Digital Commons Network^™

Corporations - Rights Of Bondholder Under A Trust Indenture

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff was the owner of bonds issued by the defendant real estate corporation which were secured by real estate mortgages in the control of a trustee under a trust indenture to which reference was made in the bonds. The indenture provided, "no holder . . . shall have any right to institute any suit, action or proceeding at law or in equity or take any other steps or proceedings for any remedy hereunder," unless 25 per cent of the holders shall have requested the trustee to exercise the powers granted and the trustee thereafter fails or refuses to proceed. Plaintiff, …

Trusts - Tracing Of Assets - Preference

Michigan Law Review

Public funds were unlawfully deposited in the insolvent bank. At the time the bank closed the cash in its own vault was less than the amount of public funds deposited but it did have, at the time of closing and at all times before, deposits in correspondent banks which, taken with the cash in its own vault, exceeded the amount of the public funds unlawfully deposited. Held, that the unlawful deposit of the public funds, the bank knowing them to be public funds, created a trust of those funds in the hands of the bank, which trust was impressed …

Book Notes And Notices

Michigan Law Review

This department undertakes to list and, when possible, describe briefly current books on law and related subjects (e.g. economics, business, finance, sociology, government, etc.) which are of possible value to the legal profession.

Limitation Of Diversity Jurisdiction In Cases Affecting Foreign Corporations, Gustavus Ohlinger

Michigan Law Review

On February 29, 1932, President Hoover sent to the Senate and House of Representatives a message recommending that the jurisdiction of federal courts based on diversity of citizenship be modified by "providing that where a corporation, organized under the laws of one State, carries on business in another State it shall be treated as a citizen of the State wherein it carries on business as respects suits brought within that State between it and the residents thereof arising out of the business carried on in such State."

Corporations - Insolvency - Statutes Giving Priority To Wage Claims

Michigan Law Review

Statutes giving liens or preferences to wage claims upon the insolvency of corporations are found among the laws of many states. In reference to the priority established, these statutes can be divided into three classes: those specifically stating that the lien or preference created shall be prior to all other claims not secured by specific liens, those specifically stating that wage claims shall be superior to all other claims upon the property of the corporation, including mortgages, and those making wage claims a lien or preferred debt to be paid "before any other debt or debts." Under this last type …

Wills -Validity Of Contracts To Suppress

Michigan Law Review

Certain children entered into a contract during the lifetime of their parents, by the terms of which it was agreed that if the will of either parent should favor some of the children above others, the favored children would waive their rights under the will and share equally in the real and personal estate of the parents. The will of the father left the whole estate to the mother. Her will omitted any gift to one of the children, and this suit was brought by an assignee of that child to obtain specific performance of the agreement. Held, that …

Torts - Federal Employers Liability Act - Misrepresentation To Gain Employment

Michigan Law Review

P applied for a position as switchman with the defendant company. Defendant company had a rule that no one should be employed over the age of 45. Employees who had reached the age of 65 were pensioned but this limit was extended in some cases to 70. To gain employment, P, who was 49, represented that he was 38. He was accepted, and worked for 7 years when he was injured through defendant's negligence while engaged in interstate commerce. Held, his misrepresentation to gain employment did not bar recovery under the Federal Employers Liability Act, it not appearing that …

Crimes - Procedure - Limitation Of Actions - Extension Of Statutory Period

Michigan Law Review

The defendant was indicted in September, 1930, for having robbed a bank in August, 1927. At the time of his act, the statute of limitation of actions required that prosecutions for certain offenses be commenced within five years after the act, and included in this group the crime termed "robbery." Prosecutions for other offenses were barred after two years. In May, 1929, a new statute provided that prosecutions for felonies be commenced within five years after commission of the act by the accused. The defendant contended that robbing a bank was not within the scope of the term "robbery" as …

Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front Matter for Volume 30, Issue 5 of Michigan Law Review

Protection Of Employees Against Abrupt Discharge, G. T. Schwenning

Michigan Law Review

The dismissal compensation law movement is a significant, though relatively new, effort on the part of industrial nations to minimize the hazards of employment uncertainty. It is a development in labor legislation of recent origin designed to stabilize employment contracts by limiting employers' freedom of arbitrary and abrupt discharge. Where such statutes have been enacted, employers are required to give their employees advance notice of the termination of the labor contract or to pay compensation in lieu of notice. The length of the time of notice ranges in different countries from five days to two years, while the discharge compensation …

