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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 - Admissibility Of Age In Hospital Record As Business Entry, Craig E. Davids

Michigan Law Review

Representing his birth date as 1866, deceased purchased from defendant insurance company in 1921 a policy on his life, which provided that in the event of any misrepresentation of age the insured's beneficiary would receive only that amount which a standard policy issued at his true age would stipulate for the premiums paid. In a suit by the beneficiary to recover on the policy, defendant attempted to prove that deceased was born at least as early as 1862. Among other evidence, defendant introduced a hospital record of deceased's visit to a particular institution in 1936 where he represented his age …

The Authority Of The National War Labor Board Over Labor Disputes, Leonard B. Boudin

Michigan Law Review

The National War Labor Board has reached the respectable age of two years. Supported originally only by the President's war powers, it has secured compliance with its orders, has weathered a minor congressional investigation, and has built up a body of decisions whose effect will continue after the war. These facts, as well as certain signs of the conservatism which appears to strike all government agencies at one time or another, entitle the board to a short survey of certain aspects of its jurisdiction and authority.

The Concept Of "Denial Of Justice" In Latin America, J. Irizarry Y Puente

Michigan Law Review

Much of the credit for the present state of development of the concept of "denial of justice" must go to Latin America. Step by step the efforts of her statesmen, lawmakers and publicists in the spheres of diplomacy, legislation and doctrine, have given the concept a more definite juridical form, and outlined more clearly its frontiers of legitimate action. The concept, far from being now the occasion for diplomatic coercion which it formerly was, is narrowed down to a judicial connotation; and, in this sense, it means that justice has not been done where it should have been.

Its evolution …

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.

Fortescue's De Laudibus: A Review, Max Radin

Michigan Law Review

In this opus perfectissimum, Dr. Chrimes, whose book, English Constitutional Ideas in the Fifteenth Century, marks him as the man best fitted for the task, has filled one of the gaps which existed in the scientific examination of the sources of English law. We have Mr. Nicholl's Britton and Professor Woodbine's Glanvil and his still unfinished Bracton, Mr. Ogg's edition of Selden's Dissertatio, and the Hughes-Crump-Johnson edition of The Dialogue on the Exchequer. All these are admirable. There are left only St. Germain and Fleta, both of which cry aloud for an editor of the quality …

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.

The Function Of The States, William B. Cudlip

Michigan Law Review

For the second time in this century, thoughtful men are studying plans for the stabilization of a post-war world, determined to devise a pattern of peace which shall embody new moral and economic standards and the highest ideals of human liberty, intent on fashioning a design for living under which the nations of the world may find freedom, justice, dignity, and prosperity. In this high adventure the United States has a full role to play, for, without our interest and cooperation, there can be no enduring compact. But, important as this quest may be, another task of at least equal …

Criminal Justice In Germany: Ii, Hans Julius Wolff

Michigan Law Review

The trial (Hauptverhandlung) is the main and central part of the whole criminal proceeding. All that is brought forward in the trial and only what is brought forward there can furnish the basis for the verdict. Whatever has preceded the trial proper becomes irrelevant as soon as the trial is opened.

The principles governing the trial are publicity, orality, immediateness, and concentration.

Administrative Law-Price Control Act-Recent Amendments, Robert A. Sprecher

Michigan Law Review

On July 1, 1944, the "Stabilization Extension Act of 1944" became effective, thereby introducing several important changes in the field of price control law. Many of these changes have the effect of granting relief to persons subject to price control, while others are designed to aid the price administrator in his enforcement of the Price Control Act.

Criminal Justice In Germany, Hans Julius Wolff

Michigan Law Review

Criminal law and procedure, perhaps even more than civil, reflect the underlying conceptions of the political system with which they are connected. The ideological structure of criminal procedure in Germany, as well as in other continental European states, rests on the historical development through which constitutional institutions in those countries have passed since the French Revolution. It mirrors the transformation of the all-powerful state of the period of absolutism into the liberal state with its guaranteed freedoms and rights of the individual and strict legal limits to the power of the authorities (Rechtsstaat); and in recent years it has adapted …

Law Books Of The Year (1943-44), Hobart R. Coffey

Michigan Law Review

Contrary to my inclination and somewhat against my better judgment I have been prevailed upon by the editor to repeat the experiment begun last year, viz., to produce a sort of running account of some of the more important legal publications which have appeared in the last twelve months. It goes almost without saying that a competent review of a single serious work requires both considerable time and space. An adequate critical review of fifty or sixty works would be quite out of the question for anyone who had anything else to do. In my comments on the books which …

