Digital Commons Network^™

Criminal Law And Procedure-Recent Developments-(A Service For Returning Veterans), John B. Waite

Michigan Law Review

In discussing developments of the criminal law during the war years it is convenient to group them into the three conventional divisions-substantive, procedural, and penal.

Abstracts, Mary Jane Plumer

Michigan Law Review

The abstracts consist merely of summaries of the facts and holdings of recent cases and are distinguished from the notes by the absence of discussion.

Book Notes, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This department undertakes to list and, when possible, describe briefly current books on law and matters closely related thereto.

Evidence--Recent Developments (A Service For Returning Veterans), John E. Tracy

Michigan Law Review

The developments in the law of evidence in the war years have not been great. They have been mainly along the lines of tests for witnesses, the use of confessions in criminal cases, the interpretation by the courts of the so-called "Business Entries" Act and the adoption by the American Law Institute of a proposed Code of Evidence.

Conflict Of Laws-Statute Of Limitations-State Statute Binding On Federal Court In Equity Case When Sole Ground Of Jurisdiction Is Diversity Of Citizenship, Samuel D. Estep S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant trust company was trustee for enforcing the rights of noteholders of the Van Sweringen Corporation. When it became apparent that the Corporation could not meet its obligations, defendant company gave an option to noteholders to sell the notes for 50 per cent cash plus stock in the Van Sweringen Corporation. The donor from whom the plaintiff had received some of these notes as a gift had not accepted the exchange. Plaintiff brings suit for an alleged breach of trust. The circuit court of appeals held, reversing the summary judgment of the district court, "that in a suit brought on …

Insurance-Misrepresentation-False Answers Inserted In Application By Soliciting Agent, Milton D. Solomon S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff brought this action against the defendant insurance company as beneficiary of a life insurance policy. The insured signed the application in blank and the soliciting agent inserted false answers to questions in the application concerning medical attendance and prior application for insurance. The application was inserted in and became a part of the policy. The policy was mailed by the defendant to the insured with a return post-card wherein it was stated that the statements on the application were correct and that the insured was in good health. The card was signed by the insured, witnessed by the …

The Disputes Article In Government Contracts, Leslie L. Anderson

Michigan Law Review

An approach to the subject of government contracts requires some departure from the lawer's usual concept of a legal right. In this field, departures from generally accepted principles of contract law have developed in no small part from administrative practice, and the concept of a legal right cannot be thought of simply from the angle of enforceability in court. In transactions between private parties, the fact that the United States Supreme Court in Chase Securities Corporation v. Donaldson recently treated a legal right as being in essence merely dormant after the running 6f the statute of limitations against it would …

Federal Procedure-Appeal Under Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act--Scope Of Admiralty Appeal Compared With Appeal Under The New Federal Rules, De Witte Chatterton

Michigan Law Review

Appellee, the United States government, by a proceeding in rem, sought to condemn two shipments of canned oysters packed by appellant, the C. C. Company, under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, on the ground that the oysters were wholly or partially decomposed. The district court found for the appellee on conflicting evidence of experts, and appellant appealed to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. On the theory that procedure on appeal should conform to appeals in admiralty, the circuit court of appeals reviewed the whole case de novo, reversed the district court on the ground …

Mr. Justice William Johnson And The Common Incidents Of Life: Ii, A. J. Levin

Michigan Law Review

Here must be the key to Johnson's constitutional jurisprudence, which time, and the effect of the repression of Marshall's domination has obscured. The dynamic pattern of his thought is, however, unmistakable when analyzed without the burden of prepossession. There can be little meaning to what Johnson said in Ogden v. Saunders unless conceived in relation to Johnson's whole approach to man and society and his repeated insistence upon "that communication of thought and experiment without which nothing human can advance in improvement." Otherwise, we are unable to reconcile his repeated dwelling upon the literal meaning of words and their "technical …

Habeas Corpus-Federal Courts-May Application For Habeas Corpus Addressed To One Federal Judge Be Heard By Another Judge Of The Same Court?, G. R. Thornton

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner applied to a specific district court judge for a writ of habeas corpus. Following the practice of the court of which he was a member, this judge filed the petition with the clerk of the court, and it was assigned to a second judge, who denied the petition. From this decision petitioner appealed. Two questions were raised (1) whether a writ of habas corpus should be granted; and (2) whether it is mandatory that a petition of habeas corpus addressed to a specific judge of the district court be heard and determined by that judge to the exclusion of …

Clearance Of Land Titles-A Statutory Step, Ralph W. Aigler

Michigan Law Review

Public Act of Michigan, No. 200, was approved by the governor on May 17, 1945. Its preparation and enactment are the result of a growing urge for the amelioration of certain conditions in land title transactions.

