Digital Commons Network^™

The Effect Of The Contract Clause And The Fourteenth Amendment Upon The Power Of The States To Control Municipal Corporations, E. B. Schulz

Michigan Law Review

Although the power to establish systems of local government is reserved to the states under the Federal Constitution, they are obliged to exercise it in conformity with the limitations, direct or indirect, by which their powers in general are circumscribed. Since a state lacks authority to delegate powers which it does not possess, it may not confer upon municipal corporations, to cite but a few examples, the power to pass ex post facto laws and bills of attainder, to coin money, to emit bills of credit, to regulate foreign and interstate commerce, or to levy taxes for strictly private purposes. …

Bankruptcy - Corporate Reorganization - Approval Of Plan Of Bondholders' Committee In Foreclosure Proceeding In A State Court, Malcolm L. Denise

Michigan Law Review

The question of a state court's jurisdiction to pass on the fairness of a reorganization plan in connection with proceedings to foreclose a trust mortgage and sell the corporate property has been considered in but a surprisingly small number of cases. It would seem that this is a possibility the existence of which reorganization committees and dissenting bondholders have only begun to realize. In the recent case of First National Bank of Chicago v. Bryn Mawr, Beach Bldg. Corp., the trustee under a trust mortgage instituted foreclosure proceedings, and a committee representing a majority of the bondholders purchased at …

Bills And Notes - Liability Of "Irregular Lndorser" Of Chose In Action, Gerald L. Stoetzer

Michigan Law Review

Trustee bank, for the purpose of refinancing a mortgage on trust property, executed a trust deed and instrument, designated as the "principal note," which disclaimed personal liability of trustee and beneficiaries, expressly providing that the sole remedy upon default of payment of "note" or interest installment should be by foreclosure of the trust deed. Before delivery, the beneficiaries of the trust indorsed the "note" though not parties thereto. Upon default the holder brought this action against one of the beneficiaries on his anomalous indorsement. Held, (1) that the "note" was a mere chose in action; (2) that an irregular …

Corporations - Alteration Of Charter Under Reserved Power - Change In Remedy To Enforce Stockholders' Liability, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The constitution of Maryland of I 867 provided that owners of bank stock should be liable for debts of the corporation to an extent equal to the value of the stock owned by them. The bank in which the defendants owned stock was organized under legislation of 1870 containing the provision, "this act and every part of it may be altered from time to time, or repealed by the legislature." The Maryland court held that, while the constitution provided no remedy, the right was conferred on each creditor in his individual capacity to be enforced by separate suits against those …

Constitutional Law - Zoning - Amendment Of Zoning Ordinance As Impairing Vested Rights, Ralph Winkler

Michigan Law Review

The town plan commission amended the municipal zoning ordinance to permit the erection of an incinerator in a class C residence district. The particular tract upon which the incinerator was to be located had been a municipal garbage dump, and as such, a non-conforming use under the zoning ordinance. The board of health by ordinance declared the garbage dump to be a nuisance. The facts revealed there was an immediate need to dispose of the garbage, etc.; that the erection of an incinerator was the best means of so doing; that the proposed site was a suitable location; that the …

Judgments - Declaratory Judgments - Scope Of The Federal Act, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

After the insured had made formal claims for total disability benefits for four years without bringing action to enforce them, the insurer, having at all times denied the total disability of the insured, brought suit in a federal district court for a declaration that it was not liable for the benefits claimed and that the policies had lapsed for non-payment of premiums. The district court granted a motion to dismiss because the insurer failed to present a "controversy" within the Federal Constitution and the Declaratory Judgments Act and because the insurer had no "rights or other legal relations" to be …

Corporations - Corporate Form Used To Evade Bank Double Liability, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, the receiver for an insolvent bank, sued the individual stockholders of an investment corporation on an assessment to the amount of the par value of the bank stock as provided by the constitution and statutes of South Carolina. The investment corporation had been organized several years previously to secure control of a group of banks. Its holdings throughout consisted only of bank stock, and finally solely of stock of the closed bank. Plaintiff claimed, since the corporation had no assets, that the stockholders of the investment corporation were individually liable, because the use of a holding company for the …

Negligence - Liability Of Street Railways For Injuries To Alighting Passengers - Duty Of Car Employees, Dan K. Cook

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff passenger, while alighting from the right side of a street car, operated by defendant street railway company in the center of a well-traveled road, was struck by an automobile traveling toward plaintiff from the front of the street car on the same side from which plaintiff was discharged. The automobile was traveling this uncommon course by reason of road repairs which created a temporary situation during which motor traffic in both directions was traveling along the half of the road on which plaintiff was alighting. Plaintiff contended, in an action brought for the injuries she sustained, that a legal …

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.

Wills - Lapse - Construction - Execution Of Codicil After Death Of Legatee As Indicating Intent To Avoid Lapse, Bertram H. Lebeis

Michigan Law Review

Testator provided in his will for the division of his real and personal estate into twenty-five equal parts, one part for each of his nieces and nephews. One of the nephews predeceased testator by seven months, leaving a minor son. Thereafter testator executed a codicil expressing his desire that a nephew by marriage be a distributee of his estate, and directing that his personal and real estate be divided into twenty-six equal parts in order to include the new distributee. In proceedings brought for construction of the will, held, that the legacy to the nephew who predeceased testator did …

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 …

Bankruptcy - Corporate Reorganization - Effect Of Release Of Collateral Obligor On Dissenting Creditors, Edward D. Ransom

Michigan Law Review

The federal district court confirmed a plan of reorganization of debtor corporation, under section 77B of the Bankruptcy Act, which expressly released defendant from liability as guarantor of bonds of the corporation and provided for cancellation of the bonds and substitution of new certificates of stock. The plaintiff, a bondholder, made no objection when the plan was submitted to the court; objection by other bondholders was overruled. The plaintiff brought suit in municipal court on the defendant's guaranty. Defendant pleaded the confirmation of the plan by the district court as res adjudicata. The trial court denied the plea and entered …

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. …

The Theory And Practice Of Pre-Trial Procedure, Edson R. Sunderland

Michigan Law Review

Pre-trial civil procedure under the English common-law system consisted only of pleading. Whatever the rules of pleading could accomplish in the way of defining and restricting issues contributed to the efficiency of the trial. What could not be done by the rules of pleading could not be done at all.