Auditing Standards And Procedures In The Light Of Court Decisions, Frederick K. Rabel

Michigan Law Review

Ever since the Securities and Exchange Commission announced its amended rule 2-02 and required the accountant's certificate to include a statement as to compliance with generally accepted auditing standards, the accounting profession has been confronted with the problem of how to state those heretofore undefined standards. In the meantime, the committee on auditing procedure of the American Institute of Accountants requested the assistance of all practicing certified public accountants and all state accounting societies in taking prompt action toward defining auditing standards, and two members of the profession have since gone on record by courageously submitting tentative lists of proposed …

The Demise Of Fair Value, Robert W. Harbeson

Michigan Law Review

Two years ago, in discussing the Natural Gas Pipeline Company case, the writer ventured the opinion that "while it cannot be stated with certainty that the decision marks the demise of that hardy perennial--fair value--since the majority opinion did not explicitly repudiate that doctrine," there was language which indicated that such would nevertheless be the result of the decision. This prophecy now appears to be substantiated by the decision of the Supreme Court on January 3, 1944, in Federal Power Commission v. Hope Natural Gas Company. In the Pipeline Company case Chief Justice Stone stated significantly that "the Constitution …

Constitutional Law-Right To Counsel, Robert M. Barton

Michigan Law Review

The appellant, a person with a long criminal record, was convicted of receiving and concealing stolen goods. At the trial the attorney appointed by the court to represent him presumably had enough time to prepare a defense but conducted it in a slipshod manner. He failed to object to the admission of important evidence not legally admissible; he failed to see that a witness whom the accused described as important was subpoenaed into court; he objected to none of the prejudicial statements of the trial judge which in effect attacked the credibility of the accused, and he criticized his own …

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.

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.

Evidence-Police Regulation By Rules Of Evidence-Results Of The Mcnabb Case, John B. Waite

Michigan Law Review

In McNabb v. United States the Supreme Court promulgated novel judicial legislation, the gist of which is that confessions or admissions of crime made while the accused is in custody without having been brought before a magistrate as required by law are inadmissible in evidence. That judicial pronouncement assumed that the utterances were made without compulsion, and prohibited their use solely because at the time they were made the officers of justice were themselves disregarding the law-the procedural requirement that persons arrested be taken immediately before a magistrate. In Justice Frankfurter's phrase, "a conviction resting on evidence secured through such …

Mr. Justice William Johnson And The Unenviable Dilemma, A. J. Levin

Michigan Law Review

A policy of judicial avoidance, otherwise referred to as "judicial restraint," has clearly been the dominant trend in the United States Supreme Court since Mr. Justice Holmes began to sit upon that bench at the beginning of this century. There has been an inclination to explain this change as revealing a tendency of the Court to follow a policy of laissez-faire toward the legislative and executive departments, and to stop at this formalistic explanation of this important aspect of the judicial function. The Court's increasing awareness of its own lack of technical competence in dealing with the many complex governmental …

The Assignment Of A Life Insurance Policy, Grover C. Grismore

Michigan Law Review

There is a great deal of uncertainty and confusion in the decided cases in regard to the effect to be given to the assignment of a life insurance policy. This is unfortunate, since to a large extent life insurance has come to be regarded as an investment medium, and as an asset which can be hypothecated by the insured in times of financial emergency.

Taxation-Assessment Of Government-Owned Property Leased To Private Enterprise, Allen C. Holmes

Michigan Law Review

The Board of Property Assessment, Appeals, and Review of Allegheny County for ad valorem taxes in the state of Pennsylvania increased the assessed value of the realty of the Mesta Machine Company by the sum of $618,000 to include the value of certain additional machinery which had been installed on the premises. The machinery was leased by the United States Government to the company and was placed in the factory in order that the company might manufacture heavy field guns for the Government, under a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The legal title and the beneficial ownership of the machinery remained in the …

Civil Justice In Germany, Burke Shartel, Hans Julius Wolff

Michigan Law Review

Our aim in preparing this paper is to develop for American lawyers a picture of the functioning of German civil justice. This aim, as well as the paper itself, is an outgrowth of a series of lectures on the German legal system delivered by the authors as background in the law of military occupation for the Judge Advocate General's School of the United States Army in Ann Arbor. That part of these lectures which concerns the operation of German civil justice seems to us of sufficient intrinsic interest to warrant publication.