Conflict Of Laws-Judicial Notice Of Foreign Law

Michigan Law Review

Substantively, "the subject of judicial notice . . . belongs where the general topic of legal or judicial reasoning belongs, - to that part of the law which defines among other things, the nature and limitations of the judicial function - it is, indeed, woven into the very texture of this function." Functionally, the subject of judicial notice is that portion of procedural law relating to "Proof'' wherein the ordinary rules of evidence are inapplicable. That is to say, certain propositions, "facta probanda," of a party's case will be taken for true by the tribunal without proof. These are generally …

Equity- Constitutional Law - Power Of Legislature To Change Equitable Doctrines

Michigan Law Review

A Nebraska statute provided that in case of insolvency of a state bank the general depositors, subject to prior liens for taxes, have a first lien on all assets of the bank. A bank converted a note deposited for a special purpose, and indistinguishably mingled the proceeds with the general assets of the bank before insolvency. The deposit was held to have created a trust and the cestui was allowed to recover the amount of the note (trust fund) as a preferred claim upon the general assets of the bank. To the argument that this statute prohibited the imposition of …

Corporations - Right Of Stockholders To Compel Leave To Inspect Books Of A Delaware Corporation

Michigan Law Review

At common law an incident to the ownership of stock in a corporation is the right or privilege to inspect the books or records of the corporation. The right is analogous to that of partners to examine the records and books of the firm. However, it is not an absolute, unqualified right at common law, but one which is conditional on the good faith and proper purposes of the stockholder.

Constitutional Law - Extent Of State Police Power In Protection Of Public Health

Michigan Law Review

An Illinois statute prohibited the manufacture or sale of milk to which had been added any fat or oil other than milk fat. The defendant was engaged in manufacturing for sale outside of the state a product composed of skimmed milk and cocoanut oil which was not deleterious to health in any way. When it was sought to recover the penalty imposed by the statute for its violation, it was claimed that the law was unconstitutional in that it deprived the defendant of property without due process of law. The court held that the statute was an invalid exercise of …

Descent And Distribution - Issue Of Void Miscegenous Marriage As Heirs Under Legitimation Statute

Michigan Law Review

An Indian married a negress in Oklahoma. The proper forms were observed, the parties acted in good faith, and thereafter lived together as husband and wife. Children were born to them. The marriage was absolutely void under an Oklahoma statute prohibiting such miscegenation and making it a felony. On the father's death intestate, the guardian of the children petitioned for letters of administration. Held, that under Okla. Comp. Stat. 1921, sec. I 1303, reading, "The issue of all marriages null in law . . . are legitimate," the children of the void marriage took as heirs, and the petition …

Equity-Injunctions - Enjoining Police Officers

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff asked for a temporary injunction restraining the defendant sheriff from raiding or otherwise interfering with a "marathon" dance contest conducted in a regularly licensed dance hall. No statute making such contests illegal was cited by the defendant. There was considerable evidence that the sheriff, who had formerly approved of the marathon, was using his authority to extort $5,000 from the plaintiff. Held, equity can restrain officers from extra-judicial condemnation by physical means, such as raids and continuous trespasses destroying the plaintiff's business, on the mere claim that the criminal law may be violated. Ruty v. Huelsenbeck (N. …

Municipal Corporations - Validity Of Setback Ordinances In Improved Districts

Michigan Law Review

Mulleady sought but was refused permission to inclose with glass a porch on a lot located in the city of Trenton. The municipality was authorized to make building regulations for the purpose of lessening congestion in streets, securing safety from fire, panic, or other danger, promoting health, morals, or general welfare, providing adequate light and air, or avoiding concentration of population. Section 12 of the municipal ordinance provided that no building should be erected, reconstructed, or altered so as to project in any wise beyond the average setback lines observed by the buildings on the same side of the street …

Public Officers - When Do They Owe A Duty To A Particular Individual Rather Than A Class?

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff, a stockholder in the Bank of the United States, sued the defendant, superintendent of banks for New York State, for losses sustained when the bank failed as a result of the defendant's failure to perform certain acts required by statute. Held, the defendant, being charged by statute with a duty to all the people of the state, owed no duty to the stockholders as individuals, and was not liable to the plaintiff. Walker v. Broderick, 252 N. Y. S. 559 (1931).

