prudent antiquity," as Lord COKE has said, "that officers did ever give a grace to the place, and not the place only grace (to) the officer."1 A modern expression of a similar thought is found in the maxim, "the office should seek the man and not the man, the office." Have we Americans reversed the process? Have we lost sight of these ideals? Certain it is that some popular notions which are not consistent with the spirit of these maxims have grown up in this country. Offices have come to be regarded too much as …

The Teaching Of Practice And Procedure In Law Schools, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

Procedure is merely the means of co-ordinating effort, of harmonizing differences, of offering every one equality of opportunity in offense and defense before the law. Without it there would be confusion, favoritism, and injustice. If the subject were viewed in this fundamental way, and were studied conscientiously as an incident and aid to the development and determination of the merits of controversies, the criticisms now so fiercely directed against it would largely disappear. In its use it is indispensable, in its abuse only does it cause trouble. A professional conscience to curb that abuse, and professional learning and skill to …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

Students and teachers of law, as well as historically-minded practitioners -though the number of the latter is, alas, all too few-have long felt the need of a brief but adequate and authoritative account of the origin and growth of English legal institutions. Previous treatises, based on modern investigations, notably those of Pollock and Maitland and Holdsworth, are not only too exhaustive, but do not completely cover the ground. Convinced, like many others of the present day, "that a rich field of educational effort awaited development," Mr. Jenks, already well-known for his contributions to various aspects of the subject, has at …