The great weakness of pleading as a means for developing and presenting issues of fact for trial lay in its total lack of any means for testing the factual basis for the pleader's allegations and denials. They might rest upon the soundest evidence, or they might rest upon nothing at …

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 …

Eminent Domain - Public Housing And Slum Clearance As A "Public Use", Wayne E. Babler

Michigan Law Review

The recent legislation providing for housing and slum clearance raises the interesting and practical problem of whether a taking of land for such housing and slum clearance purposes by means of an eminent domain proceeding is condemnation for a "public use," within the meaning of that term in eminent domain proceedings. Such a taking was held to be for a public use in the recent case of Spahn v. Stewart.

Executors And Administrators -Abatement Of Legacies - Intention Of Testator As Determined From Nature Of Legacy And Surrounding Circumstances, Victor P. Kayser

Michigan Law Review

When testator's estate is insufficient to pay all bequests provided for in his will, they normally abate in a definite order. For example, specific and demonstrative legacies are payable in toto before general legacies, which in turn must be paid before residuary gifts of personalty. Specific devises are free from abatement to pay pecuniary bequests; the same has been said of residuary devises. If there are insufficient assets to satisfy any class in full, bequests therein abate pro rata.

But testator may vary the order of abatement, may provide for the prior payment of any bequest he chooses. The most …

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.

Monthly Periodical Index, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This department lists the articles and comments which appear in twenty-four 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.

Damage As Requisite To Rescission For Misrepresentation, Glenn A. Mccleary

Michigan Law Review

The decadence of equity during the nineteenth century has long been an accepted phenomenon. The attempt to make law coincide with morals in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was followed in the nineteenth century by the gradual fixing of rules and a consequent stiffening of the legal systems, in which moral principles became lost in a mass of rules derived from such principles. What were once equitable doctrines tended to become mechanical rules. The former strength of equity has been weakened in the various jurisdictions, due in a large measure to the administration of law and equity by the same …

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, …

Assault And Battery-Abusive Language And Threats - Fright Causing Miscarriage, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Upon the plaintiff's refusal to pay anything on her account with the defendant corporation, the collecting agent of the latter, knowing that the plaintiff was far advanced in pregnancy, called her a "deadbeat" and threatened to have her arrested. In a civil action for wiful trespass to the person, the plaintiff alleged that fright caused by the defendant's conduct resulted in illness and a miscarriage. Held, that there was a cause of action stated, even though there was no physical violence. Kirby v. Jules Chain Stores Corp., 210 N. C. 808, 188 S. E. 625 (1936).

Municipal Corporations - Use Of Streets - Validity Of Ordinance Providing For Parking Meters, Charles M. Kneier

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner was convicted and fined for parking in a meter parking space on a city street without depositing a nickel in the meter as required by municipal ordinance. Upon being committed to jail he applied for a writ of habeas corpus, contending that the ordinance providing for parking meters was invalid. Held, the writ was denied, parking meter ordinances being valid police regulations. Ex parte Duncan, 179 Okla. 355, 65 P. (2d) 1015 (1937).

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.

Mortgages - Deed In Lieu Of Foreclosure - Validity, Elbridge D. Phelps

Michigan Law Review

Depression years have brought to the fore a question much controverted in the early law, but now said to have become settled. That question regards the effect and efficacy of a conveyance of the mortgaged land, or a transfer of the equity of redemption, by the mortgagor to his mortgagee. It seems to have been cheerfully assumed by some lawyers, and by laymen in general, that in the absence of liens subsequent to the mortgage, the procedure is perfectly safe and proper in every case. It is the purpose of this discussion, however, to point out certain dangers inherent in …

Monthly Periodical Index, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

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

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 …

Constitutional Law - Separation Of Powers - Power Of The Courts And Legislature To Regulate The Practice Of Law And Procedure, Peter S. Boter

Michigan Law Review

In theory, the doctrine of separation of powers presents a governmental system with spheres of power for each department, separated by clear lines of demarcation. Yet in practice it does not follow that a complete separation of powers could be effected or would be desirable. The concurrent exercise of a power by two coordinate branches of a government may result in conflicting regulations and also in charges that the exercise of the power by one department is an unconstitutional encroachment on the powers to be exercised by another and coordinate department. This situation is present in the concurrent exercise of …

Corporations - Unorthodox Preferred Stock Provisions In Priority Litigation, Elbert R. Gilliom

Michigan Law Review

To one who has accumulated sufficient savings to earn the position of a prospective purchaser of corporate securities there is presented an impressive and somewhat mystifying list of interests from which he may choose, advisedly or otherwise. Between orthodox common stock at one extreme and secured bonds at the other, ranges an endless variety of stocks embodying some bond characteristics, bonds bearing stock attributes, and a welter of certificates professing to be neither stocks nor bonds. Because individual sources of funds needed for industry do differ in their convictions as to relative advantages of different characteristics of securities, issuing corporations, …