Taxation-Power To Determine Income Tax Rate Of Husband On Basis Of Combined Income Of Husband And Wife

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff and his wife had separate incomes and estates. The Wisconsin income tax law provided that married persons living together might make separate returns, but that the tax rate should be that rate which would apply had their incomes been combined in a single return. Wis Stat., 1927, c. 71.05 (2) (d), c. 71.09(4) (c). Income tax rates, under the Wisconsin law, are graduated according to the size of the income. Married women are given equal property and contract rights with men under the Wisconsin statutes. The plaintiff, protesting against payment of a higher rate than that prescribed for …

An Extravagant Account

Michigan Law Review

A review of OUR LAWLESS POLICE. By Ernest Jerome Hopkins.

A Reference Work On Post War Treaties

Michigan Law Review

A review of POSTWAR TREATIES FOR THE PACIFIC SETTLEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL DISPUTES. By Max Habicht

A Valuable Record Of International Practice

Michigan Law Review

A review of PUBLIC DEBTS AND STATE SUCCESSION. By Ernst H. Feilchenfeld

Book Notes And Notices

Michigan Law Review

This department undertakes to list and, when possible, describe briefly current books on law and related subjects (e.g. economics, business, finance, sociology, government, etc.) which are of possible value to the legal profession.

Equitable Limitations On Statutory Or Charter Powers Given To Majority Stockholders, Norman D. Lattin

Michigan Law Review

The object of this paper is to examine certain fundamental corporate changes which statutes or articles frequently authorize majority stockholders, or a certain proportion of all, to bring about, and to ascertain whether courts have looked simply to the literal wording of the authority and have sanctioned the action if in accord with the statute or whether they have implied equitable restrictions in spite of apparently unlimited authority in the statute or articles. How far, for example, have courts gone in the direction of the business man's idea that the corporation, after all, is a democratic affair, and that the …

Judicial Attitudes In The Customs-Union Case, Robert Elden Mathews

Michigan Law Review

The World Court decision of last September in the Austro-German Customs case has given rise in many quarters to an attack upon the Court itself.

The criticism has not been based solely upon the eight-to-seven vote of the judges. We have too many one-man majorities in our own judiciary to find much concern there. But the alignment of nationalities from which the two groups of judges come has been the source of the greatest adverse comment. For it so happens that the majority, holding illegal the proposed Customs Union, was composed of judges many of whose nations were opposed to …

Insurance - Accidental Means - Unlawful Conduct- Public Policy

Michigan Law Review

Insured was shot by police officers while attempting to escape in a car which he and his companions had just stolen. The officers had no specific intent to kill, but did intend to make the arrest and were shooting to frighten the felons into stopping. The policy contained no specially exempted risks, but did provide for additional indemnity if the insured died of injuries sustained solely through "external, violent, and accidental means." The face value of the policy was not contested, but the insurer contested the right to the additional sum. Held, the death was not caused by accidental …

Negligence - Contribution Between Concurrent Tort Feasors - Subrogation

Michigan Law Review

A truck owner parked his truck on a public street at night knowing that the rear light was not burning. A Minnesota statute made it illegal to park a car at night without a light. The defendant negligently ran into the truck, whereby one of his companions was injured. The plaintiff, as insurer of the truck owner, paid for the injury, becoming subrogated to any right of contribution which the truck owner might have against the defendant. Held, that if the truck driver were guilty of negligence only, recovery could be had, but where there is an intentional wrong …

The Assignment Of Trade Marks And Trade Names, Grover C. Grismore

Michigan Law Review

Unfortunately there is much confusion in the books in regard to the transferability of trade marks and trade names. The law on the matter is neither clearly stated nor always uniformly applied. The generalization that one finds most frequently, both in cases and in text books, is the categorical assertion that trade marks and trade names are not assignable in gross - that they can be transferred only as incidental to a transfer of the business or property in connection with which they have been used. Rightly interpreted, this statement is doubtless a truism. However, the implications frequently drawn from …

The Constitution And The International Labor Conventions, Harold W. Stoke

Michigan Law Review

The International Labor Organization, since its establishment in 1919, has become one of the most active of the international institutions of the post-war period. It was founded upon that provision of the Treaty of Versailles which binds each signatory nation and those which should later join the organization to endeavor to secure and maintain fair and humane conditions of labor for men, women and children, both in their own countries and in the countries to which their commercial and industrial relations extend.

Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front Matter for Volume 30, Issue 4 of Michigan Law Review