Digital Commons Network^™

Taxation-Federal Income Tax-Accounting For Money Mistakenly Received Under A Claim Of Right, Allan Neef

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff taxpayer, as the general manager of a manufacturing corporation, received a bonus of approximately $22,000 for the 1944 calendar year, pursuant to a percentage-of-net-profits bonus arrangement. In 1946, a state court found that this bonus had been erroneously computed, and that the terms of the agreement only called for a payment to the plaintiff of about $11,000 for the prior year. As a result of this adverse judgment, the plaintiff repaid the excess to the corporation, and filed an amended tax return and a timely claim for a refund of the prior tax on such amount with the …

Wills-Construction-Use Of Extrinsic Evidence, John A. Hellstrom S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

An action for a declaratory judgment was brought by William C. Borah, Jr. against the Lincoln Hospital Association and William H. H. Moore. In July 1912, Robert E. Moore made a will bequeathing $10,000 each to his nieces, Gertrude and Julia Byerly. Gertrude had been married but her husband and only child died in 1908. Julia was married and had a son, the plaintiff. In June 1916, testator visited the nieces and the plaintiff and in December 1916, he added a codicil to his will reducing the bequests to the nieces to life estates with remainder to "the child of …

International Law-Trusteeship Compared With Mandate, Donald S. Leeper S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The mandate system represented an attempt to cope with the problem of nonself-governing territories as an international responsibility and, for the most part, was an advancement over former methods of treatment. The system was not perfect and its operation pointed up a number of its defects. The framers of the United Nations Charter formulated the trusteeship system to take the place of the mandate system, correcting its defects and adding certain innovations. The purpose of this comment is to present a brief comparison of the two systems and to consider a few of the major problems presented.

Constitutional Law-Civil Rights-Discharge Of Teachers For Subversive Activity, William H. Bates

Michigan Law Review

An action was brought seeking a declaratory judgment as to the constitutionality of New York's Feinberg law. The statute provided that the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York should list organizations found to be subversive. Membership in such organizations was made prima facie disqualification for the position of public school teacher. At the time of suit the Board of Regents had made no listing of subversive groups nor had any teacher been discharged under the provisions of this enactment. The supreme court of New York, special term, held the law unconstitutional; the appellate division …

Constitutional Law-Commerce Clause-State Regulation Of Interstate Commerce, William O. Allen

Michigan Law Review

The City of Madison enacted an ordinance prohibiting the sale within the municipality's jurisdiction of milk not pasteurized and bottled within five miles of the city's central square. Plaintiff, an Illinois corporation engaged in distributing milk and milk products in Illinois and Wisconsin, had its pasteurization plant in Illinois, approximately sixty-five miles from Madison. After it had been denied a permit to distribute milk in Madison, plaintiff brought an action for a declaratory judgment as to the validity of the ordinance. The ordinance was upheld by the Wisconsin Supreme Court as a reasonable exercise of the municipality's police power. On …

Federal Procedure-Venue-Waiver Of Title 28, United States Code, Section 1391(A), Under Nonresident Motorist Statutes, Nolan W. Carson S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A Connecticut resident brought a suit based on diversity of citizenship in a United States district court in Massachusetts against an Ohio corporation, alleging a cause of action arising from an automobile collision upon a Massachusetts highway. Plaintiff secured personal jurisdiction over the defendant by serving process upon the Registrar of Motor Vehicles for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and by giving notice to defendant in accordance with the Massachusetts nonresident motorist statute. Upon defendant's motion, the action was dismissed for improper venue. Held, defendant is not a Massachusetts resident for purposes of federal venue as defined by Title 28, …

Usury And Purchases On Credit, Harold G. Christensen S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant purchased goods of the plaintiff on credit, giving his note, secured by a chattel mortgage, for the balance of the purchase price. The total price included a "time price differential" which exceeded the lawful rate of interest computed on the unpaid balance. Defendant defaulted in payment of the note and plaintiff sued to recover the goods. Defendant pleaded that the mortgage and note included usurious interest. Held, there was a bona fide sale on credit and the note was not usurious. Brown v. Crandall, (S.C. 1950) 61 S.E. (2d) 761.

