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Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front Matter for Volume 39, Issue 1 of Michigan Law Review

The Premises Of The Judgment As Res Judicata In Continental And Anglo-American Law, Robert Wyness Millar

Michigan Law Review

That every judicial judgment, whatever its character, consists of premises and conclusion is a fact sufficiently obvious. In our system, especially, expression of the premises must very often be sought outside the actual judgment-order and collected from other parts of the judicial record or even from evidence aliunde of what took place at the hearing. But the legal nature of the relation between premises and conclusion is independent of the particular structure of the record and the mode of ascertaining what those premises were. Given satisfaction of the requirements of the law with respect to identity of parties, it is …

Some Problems Arising Out Of Deposits To Pay Principal And Interest On Bonds, Paul P. Lipton

Michigan Law Review

Since Lawrence v. Fox contracts students have been puzzled by the numerous and varying relations that may arise when A, the debtor, delivers money to B to pay C, his creditor. Equally puzzling and much more complicated are the rights and relations of the obligor, trustee and bondholders with respect to sums deposited with the trustee to pay principal and interest on bonds.

The insolvency during recent years of many large trust companies that had been named as trustees in indentures securing corporate bonds, having on hand at the time of their failure large sums of money which …

Marriage And Divorce - Power Of Court To Modify Decree For Alimony Or Property Settlement As Affected By Agreement Of The Parties, Roy L. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

Contracts settling the property interests of a husband and wife or providing for support of the wife or for both of these ends are no doubt valid in all jurisdictions where the parties may contract with each other if the purpose is not to facilitate divorce or future separation. Even at common law, separation agreements could be made, however, through the intervention of a trustee. If not invalid, the contract may ordinarily be enforced in an action on the promise. But, when a divorce is decreed, it is quite often the practice to incorporate in the divorce decree the provisions …

Constitutional Law - Labor Law - Peaceful Picketing Guaranteed By Due Process Clause Of Fourteenth Amendment, Eugene T. Kinder

Michigan Law Review

In the recent Thornhill and Carlson decisions the Supreme Court of the United States declared an Alabama statute and a California county ordinance prohibiting all picketing, peaceful or otherwise, unconstitutional on the ground that such broad legislation deprived employees and union members of their right of free speech, guaranteed by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. In holding that employees and workers have a constitutional right to publicize the facts of a labor dispute, the Court was but taking another step in its recent crusade for the preservation of civil liberties. …

Public Utilities - Municipal Corporations - Power Of Municipal Corporations To Regulate Public Utility Rates - Finality Of Such Regulation, John S. Pennell

Michigan Law Review

Since the decision in the case of Munn v. Illinois it has been settled that where property is devoted to a public use and is charged with a public interest, the state may prescribe reasonable rates for such public service. However, the question then arises as to the manner in which the state may prescribe these rates, through what agencies it may act, and the effect on the total picture of rate regulation within a state after there has been action by one of the proper agencies. The answers to these questions depend to a large extent upon the particular …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Freedom Of Religion And Conscience - Compulsory Flag Salute, William F. Andersen

Michigan Law Review

The minor plaintiffs, aged twelve and thirteen, had been excluded from the public school because of repeated refusal to salute the national flag and recite the pledge of allegiance in accordance with an authorized order of the school board. They sought an injunction in the federal district court against such prohibition, alleging that the order violated the Fourteenth Amendment as an infringement on the free exercise of religion in that their beliefs forbade the revering of anything but God. The injunction was granted and the decree was affirmed by the circuit court of appeals. A writ of certiorari was granted …

Contracts - Sales - Effect Of Reasonable Belief In Buyer's Insolvency On Seller's Duty To Perform, W. Wallace Kent

