Digital Commons Network^™

Municipal Corporations - Police Power - Billboard Regulations For Aesthetic Purposes, Bertram H. Lebeis

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff applied to defendant superintendent of buildings for permits to erect billboards for general advertising purposes on plaintiff's, property in the city of Troy. Defendant refused to issue the permits on the authority of an ordinance which made it unlawful to erect any billboard and/ or signboard within the city limits, except upon real property owned or leased by the occupants thereof and for the sole purpose of advertising the sale of such property or of merchandise kept for sale upon such premises. Plaintiff petitioned for a writ of mandamus to compel defendant to issue the permits. Held, that …

Wills - Attestation - Order Of Signing In Execution Of Wills, James W. Mehaffy

Michigan Law Review

Testator procured A and B to witness his will. Both signed in the blank spaces provided for that purpose, but the testator had not yet signed. Four days later testator again brought the will to A and B, stating that he wished to sign it in their presence. Both witnesses recognized the paper as the one to which they had previously affixed their signatures, and recognized their signatures thereon. Testator signed in their presence, and nothing further was done. Held, the will was validly executed. Bloechle v. Davis, 132 Ohio St. 415, 8 N. E. (2d) 247 …

Recent Developments In The Deportation Process, Reuben Oppenheimer

Michigan Law Review

The process under which the United States, through the Department of Labor, deports aliens found to be unlawfully in this country is one of the oldest in American administrative law. It is also one of the most interesting, for this process deals almost entirely with persons as contrasted with property, and its development has been largely unimpeded by court decisions.

Interstate Commerce - Federal Motor Carrier Act - Extent Of Supersedure Of State Jurisdiction, William Stout Gordon

Michigan Law Review

Prior to the passage of the Federal Motor Carrier Act of 1935, interstate motor carriers were subject to regulation by the states to a limited extent. This power to regulate may be briefly summarized as follows: (1) a state could not require interstate motor carriers to show that their operation was required in the interest of public convenience and necessity; (2) it could regulate to some extent the service and facilities offered by such carriers but it could not regulate their rates; (3) it could require them to carry liability insurance for the protection of third parties but it could …

Interstate Commerce - Constitutionality Of Weight And Size Limitations Of Motor Carriers - Commerce Clause And Due Process Clause, Donald H. Larmee

Michigan Law Review

The District Court for the Eastern District of South Carolina had recently before it a well-presented case, Barnwell Bros. Inc. v. South Carolina State Highway Dept., involving the authority of the state to regulate the size and weight of motor vehicles operating on South Carolina's highways. The South Carolina statute in question limited the width of motor trucks (including semitrailers) to ninety inches, and their gross weight 4 to 20,000 pounds. The validity of this statute was challenged upon three distinct grounds: (1) that it was a denial of due process guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment; (2) that the …

Judgments - Federal Declaratory Judgments Act, Charles R. Moon Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Underlying the declaratory judgment is the idea that in an organized and civilized society where law and order are thoroughly recognized and established, coercion is normally unnecessary to settle legal disputes between parties. The belief is that in many lawsuits the plaintiff is not seeking a means of coercing the defendant but that the plaintiff and the defendant merely want a final and conclusive decision of a disputed question on which their legal relations depend. The value of the declaratory judgment lies in that it may be used to settle this dispute, in many cases before any other form of …

Trusts - Investments - Amortization Of Bond Premium On Bond Callable Before Maturity, Anthony L. Dividio

Michigan Law Review

In 1929, the trustee, who was also beneficiary for life, invested $11,187.50 in bonds to mature in 1947, subject to prior call, worth $10,000 at par, which were called in and paid off October 1, 1936 at $10,500. Meanwhile, the trustee had amortized to the maturity date, setting aside one-eighteenth the amount of the premium out of interest annually, a total of $461.41, which, added to the $500 paid above par, left a balance of $226.09. In an accounting prior to her resignation in favor of a corporate trustee, held, amortization should have been to the call date and …

The Power To Carry On The Business Of A Decedent, Harry Adelman

Michigan Law Review

The continuation of a business for the sole purpose of making a profit is clearly beyond the scope of liquidating the estate of a decedent. It is rather a trust of the business, created for the benefit of the creditors of the decedent and persons entitled to share in the distribution of the estate. The business is managed as a normal going concern, on a somewhat permanent basis, rather than as a temporary means of preserving the value for an advantageous sale.