Corporations--Stockholders' Rights--Majority Discretion As Bar To Derivative Suit, Richard Darger

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs, minority stockholders of defendant corporation, brought an equitable action against certain directors thereof alleging the following wrongs: profits made by purchasing the corporation's notes at a discount; carrying out a plan to gain stock control; settlement of anti-trust suits out of court; excessive compensation of directors under management contracts alleged to violate anti-trust laws; paying excessive film rentals to another corporation. Plaintiffs unsuccessfully demanded that the board bring action against the directors on these grounds and then make a like demand at a stockholders' meeting. The stockholders voted not to sue, approved all actions alleged to be wrongs and …

Habeas Corpus-Jurisdiction Of Federal Courts To Review Jurisdiction Of Military Tribunals When The Prisoner Is Physically Confined Outside The United States, Willis B. Snell S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The question of the power of federal courts to issue the writ of habeas corpus for a prisoner confined outside the territorial United States has not as yet been completely answered. Until recently, there were few instances in which anyone was confined outside the United States under the authority of the United States. However, during and since World War II, American military tribunals have exercised power over citizens and aliens, civilians and military personnel, in many parts of the world, and especially in Germany and Japan. Because of this extended use of military tribunals, the question of the power of …

Virtue: Survey Of Metropolitan Courts: Detroit Area, Stephen H. Clink

Michigan Law Review

A Review of SURVEY OF METROPOLITAN COURTS: DETROIT AREABy Maxine Boord Virtue.

Union Powers And Workers' Rights, Clyde W. Summers

Michigan Law Review

The plight of the Highland group is not the product of labor strife, but of collective bargaining; not of employer discrimination, but of union power. It symbolizes in an extreme form the potential fate of an individual worker within the structure of unionization and collective bargaining. It sharply reminds us that contracts apply to workers, and that unions consist of members. It warns us that we must not become so obsessed with the glamor of studying mass action that we ignore the fate of those who make up the mass and in whose name the action is taken.

Such cases …

Habeas Corpus-Jurisdiction Of Federal Courts To Review Jurisdiction Of Military Tribunals When The Prisoner Is Physically Confined Outside The United States, Willis B. Snell S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The question of the power of federal courts to issue the writ of habeas corpus for a prisoner confined outside the territorial United States has not as yet been completely answered. Until recently, there were few instances in which anyone was confined outside the United States under the authority of the United States. However, during and since World War II, American military tribunals have exercised power over citizens and aliens, civilians and military personnel, in many parts of the world, and especially in Germany and Japan. Because of this extended use of military tribunals, the question of the power of …

Virtue: Survey Of Metropolitan Courts: Detroit Area, Stephen H. Clink

Michigan Law Review

A Review of SURVEY OF METROPOLITAN COURTS: DETROIT AREABy Maxine Boord Virtue.

Union Powers And Workers' Rights, Clyde W. Summers

Michigan Law Review

The plight of the Highland group is not the product of labor strife, but of collective bargaining; not of employer discrimination, but of union power. It symbolizes in an extreme form the potential fate of an individual worker within the structure of unionization and collective bargaining. It sharply reminds us that contracts apply to workers, and that unions consist of members. It warns us that we must not become so obsessed with the glamor of studying mass action that we ignore the fate of those who make up the mass and in whose name the action is taken.

Such cases …

The Limitation Of Taxation Of Transfers In Contemplation Of Death By The Revenue Act Of 1950, Edmund W. Pavenstedt

Michigan Law Review

The Revenue Act of 1950 amended the estate tax provision dealing with transfers in contemplation of death, which has been on the books ever since the estate tax first appeared as a war emergency measure during World War I, by eliminating from this category all transfers made more than three years prior to the date of death. All transfers made within that period are deemed under the new law to have been made in contemplation of death (and hence are includible in the transferor's gross estate) unless the contrary is shown. Such a rebuttable presumption formerly was limited by the …

The Limitation Of Taxation Of Transfers In Contemplation Of Death By The Revenue Act Of 1950, Edmund W. Pavenstedt