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff ordered goods from the defendant, for immediate delivery, terms $1,500 down, balance covered by notes of three and six months. The check given for the down payment was dishonored because of insufficient funds but was subsequently honored. On investigation the defendant discovered that there were unpaid judgments outstanding against the plaintiff, some of which were upwards of three years old. Inferring that the plaintiff was insolvent, the defendant refused to deliver the goods unless cash was paid therefor and when plaintiff refused this offer defendant attempted to return the down payment. Held, plaintiff's affairs were in such …

Eminent Domain - Power Of The Federal Government To Condemn Land In Public Use For An Inconsistent Federal Use, Robert P. Kneeland

Michigan Law Review

Defendants, landowners and next of kin of persons buried in a cemetery which was being subjected to condemnation, moved to dismiss the federal government's petition for condemnation of such lands on the grounds that the federal statutes did not authorize the United States to take land already dedicated to a public use for an inconsistent use; and that public cemeteries were not subject to the United States' power of eminent domain. The land was being condemned to effectuate a federal project under the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Federal Emergency Relief Appropriations Act of 1935, and was for public …

Taxation - Income Tax - Interest On Condemnation Award As Capital Gain, John L. Rubsam

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner's land was condemned by the city of New York and as compensation he was awarded a certain sum representing the value of the land and, in addition, a sum classified as "interest" to indemnify the petitioner for delay in payment of the award. The award so classified as "interest" was taxed as "ordinary income" by the commissioner of internal revenue. It was petitioner's contention that such sum denominated as "interest" should have been classed as a "capital gain" and not as "ordinary income." From an order of the board of tax appeals holding this sum "ordinary income," petitioner appealed. …

Monthly Periodical Index, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This department lists the articles and comments which appear in twenty-five leading law reviews.

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.

Scope Of The Business: The Borrowed Servant Problem, Talbot Smith

Michigan Law Review

If your client wants to erect an office building he may be advised of the cost within narrow limits. The necessary expenditure will be X dollars plus Y lives or limbs. If his talents take the turn of bridge construction similar computations may be made. To carry forward to completion either of these projects he must use materials of various kinds, and he must use men. The expenditure of the human, animate, material is as inevitable as the expenditure of the inanimate. With increased care and skill the curve of expenditure of the human material will approach the asymptote of …

Taxation -- State Sales Taxes In Relation To Interstate Commerce -- The Berwind-White Case, Eugene Gressman

Michigan Law Review

One of the underlying theories of the constitutional framework, as exemplified by the commerce clause, is that there shall be a free national market, unhampered by state tariffs or restrictions. Congressmen are free to ward off the rigors of disastrous foreign competition by bringing home industries under the protective umbrella of high national tariffs, but state legislators are supposed to be powerless to protect their local industries from the damaging competition--that "most potent stimulant to improvement and progress"--emanating from other states.

Carriers - Gratuitous Pass - Limitation Of Liability, John L. Rubsam

Michigan Law Review

Appellee was traveling between Louisville and New Orleans on a gratuitous pass issued to her by reason of being the mother of a conductor employed by the Missouri-Pacific lines. The pass contained the following condition: "The person accepting and using it thereby assumes all risk of accident to person or property." Appellee had signed: "I accept the above conditions." The train gave a slight jerk due to coupling onto other cars, causing appellee to fall and sustain the injuries for which she sues. Held, where a passenger using a free interstate railroad pass agreed to assume the risk of …

Insurance -What Constitutes "Marks Of Force And Violence" Within The Meaning Of A Policy Of Safe Burglary Insurance?, W. Wallace Kent

Michigan Law Review

P sued to recover on a policy of safe burglary insurance which required that the entry into the safe must have been "made by force and violence of which there shall be visible marks made by tools . . . or other chemicals." P's employee was forced to open the safe, after having been struck on the head with a gun, and in so doing the employee left blood stains on the safe. P contended that the policy was ambiguous in its terms and that the blood on the safe, having chemical qualities, demonstrated the use of chemicals to …