Mr. Justice William Johnson And The Common Incidents Of Life: I, A. J. Levin

Michigan Law Review

When Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes filed his brief dissenting opinion in Lochner v. New York in 1905 he must have noticed something new on the American horizon. In this now famous opinion he initiated the first steps which were to usher in a new era in American jurisprudence. "General propositions do not decide concrete cases," he announced with axiomatic brevity and, thus, gave the first telling blow to what may well be termed "introspective jurisprudence." This generalization on the subject of generality was followed in the opinion by a more concrete application, the implementing assertion that a reasonable man might …

Waiver Of Protest: A Comparative Study, Raúl Olivera Y Borges

Michigan Law Review

Parallel to the study of protest, it is pertinent to consider the nature and legal effects of exempting clauses which, while not essential, may be found in bills of exchange. Waiver of protest appears to have been introduced by the practice in France during the first third of the nineteenth century. It is generally used to moderate the consequences of non-payment, by a drawer who lacks confidence in the solvency of the drawee, or who fears that he may not be able to provide the necessary funds before maturity. The drawer can thus spare the susceptibilities of a drawee who …

Abstracts, Mary Jane Plumer

Michigan Law Review

The abstracts consist merely of summaries of the facts and holdings of recent cases and are distinguished from the notes by the absence of discussion.

Contracts-Anticipatory Breach Of A Unilateral Obligation To Pay Money, George Brody

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a real estate broker, was employed by defendant under a contract to negotiate the purchase of tracts of land. By the terms of the contract, plaintiff's commission was not to be paid until defendant accepted title to the land purchased. A sale of land for defendant was consummated by plaintiff but defendant, before accepting title, denied the existence of any contractual obligation to plaintiff for his services. Plaintiff brought suit for his commission. Held, there can be no recovery on a unilateral obligation to pay money before time for payment has arrived. The anticipatory breach doctrine is applicable …

Aspects Of Wage Stabilization By The National War Labor Board, David Haber

Michigan Law Review

Most economists assume that behind an unrestricted war economy lurk the dangers of inflation. Although national income increases, so much of the country's productive effort is devoted to the manufacture of war goods that the number of articles available for civilian consumption necessarily diminishes. This gap between the available supply and the existing purchasing power has the effect of raising prices. Rising wages aggravate this situation because they increase production costs which are then passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices, and because, by further increasing the purchasing power of the population, they increase the gap …

Administration Of Estates-Requirement Of Notice For Probate Of Will Or Grant Of Letters Of Administsration, Elizabeth Durfee

Michigan Law Review

To lawyers and judges in states which require notice for the initiation of probate or administration, it may come as a shock to discover that there are many jurisdictions in which these proceedings can be had without any notice whatever. It is the purpose of this note to investigate the situation in the various states, in order to show that in nearly half of them notice is not considered essential. The sole question to be considered is notice or no notice; this comment is not concerned with the kind of notice required, nor with the possibility of waiver of notice …

Future Interests-Worthier Title Doctrine Applied To Remainder To Next Of Kin Where The Subject Matter Is Personalty, Margaret Groefsema S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The trustee bank petitioned for instructions as to the proper disposition of the remainder of a trust of personal property, the principal of which amounted to some $29,000 upon the life beneficiary's death in 1942. The donor had provided for a life estate in the income, the principal to go to the settler's statutory next of kin under the laws of intestacy of the state of Massachusetts in default of the exercise by the settler of a reserved power of appointment. The court, having held that a will which Nicolls, the settler, had executed in favor of various friends of …

Clovis Bevilaqua And The Brazilian Civil Code, Anyda Marchant

Michigan Law Review

Clovis Bevilaqua is a monument in the history of Brazilian law. His death on July 26, 1944, closed the door on an epoch. When he began his career in the eighties, Brazilian law, with the exception of the commercial code, was uncoordinated and outmoded. Now. Brazil is in a period of very active work on the recodification of its laws and their adaptation to the needs of modern life. Not all of this change is the work of one man, but Bevilaqua was the principal lingering representative, among the lawyers, of the intellectual movement that accompanied the setting up of …

Maximum Prices With Respect To Agricultural Commodities, Robert H. Shields

Michigan Law Review

As we all know, prices of agricultural commodities during this war have been directly and substantially affected by Government controls and will probably continue to be so affected in the immediate future. These controls take two forms: First, there are those relating to price floors, that is, minimum support prices with respect to agricultural commodities; and, second, there are those relating to price ceilings, that is, maximum prices with respect to agricultural commodities.