Michigan Law Review

The Revenue Act of 1950 amended the estate tax provision dealing with transfers in contemplation of death, which has been on the books ever since the estate tax first appeared as a war emergency measure during World War I, by eliminating from this category all transfers made more than three years prior to the date of death. All transfers made within that period are deemed under the new law to have been made in contemplation of death (and hence are includible in the transferor's gross estate) unless the contrary is shown. Such a rebuttable presumption formerly was limited by the …

Corporations--Stockholders' Rights--Majority Discretion As Bar To Derivative Suit, Richard Darger

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs, minority stockholders of defendant corporation, brought an equitable action against certain directors thereof alleging the following wrongs: profits made by purchasing the corporation's notes at a discount; carrying out a plan to gain stock control; settlement of anti-trust suits out of court; excessive compensation of directors under management contracts alleged to violate anti-trust laws; paying excessive film rentals to another corporation. Plaintiffs unsuccessfully demanded that the board bring action against the directors on these grounds and then make a like demand at a stockholders' meeting. The stockholders voted not to sue, approved all actions alleged to be wrongs and …

The Legislative Status Of An Unconstitutional Statute, Earl T. Crawford

Michigan Law Review

Once a statute has been found to violate some constitutional provision, a legislature is faced with a difficult problem of how to change the statute so as to effect the desired policy and still not violate constitutional principles. The general nature of this problem is suggested by such inquiries as these: Will the subsequent overruling of a previous judicial decision declaring a statute unconstitutional require any legislative action to put the statute into effect? Can a statute, which has been held violative of the constitution, be amended by corrective or curative legislation without complete re-enactment if the statute as amended …

Military Habeas Corpus: Ii, Seymour W. Wurfel

Michigan Law Review

The doctrine is well established that habeas corpus is an extraordinary remedy which will not ordinarily lie where the law has provided another remedy. The numerical pressure of habeas corpus petitions by all types of prisoners in recent years has reached such proportions as to constitute a major problem in the administration of justice. It has engaged the administrative consideration of judicial officers and been the subject of legislation both federal and state. The Chief Justice of the United States in an address before the American Bar Association on September 7, 1949 strikingly stated the problem and urged "that something …

Taxation-Immunity Of Federal Bonds To State Taxation, Lenamyra Saulson

Michigan Law Review

A New Jersey statute imposed a tax on domestic stock insurance corporations on the value of intangible property exclusive of tax-exempt property but required an assessment against all intangible property of not less than fifteen per cent of capital and surplus in excess of liabilities. In conformity with this statute, a tax was imposed on the appellant, a domestic stock insurance corporation, of fifteen per cent of the entire net worth, without deduction of the principal amount of tax-exempt United States bonds and accrued interest thereon. The appellant appealed to the United States Supreme Court on the ground that the …

Practice And Procedure-Trial Practice-Juror Affidavits, Paul M.D. Harrison S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The jury, in an action for trespass, returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff and thereafter separated after being dismissed by the court. Subsequently, a juror reported to the court that the verdict as returned did not express the actual agreement of the jury. Five days after dismissal the jury was recalled and, upon being polled, unanimously agreed that the verdict as returned did not represent the actual agreement of the jury due to an error in computation. The jury was sent back to the jury room under instructions to refigure the verdict only upon evidence already presented in …

Realization Of Income Through Cancellations, Modifications, And Bargain Purchases Of Indebtedness: I, L. Hart Wright

Michigan Law Review

Treasury regulations bearing on the tax consequence of a cancellation, modification, or bargain purchase of one's outstanding indebtedness date back to those issued in connection with the Revenue Act of 1918. Thirteen years elapsed after their issuance before the Supreme Court in 1931 finally approved, at least with respect to the bargain purchase with which it was concerned, the principal which the regulations incorporated, namely, that the savings effected by such debtors could, as a constitutional as well as a statutory matter, involve the realization of taxable income. Competing interpretations of that decision, the government insisting on a sweeping application …

Military Habeas Corpus: I, Seymour W. Wurfel

Michigan Law Review

The mobilization of over twelve million persons into the armed forces in World War II made necessary a vastly expanded resort to court martial proceedings to enforce the criminal law. The trial by military tribunals of civilian employees of the military establishment in overseas areas and of prisoners of war and war crimes defendants added substantially to the number confined by military authority. On January 31, 1950, there remained in federal penal institutions 2508 prisoners serving civilian type felony sentences imposed by military tribunals. Before World War II, legal problems arising from attempts to invoke the remedy of habeas corpus …