Champerty And Maintenance - Validity Of Contingent Fee - Contracts By Laymen To Prosecute And Collect Claims Against The Government, Charles R. Moon Jr.

Michigan Law Review

It has often been said by the American courts in recent years that the doctrine of champerty, due to changes in the law of assignment of choses in action and other changes of conditions from those prevailing in England at the time of the origin of the doctrine, is no longer applicable in all its stringency. That conditions have changed cannot be denied; however, neither can it be denied that champerty is a very live doctrine today. The real basis for the doctrine of champerty is that certain contracts are contrary to public policy. When we realize this, we see …

Evidence - The Use Of Corporate Minutes In Evidence, Francis T. Goheen

Michigan Law Review

In their treatment of the principles applicable to the use of corporate minutes in evidence, the courts and the text writers have, with little or no explanation, used the language of both the parol evidence rule and the best evidence rule. Most often the question is rather summarily dismissed, and the court's opinion generally discloses very little in the way of enlightening information regarding the reasons for the exclusion or the admission and effect of the offered minutes. If general propositions are to be formulated relative to the use of corporate minutes under given conditions, such propositions must be based …

Taxation - Jurisdiction To Tax Intangibles - Business Situs, William Stout Gordon

Michigan Law Review

The appellant, a Delaware corporation doing business in Minnesota, held the controlling interest in the stock of a large number of banks in numerous states. It transacted its corporate business and fiscal affairs in Minnesota and maintained a business office there. A property tax was imposed by Minnesota upon appellant's shares of stock in Montana and North Dakota state banking corporations. Appellant contended that, since Montana and North Dakota had imposed a property tax on the same shares, the Minnesota tax was contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court held that the shares of stock had acquired a "business situs" …

Patents - Equity Pleading - Sufficiency Of "Short Form" Of Bill Of Complaint - Burden Of Proof Of Validity Of Patent Infringement Suit, Julian Caplan

Michigan Law Review

Complainant brought suit for infringement of letters patent and used the so-called "short form" of bill of complaint. Defendant moved to dismiss the bill for insufficient facts to constitute a cause of action, since there were no allegations of compliance with the statutory provisions for issuance of a patent. The District Court and the Circuit Court of Appeals for, the Eighth Circuit sustained the demurrer, but the Supreme Court held that under Equity Rule 25 the short form of bill of complaint contained all the ultimate facts necessary for complainant to state a cause of action. Mumm v. Jacob E. …

Libel - Right Of Privacy -Auction Sale Of Debts, Gerald M. Stevens

Michigan Law Review

A creditor put his claim into the hands of one Power, who held himself out as an advertiser of accounts for sale. Power threatened several times by letter to advertise the debtor's account for sale at auction unless it was paid immediately. No payment was made; and a "flaming orange handbill" was printed and circulated about the debtor's neighborhood. It offered for sale to the highest bidder the debtor's and twenty-three other accounts. It contained, further, the statement that all accounts were guaranteed correct and undisputed and a solicitation for merchants' accounts to be similarly disposed of. Thereupon the debtor …

Trusts - Power Of Trustee To Invest By Savings Deposit, James W. Mehaffy

Michigan Law Review

The guardian of an incompetent veteran placed trust funds in his hands in the savings department of a trust company. The trust company was closed by order of the state bank commissioner on March 4, 1933, and failed to reopen. Held, the guardian is not chargeable with the loss, this being a proper investment of the funds. Hines v. Ayotte, (Me. 1937) 189 A. 835.