The Administration Of A Decedent's Estate As A Proceeding In Rem, Lewis M. Simes

Michigan Law Review

For over a century American courts and text writers have referred to the administration of a decedent's estate as a proceeding in rem. Indeed, it has recently been asserted that a probate proceeding is "universally recognized as a proceeding in rem." But more cautious persons have been content to suggest that it is at least "quasi in rem," or have carefully skirted the fog which is wont to envelop this area of the law and given it silent treatment. Thus, the American Law Institute Restatement of the Law of Judgments ( which purports to include the law of probate decrees) …

Trade-Marks: Monopoly Or Competition?, Leslie Davidson Taggart

Michigan Law Review

Three articles have appeared in the Georgetown Law Journal in which the thesis is asserted that trade-marks are monopolies in restraint of trade under the Anti-Trust Acts. Their publication seems to have been caused in part by the proposed revision of the United States Trade-Mark Statutes, which was started by a bill originally introduced into the House on January 19, 1938. The thesis of this present article is that a trade-mark in fact distinguishes one man's product from the products of his competitors, with the result that the consumer can make a choice among them.

Law And Administration In Military Occupation: A Review Of Two Recent Books, Wolfgang H. Kraus

Michigan Law Review

Unlike the First World War, the Second World War has already produced at this stage of its progress significant publications concerning the problems of military government which may well assist interested students and practitioners in cutting a path through this thorny field. Occupying the area of enemy countries is a task of which by all odds the most difficult part, that of the occupation of both Germany and Japan, still lies ahead. Two recently published studies, both of them by jurists with a European legal background who are at present engaged in the service of a war agency of the …

Construction Of Private Instrument's Where Adopted Children Are Concerned: I, J. Wesley Oler

Michigan Law Review

The institution of adoption is of ancient tradition, knowing primitive origin and tracing its history through many civilizations. Today its universality still bespeaks the human needs from which it springs.

Recent growth of statutory reforms, procedural and substantive, in our adoption system reflects the increasing social interest of the state in this field. Procedurally, extensive strides have been made to safeguard those directly concerned in adoption, and through them to protect the public in general. Substantively the lagging but nonetheless noticeable trend is toward complete legal equivalence between relationship by adoption and relationship by blood. At present, however, such equivalence …

Abstracts, Mary Jane Plumer

Michigan Law Review

The abstracts consist merely of summaries of the facts and holdings of recent cases and are distinguished from the notes by the absence of discussion.

Current Periodical Index, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This department lists the articles and comments which appear in twenty-four leading law reviews. The index embraces material published since the last issue of this REVIEW.

The Venue Of Probate And Administration Proceedings, Paul E. Basye

Michigan Law Review

With the division of each state into counties or districts and the creation in each such subdivision of some court for the probate of wills and the administration of estates, it became necessary to designate which of such courts should undertake these functions in a particular estate. It is not the purpose of this study to consider problems arising out of conflicts of jurisdiction as between states insofar as independent determinations of domicile of a decedent may be made. That a decedent died a resident of the state undertaking an administration upon his estate will be assumed; or, if he …

Mr. Justice William Johnson, Creative Dissenter, A. J. Levin

Michigan Law Review

Until the advent of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, the masterful and magnetic figure of Chief Justice John Marshall well-nigh overshadowed the whole field of constitutional jurisprudence. That Marshall made inestimable additions to our ideas of cooperative living at the very beginning of our democracy, and that his repute was well deserved, cannot be gainsaid. But one has good cause to wonder why the name of so distinguished a colleague as William Johnson, who sat on the same bench with Marshal for almost thirty years during that formative period, should have been almost completely obscured all these years. Rare, indeed, is …

Law Enforcement In Colonial New York: A Review, Albert J. Harno

Michigan Law Review

This book is a landmark in American legal history. Legal scholars have long lamented the fact that there was no authoritative work on colonial law. Historians have, to be sure, taken excursions into the field, but for the most part this, until the study here reviewed, was virgin territory. The undertaking called for more than the gifts of a historian. It demanded the talents and insight of a legal historian. The authors are legal historians. Professor Goebel particularly is a well-known figure in the field of legal history. The study covers a limited field; it is restricted to criminal procedure …

Current Periodical Index, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This department lists the articles and comments which appear in twenty-four leading law reviews. The index embraces material published since the last issue of this REVIEW.