Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

The Federal Constitution Today-Important Decisions Of The Supreme Court In The Last Eight Years 1937-1944 Inclusive, Burke Shartel

Michigan Law Review

In recent years one often hears lawyers say that the Constitution is gone; or one hears them echo the remark of Charles E. Hughes, made while he was Governor of New York, "We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is," and then perhaps add that lawyers can no longer determine with any assurance what the judges will do or will say the Constitution is. Such expressions and reactions are not unnatural in any period of rapid doctrinal change. All contain a large element of truth. Certainly much of the Constitutional Law is gone …

Creditors' Rights-Garnishment-Contents Of Safety Deposit Box Rented To Judgment Debtor Reached By Garnishing Lessor, Craig E. Davids S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Execution against the judgment debtors having been returned unsatisfied, plaintiff secured a writ of garnishment from the municipal court against the defendant bank in November 1935. The garnishee's disclosure indicated that it held a small amount of cash with other collateral as security for loans made to the judgment debtors and the unknown contents of a safety deposit box. The box was rented by the judgment debtors in the usual manner and access to it could be gained only by simultaneous use of two keys-a master key retained by the bank and another key issued to the customer. The garnishee …

Criminal Law And Procedure-Whether Reversible Error For Judge To Give Instructions Relating To Credibility Of Defendant Witness, Edwin Boos

Michigan Law Review

Appellant who was convicted of committing a criminal abortion, moved for a new trial alleging as error an instruction given by the judge to the jury. The instruction singled out the defendant from the other witnesses, pointing to his high degree of interest in a verdict of not guilty, as reason for scrutinizing his testimony. The judge also warned the jury that it need not accept blindly the testimony of the accused. Held, reversed, new trial ordered. Swanson v. State, (Ind. 1944) 52 N.E. (2d) 616.

Evidence-Effect Of Presumption Against Suicide, Edwin Boos

Michigan Law Review

Asserting that the deceased met his death by accidental drowning, appellant sued as beneficiary to recover under a double indemnity clause of an insurance policy issued to the deceased by the defendant. The defense was that the deceased committed suicide and that a clause in the policy prevents recovery of double liability under such circumstances. The jury found for the defendant and, on appeal, the beneficiary contended that the trial judge committed prejudicial error against her by refusing to instruct the jury that there was a strong presumption against suicide and in favor of accidental death. Held, the code …

Insurance-Gratuitous Assignment Of Life Policy Where Right To Change Beneficiary Is Reserved, Craig E. Davids S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant issued a life insurance policy to deceased, naming plaintiff, then insured's wife, as beneficiary. The policy reserved to the insured the right at any time to change the beneficiary without the knowledge or consent of the latter, and it further provided that no assignment should affect the rights of insurer until due notice was given to defendant. Sometime later, plaintiff divorced insured, who had indicated by personal conversation and correspondence with his sister the intervener, that he intended that the sister should receive the proceeds of the insurance. In one letter the insured referred to the policy and said, …

Wills-Necessity Of Signature-Statutory Requirements Satisfied By Typewritten Name, Craig E. Davids S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Testatrix, having predeceased her husband by three hours, was believed to have died intestate, and her property passed to her husband's estate. Appellee, mother of testatrix, filed a claim against the estate for money owed by her daughter and son-in-law. A year after her claim had been settled by appellants, appellee filed for probate testatrix's will, in which appellee was named the sole legatee. The signature affixed to the instrument was not in the handwriting of testatrix but consisted only of her typewritten name, which testatrix had acknowledged as her signature before two witnesses on separate occasions. The lower court …

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.

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.

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.

Landlord And Tenant-Leases-Option In Tenant To Cancel In Case Of Governmental Interference With Use Of Premises, Margaret Groefsema S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A lease of real property for an automobile service station contained a provision for termination of the leasehold at the option of the tenant in case "the use of the said premises for an oil and gasoline filling station be prevented, suspended or limited by any zoning statute or ordinance, or any other municipal or governmental action." Held, this clause applied to release the tenant when wartime rationing of gasoline and tires made it unprofitable for him to operate the filling station. Mid-Continent Petroleum Corporation v. Barrett, (Ky. Ct. App. 1944) 181 S.W. (2d) 60.

Liberty Under The Fourteenth Amendment: 1943-44, John Raeburn Green

Michigan Law Review

Elsewhere efforts have been made to survey the status of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights with respect to their protection against state abridgment. The decisions of the Supreme Court were examined, from the February term, 1790, through the 1942 term. It was observed that the struggle to obtain for these rights and liberties federal constitutional protection against state abridgment, as well as against federal abridgment, had been almost continuous since the adoption of the Constitution; that Madison had sought, unsuccessfully, to include in the Bill of Rights guaranties against state abridgment for freedom of speech and …