Scott On Trusts: A Review, Lewis M. Simes

Michigan Law Review

Professor Scott, in his four volume work on the Law of Trusts, has given us a book worthy to stand beside the two other great American treatises on this subject, the American Law Institute Restatement of the Law of Trusts, and Bogert on Trusts and Trustees. Since the reviews of Professor Scott's book already published have been as numerous as they have been favorable, I shall content myself with discussing it as a whole and shall refrain from detailed comment on its treatment of particular rules. More particularly, I shall attempt to compare it with the two …

The Constitution And A "Planned Economy", Henry Rottschaefer

Michigan Law Review

A little more than a decade has passed since the collapse of the wildest speculative orgy ever indulged in by a nation not markedly given to underestimating its own economic and financial potentialities. It came at a time when the conjuncture of world-wide economic forces combined with almost world-wide unsound practices in the fields of international trade and finance had created an extremely unstable economic situation throughout the world. It would require a degree of optimism as large as that entertained by the speculative community during the "boom period" to believe that the measures and policies adopted and followed during …

A Reappraisal Of Appraisal Statutes, Norman D. Lattin

Michigan Law Review

Two recent cases, under two of the most carefully framed corporation statutes, have raised again the question of what to do with the shareholder who dissents from fundamental change in his corporation. The appraisal statutes were devised to meet this problem by giving the shareholder, in the limited number of fundamental changes stated in the statute, the right to demand the fair, cash or market value of his share and retire from the company. The statutes of two states have given him this right as almost the exclusive means of protecting his interest in the company if he is dissatisfied …

Public Policies Underlying The Law Of Mental Incompetency, Milton D. Green

Michigan Law Review

Mental incompetency, or legal insanity, has usually been studied in the patchquilt fashion. It appears as a sub-heading of incidental interest in such widely diversified subjects as crimes, contracts, domestic relations, torts and wills. It can, however, be conceived of as a single strand in the seamless web. So viewed, it may appear to wind in and out of the various artificial subdivisions of the law, cutting across each at one particular place or another. And so conceived, it can be studied according to the second and less orthodox method of analysis. Few are the isolated areas in the law …

Insurance - Exclusionary Clauses - Death Due To Violation Of The Law By The Insured, Robert A. Solomon

Michigan Law Review

When a person carrying a life or accident insurance policy dies as the result of an act committed by him in violation of the law, the beneficiaries may or may not be precluded from recovering upon it. In the absence of a special exclusionary clause, the general view is that the beneficiary may recover. However, if it appears that at the time the insured took out the policy he intended to commit a crime recovery is barred, at least if the death occurred within the contestability period. In order to delimit from the general coverage provisions the risks that would …

Constitutional Law - Interstate Commerce - State Regulation Of Exports Of Intoxicating Liquor, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

On being refused a license, a carrier operating under the provisions of the Federal Motor Carrier Act sought to enjoin public officials of Kentucky from enforcing the penal and contraband portions of the Kentucky Liquor Law, which required a license from the state as a prerequisite to the right to transport liquor. Plaintiff claimed that the state act was a violation of its rights under the commerce clause in that the requirement of the license placed an unconstitutional burden on its right to transport liquor in interstate commerce. On appeal from a federal three-judge court's ruling sustaining a motion to …

Constitutional Law - Interstate Commerce - Validity Of Ordinance Requiring Drummer's License, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, a door-to-door salesman, solicited orders in Minnesota for goods, which were later shipped from his employer's factory in Wisconsin to his house in Minnesota. There he broke the original packages and filled his customers' orders by delivering the goods in a truck provided him by his employer. Defendant was convicted of violating a municipal ordinance requiring a license of all door-to-door canvassers. Held, the ordinance was unconstitutional as an unreasonable burden on interstate commerce, and the conviction should be set aside. City of Waseca v. Braun, (Minn. 1939) 288 N. W. 229.