Alterations Of Accrued Dividends: Ii, Arno C. Becht

Michigan Law Review

If the present course of decisions is continued, it is a serious question whether investors can safely purchase preferred stock at a price above the common stock of the same corporation. In all frankness, such certificates should now bear on their faces a statement that they are subject to alteration in a great variety of ways, all to their detriment, and that if business is bad, losses will be visited upon them, regardless of the liquidation and other preferences which they have on paper. It seems not unlikely that corporations will find that the temporary expedients which they have adopted …

Habeas Corpus-Exhaustion Of State Remedies-Denial Of Certiorari By Supreme Court As Condition To Obtaining Original Writ In Federal District Court, B. J. George, Jr. S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The expanded concept of due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment during the past thirty years has brought increased inquiry by the federal courts into state criminal procedure. A common method of bringing such matters to the Supreme Court's attention has been the use of habeas corpus, particularly following confinement. But this increased vigilance over state criminal procedure has wrought an increasingly tender conscience on the part of the federal courts over resulting interference with state court systems. The theoretical problem has been further amplified on the practical level by the flood of petitions, largely frivolous or perjured, by …

Bills And Notes-Limitation Of Actions-Running Of The Statute Of Limitations Against The Holder Of A Check, Gordon I. Ginsberg

Michigan Law Review

Defendant issued a check to plaintiff's intestate on July 1, 1942 for services rendered. On April 21, 1943, the payee deposited the check in her bank, but it was returned to her uncollected because the bank on which it was drawn refused to make payment on account of its "stale" date. Nothing further was done to enforce payment of the check during the payee's lifetime, and she died on September 20, 1948. This action on the check was brought by her administrator on July 28, 1949. On appeal from a judgment for plaintiff, held, the action is barred by …

Gifts For The Benefit Of Minors, Austin Fleming

Michigan Law Review

Primarily because of tax incentives, lifetime gifts have become increasingly popular in recent years among persons of wealth. Until the Revenue Act of 1948, such gifts were frequently made between spouses. But the tax advantages of interspousal gifts were greatly lessened by the split-income privilege and the marital deduction, and a new inducement was given to gifts to third persons by the establishment of the right to treat such gifts as being one half from each spouse. As a result, gifts to children and grandchildren have taken on new prominence.

Venue Statutes: Diagnosis And Proposed Cure, George Neff Stevens

Michigan Law Review

Modern procedural reform movements have swept by the problems of venue with but little notice. This is unfortunate, for all too many cases are decided on a venue technicality, with complete disregard for the merits. Present day venue procedures are the result of historical developments and piecemeal legislative tinkering. The time has come for an appraisal and for corrective action.

Part I of this paper contains a comparative and critical study of venue statutes in the United States today. Part II points out how and why certain of these provisions have given rise to serious problems and suggests a few …

Alterations Of Accrued Dividends: I, Arno C. Becht

Michigan Law Review

When a preferred stock has cumulative dividends and the dividend period passes without payment, the dividend is said to "accrue." The meaning of the term "accrued" has been the subject of much inquiry. Since a stockholder cannot sue for an accrued dividend for the same reasons that he cannot sue for any other undeclared dividend, the term clearly does not mean what it does in the law of debt, i.e., that a cause of action has arisen. It means only that no dividend can be paid on the common stock until that dividend has been paid on the preferred stock. …

Tax Statutes-The Role Of Stare Decisis In Determining "Legislative Intent", Paul E. Anderson S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

An interesting case history recently unfolded by the Supreme Court reveals a novel application of stare decisis to decisions which interpret an act of Congress. The peregrinations of the Court have caused Congress to intervene on two occasions to settle the questions opened by the Court-although on the second occurrence the Court construed the act precisely as had Congress when it decried the Court's first interpretation. This imbroglio issued from the Revenue Act of 1918 under which Congress provided that transfers "intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment at or after his death" should be included in the donor's …