Digital Commons Network^™

Bills And Notes-What Negligence Of The Drawer Will Enable The Drawee To Charge The Drawer's Account When The Indorsement Of The Payee Is Forged

Michigan Law Review

An attorney, representing himself to be the agent of the owner of a certain piece of real estate, applied to the plaintiff for a mortgage loan. The loan being granted subject to title, a person represented to be the landowner appeared, signed the mortgage and note, and her acknowledgement was taken by a notary public who stated that he knew her to be the identical person described in the mortgage. The title was approved and a check payable to the landowner was delivered to the attorney, who, after forging the payee's indorsement, indorsed personally and cashed. The drawer is suing …

Contracts - Partial Illegality - Contract In Restraint Of Trade

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff contracted to transfer his law business, property used in connection therewith, and good will to the defendant and to refrain from practicing law within the state until the time set for payment of the balance of the contract price. The balance not having been paid at maturity, the plaintiff brought an action on the contract, alleging full performance on his part. The defendant demurred on the ground that the contract constituted an illegal restraint of trade under Oklahoma statutes which declare that agreements in restraint of trade upon selling the good will of a business are void to …

Negligence - Amusements - Assumption Of Risk By Football Spectators

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff, a woman who had paid to witness a football game played on defendant's field, stood near the boundaries of the playing field and was hurt when hit by a player tackled at the side-line. The evidence disclosed that the field was not roped off for the minor games, that there was no policing except that done by a few school officials, and that the spectators were not required to occupy seats in the stands. Reversing the lower court, the appellate tribunal held that, under these circumstances, there was no negligence, the opinion of the majority indicating that, if …

Torts - Libel And Slander - Publication

Michigan Law Review

Defendant uttered words which were defamatory of the plaintiff. The statement was made to defendant's wife and defendant had no reason to believe that they would be overheard. Held, there was no publication. Springer v. Swift (S. D. 1931) 239 N. W. 171.

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.

State Administrative Supervision Of Municipal Indebtedness, E. Blythe Stason

Michigan Law Review

One of the lessons being drawn from the present economic depression, and especially from the financial straits of municipalities, is the very real need of more adequate restriction upon the power of cities, towns, villages, counties, school districts and other local governments to burden themselves and their taxpayers with excessive public debt.

Legal Aid Clinics In Less Thickly Populated Communities, John S. Bradway

Michigan Law Review

Legal aid work, whether performed by independent societies, or by clinics connected with law schools, has ceased to be a novelty in large cities, especially in the northeastern and extreme western parts of the United States. When one comes to examine the progress of this charitable aspect of law practice in less thickly settled communities, a definite orientation is necessary. There is little literature dealing either with the need in rural sections and the smaller cities for definite organizations or the question as to whether there is enough clinical material to make possible a law school course in this field. …

Matrimonial Domicil And Marital Rights In Movables, Arthur Leon Harding

Michigan Law Review

The American decisions in Conflicts of Laws relating to the rights acquired by one spouse in the property of the other by virtue of the fact of marriage stand as a monument to Joseph Story . Almost without exception the cases discussed hereafter have been decided on the basis of his thorough analysis of the law of the Pandects and the eighteenth century civilians. Even where his principles have not been approved, the courts have departed from them only after real and serious consideration. This fact, kept in mind, greatly simplifies the study of the cases themselves.

President Hoover's Recommendations - Waiver Of Right To Accusation By Grand Jury Indictment

Michigan Law Review

In Illinois also the time between arrest and indictment is considerable. According to the figures of the Illinois Crime Survey the median time after preliminary hearing before indictment of persons who pleaded guilty ranged from thirteen days in Chicago to thirty-seven days in other parts of the state. An average of another two days is added by the time between arrest and preliminary hearing. In Missouri, too, the time interval is long. It seems reasonable to assume, therefore, that in the federal courts the time between arrest and indictment is at least as long, especially in districts where grand juries …

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 …

The "Common Questions" Principle In The Code Provision For Representative Suits, William Wirt Blume

Michigan Law Review

When the object of a creditors' suit is to reach, establish and administer assets in the hands of a trustee who holds them for the benefit of all the creditors, the suit must be by all the creditors or by one or more for the benefit of all. In other types of creditors' suits, for example to set aside a fraudulent conveyance, joinder of all the creditors is not required. Each may sue alone, two or more may join, or one or more may sue for the benefit of all.

Corporations - Corporate Reorganization Under Charter Agreement -Validity Of Enabling Statutes

Michigan Law Review

That reorganization is vexatious, frequently long drawn out and costly, is universally conceded. In the absence of statutory provisions, the only known judicial process whereby a court may set a reorganization in motion is a foreclosure and sale, or sale by court decree in an equity receivership. In most cases the real and only purpose of a reorganization is to work out a capital structure which the business of the corporation will support, hence, the sale under foreclosure or by court decree is a device rather than an independent end. As a result, much confusion and uncertainty exist under the …

Banks And Banking - Misappropriation Of Trust Funds - Liability Of Bank

Michigan Law Review

Committee for incompetent deposited checks payable to him as such committee in the defendant bank to the credit of his individual account. The committee's account was entirely dissipated, but, so far as the facts appear in the opinion, the defendant bank at no time had any knowledge of the use to which the money was put. The committee was removed and the substituted committee sued the defendant bank for aiding the original committee in the diversion of the funds. Held, that it was the duty of the defendant bank to inquire whether the committee had authority to deposit the …

Constitutional Law-Compelling Witness Duty From Absent Nationals

Michigan Law Review

In proceedings taken under the so-called Walsh Act the petitioner, Blackmer, a United States citizen residing in France, was found guilty of contempt for failure to respond to subpoenas issued out of a federal court and served on him in France by a United States consul requiring him to appear as a witness in that court. See 30 MICH. L. REV. 137 (1931) for a more detailed statement of the facts. By a unanimous decision (Mr. Justice Roberts not participating) the United States Supreme Court recently held that the contempt decree be affirmed, thus sustaining the constitutionality of the Walsh …

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.

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 …

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 …

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.