Constitutional Law - Psychopathic Proceeding - Due Process And Jury Trial, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Proceedings were brought against appellant under a Minnesota statute providing for commitment of psychopathic persons who showed habitual sexual misconduct. Appellant appealed to the state supreme court for a writ of prohibition, claiming denial of due process. Appellant's contentions were overruled and he appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Held, the statute did not deny due process. Minnesota ex rel. Pearson v. Probate Court, (U.S. 1940) 60 S. Ct. 523.

Criminal Law And Procedure -- Privilege Against Self-Incrimination -- Duty To Give Requested Instruction That No Significance Should Be Attached To Defendant's Failure To Testify, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, charged with conspiracy to import and sell narcotics, requested a special instruction that failure of defendant to take the witness stand does not create any presumption against him. A federal statute specifically provides that no such presumption shall arise. The trial court refused the instruction, and after the circuit court of appeals affirmed the conviction, the case was taken to the United States Supreme Court. Held, the statute gave defendant a right upon request to have such an instruction given. The error committed by its refusal was not a mere "technical error," but one affecting defendant's substantial rights. …

Labor Law - Picketing To Compel Breach Of A Statutory Duty - Conflict Between Norris-Laguardia Act And National Labor Relations Act, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Petitioners, a corporate employer and an A. F. of L. union whose membership included all the company's active employees, brought suit in a federal court against a C. I. O. union, whose membership included two of petitioner's employees on strike, to enjoin respondents' picketing. The purpose of the picketing was to coerce the employer and employees to violate the agreement entered into with the petitioner union as exclusive bargaining agency and to cause the employer to rescind its recognition of that union. The trial court granted an injunction against all picketing on findings that the agreement between the employer and …

Marriage And Divorce - Gross Neglect Of Duty As A Ground For Divorce - Wife's Separate Employment Causing Neglect Of Household Duties, Oscar Freedenberg

Michigan Law Review

The husband, plaintiff in a divorce action, alleged that his wife's employment, against his will, caused her to become irritable, unpleasant and quarrelsome and to neglect her household tasks. Held, that the petition states a cause of action on the ground of gross neglect of duty or extreme cruelty under the Ohio statute, but that the proof fails to bear out the plaintiff's allegations. Winnard v. Winnard, 62 Ohio App. 351, 23 N. E. (2d) 977 (1939).

Municipal Corporations - Debt Limitations - Validity Of Revenue Financing Bonds, James W. Deer

Michigan Law Review

The state of Ohio created a building authority to which it transferred for a period of twenty-five years certain hospitals and public land. In return the authority promised to repair the hospitals and to construct a number of new buildings. Bonds to the amount of $7,500,000 were issued by the authority on a resolution pledging the income to be derived from the property pursuant to a twenty-three year rent and bond retirement agreement with the department of welfare. The department promised to charge its patients enough to meet these obligations, and to make payment possible a statute was passed allowing …

Municipal Corporations - Police Power - Control Of Streets - Power Of City To Grant Exclusive Garbage Disposal Privilege, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was arrested and fined for collecting and removing garbage by truck over the streets of plaintiff city in violation of an ordinance which provided that no persons other than the duly authorized employees of the city should collect, remove, convey, or transport garbage by any means whatsoever over the city streets. The state constitution gave municipalities the power to adopt and enforce local police and sanitary measures which did not conflict with the general laws. In broad terms, the general code gave the city the power to dispose of garbage, sewage, etc. Defendant claimed that the ordinance conflicted with …

Negligence - Contributory Negligence As A Defense To Charge Of Nuisance, Benjamin W. Franklin

Michigan Law Review

Defendants were engaged in excavation work, which required the use of compressed air. The air was conducted from a compressor in the street across the sidewalk through a two-inch pipe. A permit had been obtained for crossing the sidewalk (but apparently there was some question as to whether its terms included crossing by the use of a pipe). This obstruction was flanked by two planks, two inches thick and twelve inches wide, beveled away from the pipe. One of the planks became tilted. Plaintiff stepped on it and it slipped under her weight, causing her to fall. In an action …