Research In Inter-American Law At The University Of Michigan, Hessel E. Yntema

Michigan Law Review

In the Americas, the historic trade routes have run east and west, more than north and south. Geographic necessity has decreed that, subject to possible reorientation with the future development of aviation, the dominant factor influencing the course of commerce with this hemisphere should be the open sea. Westward across the Atlantic, came the explorers, the conquistadors, the pioneers, succeeded by wave after wave of immigration to the New World, seaborne on argosies that, laden with the fabulous spoils and profits of empire, returned to the homelands the tribute of the New to the Old World. Achievement in the Nineteenth …

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 …

Sales-Automobile Dealer Financing And The Bona Fide Purchaser, Robert M. Barton S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

With the prospect of increased manufacture of automobiles for civilian use, the problem of financing the dealer and his customers will again loom large. In the past the burden has largely been assumed not by banks, whose credit practices and collection machinery are better adapted to short term, single payment credits, but by the finance or acceptance companies. These organizations mushroomed into prominence after World War I as retail installment selling became more and more prevalent, and with the "easy payment plan" offered by the dealer to the retail buyer, there was produced a corresponding need by the dealer himself …

Capacity Under The Negotiable Instruments Laws Of The Americas: A Comparative Study, Luis M. Ramirez B.

Michigan Law Review

Closely related to the legal rules that regulate the different aspects and effects of endorsement is the question of capacity to endorse bills of exchange. This forms part of negotiatory capacity in general, which, in a broad sense, may be defined as the faculty of a person to acquire rights and to assume obligations on negotiable instruments.

Contracts-Doctrine Of "Commercial Frustration" As Applied To Leases Of Real Property, Margaret Groefsema S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A mushroom crop of litigation has sprung up as a result of wartime governmental restrictions on production and consumption of civilian goods, particularly with respect to regulations of the sale of gasoline, tires, automobiles, and automobile accessories. Numerous problems have confronted the courts involving leases of property for the purpose of selling or servicing motor vehicles, where the lessee has sought to be released from his covenant to pay rent by invoking the so-called doctrine of "commercial frustration."

Practice And Procedure-Under What Circumstances May Counsel Ask Jurors Regarding Their Interest In Insurance Companies, On Trial Of A Case Against An Insured Defendant, Edwin Boos

Michigan Law Review

From a verdict in favor of the plaintiff in a personal injury action, defendant appeals, alleging as error questions repeatedly asked the jurors in their voir dire examination by plaintiff over defendant's objection. Plaintiff examined the jurors as to their connections, if any, with insurance companies in general and with Lloyd's specifically. All questions were answered in the negative. The argument of the defendant is that an affidavit, which had been previously presented to the court and to the plaintiff by the defendant, showing that no person on the jury list was in any way interested in Lloyd's or any …

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.

A Further Legal Inquiry Into Renegotiation: Ii, Charles W. Steadman

Michigan Law Review

Several issues concerning constitutionality of the Renegotiation Act were discussed in a previous article. That prior inquiry was, of course, not complete, nor is it possible here to exhaust all of these problems. The changes which the Revenue Act of 1943 made in renegotiation together with the manifest importance of this subject and the national interest which has been created by the challenges made concerning its constitutionality warrant further inquiry into this phase of the act. The issues of delegation of legislative authority, impairment of contracts, due process and judicial review, as well as the nature of renegotiation as a …

Termination Of War Contracts: The Contract Settlement Act Of 1944, David A. Goldman

Michigan Law Review

Enacted with a background of knowledge gained from the termination of more than 25,000 army and navy contracts having an uncompleted value of approximately $17,000,000,000, the Contract Settlement Act of 1944 was the first of the legislative enactments by which Congress seeks to control the possibility of a rising tide of economic difficulties which might otherwise drown the body politic in a flood of cancellation notices. The passage of the act was preceded by extensive public hearings and debates, during which responsible Government officials and leaders of labor and industry expressed their considered opinions. Congress likewise had the benefit of …

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 …

Wills - Soldiers And Sailors - Intent Necessary For Validity, Robert M. Barton S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In December of 1941 decedent was a fireman aboard an oil tanker bound for the Dutch West Indies. While discussing the dangers brought about by the war to merchant shipping, he told a shipmate, "Well, if I get lost or anything--I want Mr. Knight and his people to have what I got, insurance and everything." He repeated this desire to his fellow seaman on several other occasions during the course of the voyage. The vessel reached port safely, but several trips later the decedent was drowned when his ship was torpedoed. Knight claimed the estate, alleging that the statement was …

Parties - Whether Action For Money Judgment By Holder Of Unsecured Bonds Constitutes "Class" Suit Binding On All Owners Of That Series Who Did Not Appear, William Houston

Michigan Law Review

The Chicago Board of Education had issued a certain series of refunding bonds, and later defaulted on interest coupons, numbered 16, attached to the bonds. Prior to the present suit a suit in equity had been instituted against the board by some of the owners of these bonds, on behalf of themselves and all other owners of bonds in this series, in which they prayed for judgment for the amount of interest due to each owner, together with costs, and attorney's fees. Defendant made a motion, to dismiss that suit on the ground that such action could not be maintained …

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.

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.