Conflict Of Laws - Guest Motorists -How Far Is The Lex Loci Delicti Controlling In The Forum?, M. M. Howard

Michigan Law Review

Before the advent of the "guest statutes," the decisions of all but a very few states recognized no degrees of negligence and measured the duty of the automobile host towards his non-paying guest by due care under all the circumstances-the "ordinary negligence" rule. In the few exceptional states, the decisions required the plaintiff to prove "gross," "wilful," or "wanton" negligence on the part of his host in order to maintain his action. And within the last decade nineteen states have adopted "guest statutes" which, with varying language, adopt the "gross negligence" rule. Since the rule of the lex loci delicti …

Insurance - When Contracts For Contingent Performance Of Acts Other Than Payment Of Money Constitute Insurance, Charles W. Allen

Michigan Law Review

A recent case presents the many difficulties that confront the courts in determining whether a given contract is one of insurance. Plaintiff was a glazier. For a fixed payment he agreed with his customers that during a certain period he would repair and replace, if broken, their store-front glass. Penal proceedings were instituted against plaintiff for failure to comply with the insurance laws. He brought an action to enjoin prosecution of the proceedings. It was held that the contracts were not insurance contracts and that plaintiff was entitled to the injunction.

Damages - Insurance Contract - Right To Recover Present Worth Of Future Payments On Life Policy, James W. Mehaffy

Michigan Law Review

An insurance policy provided for the payment of 3 1/2 per cent interest on the amount due beneficiaries until they attained the age of 21, then payment of the entire amount. The policy also contained a double indemnity clause. The insured died under circumstances leaving it doubtful whether the double amount should be paid. Upon application by the guardian of the minor beneficiaries for payment of the double amount in the manner stipulated, the defendant company refused payment of more than the face value of the policy on the ground that the proofs of accidental death were not sufficient. Plaintiff …

A Comparison Of Continental And American Legal Education, Stefan Riesenfeld

Michigan Law Review

Legal education in the United States has become more and more a part of university education and the activity of the American university law school is a matter which invites comparison with the law schools of foreign universities. This is true particularly because the system of university legal education has recently also become a "problem" in this country. In 1930 Abraham Flexner published his instructive, but possibly not altogether unbiased, book on universities in which he pictured American, English and German universities. The author gave all his attention to the teaching of science, however, and did not discuss law schools, …

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.

Criminal Law And Procedure - Power Of Appellate Court To Modify Sentence, Emma Rae Mann

Michigan Law Review

It is generally conceded that when a sentence is illegal in the sense that it exceeds the maximum prescribed by statute, it may be modified by a reviewing court, although it is not clear that common-law courts were always regarded as having such power. Power to modify in such cases is now recognized in federal courts as well as in state courts. Quite another question arises when the sentence appealed from is within the limits allowed by law but is urged to be unduly severe. The decision in the recent case of Beckett v. United States that the federal circuit …

Corporations - Priority Between Parent Corporation And Preferred Stockholders Of Bankrupt Subsidiary, Erwin S. Simon

Michigan Law Review

It is well settled that when an undercapitalized subsidiary corporation is bankrupt, the claims for money loaned by the parent corporation which has dominated the subsidiary will be subordinated to the claims of other creditors. An analogous problem, which has seldom, if ever, been directly passed upon, is the priority between the claims of the nonvoting preferred stockholders of the subsidiary and those of the dominating corporation which owns all the common voting stock of the subsidiary. In spite of the fact that intercorporate loans are a common and approved method of financing subsidiaries, the question has heretofore been relatively …

Wills - Executors And Administrators -Titles - Effect Of The Revocation Of Probate Decrees On The Title To Realty Acquired By Bona Fide Purchase From Heir Or Devisee, Victor P. Kayser

Michigan Law Review

There are probably few chains of title to realty that do not contain at least one link consisting of a conveyance from one who claimed as heir or devisee of a decedent. The ability of the granter to convey resulted from the fact that he was heir of an intestate or was a devisee under the last will of his testator. Sometimes it has occurred that the grantee has purchased for value and with no knowledge or suspicion of an impending attack on his grantor's title, only to have it subsequently determined in a judicial proceeding that his grantor's ancestor …

Purchaser's Remedies For Absence Of Marketable Title, Lawrence Linville

Michigan Law Review

"Where a person takes upon himself to contract for the sale of an estate, and is not the absolute owner of it, nor has it in his power by the ordinary course of law or equity to make himself so; though the owner offer to make the seller a title, yet equity will not force the buyer to take it, for every seller ought to be a bona fide contractor: and it would lead to infinite mischief if one man were permitted to speculate upon the sale of another's estate."