Jury Selection Analyzed: Proposed Revision Of Federal System, William Wirt Blume

Michigan Law Review

It is proposed, and bills to carry out the proposal are now pending in Congress, that the federal system of jury selection be substantially revised, chiefly by establishing "uniform qualifications" for jurors who serve in the federal courts. An examination of these bills reveals that the proposed revision not only contemplates the elimination of conformity with state statutes insofar as they prescribe qualifications for, and exemptions from, jury service, but also contemplates a startling increase in the discretionary powers of the federal judges with respect to the whole process of jury selection. As an aid to a consideration of the …

Evidence-Police Regulation By Rules Of Evidence, John Barker Waite

Michigan Law Review

The judicial rules of Evidence, said their great expounder, "were never meant to be an indirect process of punishment." Yet twice the Supreme Court has promulgated new rules of evidence for precisely that purpose. The rule that evidence is inadmissible, regardless of its relevance and materiality, if it was obtained by unreasonable search was first suggested by Justice Bradley, who wrote the majority opinion in Boyd v. United States in 1886. The other rule was voiced in 1943 by Justice Frankfurter, writing the majority opinion in McNabb v. United States. And each rule demonstrates the inherent evil of judicial …

Legal Aspects Of Renegotiation, Charles W. Steadman

Michigan Law Review

The Renegotiation Act which became effective April 28, 1942, was designed to eliminate and remove exorbitant profits from war contracts. No other recent statute has been the subject of so much controversy and misunderstanding. Since the beginning of renegotiation of contracts in the late summer and early fall of 1942, policies have been crystalizing and many interpretations of the act have been made, but many more questions as to its meaning must still be answered.

Proposed Rules Of Federal Criminal Procedure: Final Draft, Albert J. Harno

Michigan Law Review

In February 1941, the Supreme Court appointed an advisory committee to prepare a draft of Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. That committee has made its report to the Court and has presented a final draft of the rules. The adoption of these rules would be a landmark in criminal law administration. The importance of the draft does not lie in the fact that it projects matters that are novel or new, but rather in that it presents in successive provisions, stated in simple language, the best practices in criminal law procedure that have been evolved through experience. Of equal, or …

Exclusive And Nonexclusive Powers And The Illusory Appointment, John E. Howe

Michigan Law Review

Powers of appointment may be classified as either general or special. Under this classification a power is said to be a special power when the donee has the right to exercise it only in favor of a limited group of persons of which he himself is not a member.

In considering special powers it is helpful to subdivide them into two separate groups, one being termed exclusive and the other nonexclusive powers. In a factual situation where the intent of the donor is such that the donee of the power has the right to exclude any of the objects, it …

Trusts-Participation By Banks In Diversion Of Trust Funds

Michigan Law Review

That fiduciaries who misappropriate or divert trust funds from their proper purpose are bound to make good is familiar doctrine. It is equally clear that those who guiltily participate in such. diversions by faithless fiduciaries are also liable. The point of chief difficulty is the determination of what participations are properly classified as guilty, for innocent participators clearly are not bound to make good. For example, a fiduciary with power to sell things held in trust may wish to turn the subject matter into cash preliminary to a misappropriation. A bona fide purchaser who provides the cash no doubt stands …

Banks And Banking-Bank Deposits And The N.I.L.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued H and W and a writ of garnishment was issued against B who filed a disclosure of an indebtedness owing to H and W as joint creditors. W was later dropped from the case by a voluntary non-suit. Shortly after such dismissal, W applied to B for payment of the debt, but payment was refused because of the outstanding garnishment. B, however, expressed to W an intention, perhaps even an assurance, to honor such application when freed of the garnishment. That garnishment was dismissed several days later, but in the meantime another writ of garnishment in the …

Evidence-Judicial Notice By Appellate Courts Of Facts And Foreign Laws, Not Brought To The Attention Of The Trial Court, Hobart Taylor, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

The general problem to be discussed in this comment is the process and supporting reasons used by appellate courts in their determination of the propriety of taking official cognizance of facts not brought to the attention of the trial court. This necessarily removes that great and complex body of case and statutory law dealing with situations where a court is called upon to take judicial notice of local statutes, municipal ordinances, and other similar matters of law. Also specifically excluded from discussion are the cases where error is alleged because the trial court refused to take notice of a fact …