The apprehensions of Sugden were not groundless, as three quarters …

Evidence - Exceptions To Hearsay Rule - Physician's Testimony As To Statements Of Symptoms Made By Patient, Benjamin H. Dewey

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, while in the employ of the defendant, was injured when a ditch he was engaged in digging caved in upon him. Defendant alleged that the shock made active theretofore dormant pulmonary tuberculosis. He received treatment from a physician at the time of the injury. Upon plaintiff's suit under the Texas Workmen's Compensation Act, the physician was allowed to testify, over defendant's objection, that about a month and a half after the injury, the plaintiff had come to the physician's office, and reported that his sputum was stained with blood. On appeal, it was held, one judge dissenting, that …

Constitutional Law - Unreasonable Search And Seizure - Unauthorized Examination Of Telegrams, Peter S. Boter

Michigan Law Review

A special committee of the United States Senate, appointed to investigate lobbying activities in connection with the so-called "holding company bill" sought to obtain from telegraph companies, under blanket subpoena duces tecum, all telegrams passing through their offices in Washington from February 1, 1935 to September 1, 1935. When the telegraph companies expressed reluctance to comply with the subpoenas, the Senate Committee sought aid from the Federal Communications Commission. The commission by formal resolution detailed a member of its staff to work with an examiner of the Senate Committee in the examination and copying of the telegrams. Among the messages …

Trade Marks - Registration - Color As A Common-Law Or Technical Trade Mark, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff had applied for registration of a trade mark for a cleaning powder consisting of a rectangular yellow panel, bounded by a contrasting blue border, affixed to the container of the goods. The mark was accompanied by two other trade marks and by certain descriptive material impressed on the body of the mark within the blue border, for which trade marks and descriptive matter registration was not sought. The Commissioner refused to register the mark on the ground that it would not indicate the origin or ownership of the goods, and on the further ground that it would be regarded …

Labor Law - Constitutionality Of State Anti-Injunction Acts - Existence Of A "Labor Dispute", Theodore R. Vogt

Michigan Law Review

Organized labor has long contested the use of the injunction in labor disputes and since the turn of the century has been active in legislative circles to secure statutory relief from the paralyzing effect of the too-freely granted temporary injunction and restraining order. A substantial step forward was the enactment of the Clayton Act by Congress. Similar legislation was adopted by several states, some before and some after the congressional action. However, the expected benefits to labor did not accrue, for the Supreme Court in Duplex Printing Press Co. v. Deering so narrowly construed the statute as to rob it …

Constitutional Law - The Federal-State System Of Unemployment Compensation Under The Social Security Act, Elbert R. Gilliom

Michigan Law Review

One of the last pieces of New Deal social legislation to receive the judicial sanction of the United States Supreme Court before the end of its epoch-making October 1936 term is the tax imposed on employers of eight or more by Title IX of the Social Security Act of 1935. Through the operation of eleven expressly separable "titles," the comprehensive act (1) authorizes future appropriations to the states for old-age assistance, unemployment compensation administration, aid to dependent children, maternal and child welfare, services for crippled children, public health work, and aid to the blind; (2) establishes a system of federal …

Patents, Copyrights And Trade Secrets - Destruction Of Infringing Instruments Owned By Infringer, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Where a patent is infringed, it is safe to assume that the patenter can collect damages from the infringer as well as secure an accounting for profits and an injunction against further infringement. Any one of these forms of relief or of various combinations is usually granted as a matter of course. Such relief is also granted for infringement of trade secrets, copyrights and literary property. Many courts believe that the problem is solved at this point. But two questions still remain: Does this relief give sufficient practical protection to the plaintiff? And, if not, can destruction of the tangible …

Taxation - Jurisdiction Of A State To Tax Personal Incomes, Jack L. White

Michigan Law Review

There have been comparatively few decisions of the United States Supreme Court involving questions of the jurisdiction of a state to impose income taxes, so that each case that has been reported has called for an adjustment of the earlier statements of the law in that field. Such a case was recently decided. It is the purpose of this comment to consider the earlier cases in the light of that decision, and to determine what proportion of the income of a resident, and of a non-resident, a state may tax.