Digital Commons Network^™

Constitutional Law -Is Redistricting Of A State For Congressional Elections An Exercise Of The Lawmaking Power Of The State?

Michigan Law Review

The governor of Minnesota vetoed an act of the legislature dividing the state into congressional districts in accordance with the latest re-apportionment of the House of Representatives (46 Stat. 21, 26). Thereupon the state house of representatives by resolution directed the secretary of state to enroll the bill as a law. In an action started to test the validity of the law, held, Art. 1, Sec. 4 (1) of the Constitution of the United States provides that, "The time and place of holding elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but …

Corporations - Issue Of Stock

Michigan Law Review

The Eastman Kodak Company, a New Jersey corporation, entered into a contract with Vereinigte Fabriken Photagraphischer Papiere of Dresden, a German corporation, whereby it was agreed that the German company would discontinue the manufacture and sale of "Collodion papers" in North America, Great Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal and that those territories would be given over exclusively to the Eastman Company for the manufacture and sale of this paper. In consideration of this concession the Eastman Company issued 28,450 shares of its no par stock to the German company. This stock was later seized by the United States Alien Property …

Mortgages - Foreclosure - Right To Receiver Of Rents And Profits

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff held a large mortgage on apartment property. Upon default in the payment of principal, interest, and taxes a bill of foreclosure was filed against the mortgagor and her grantees who had taken subject to the mortgage. A clause in the mortgage authorized the appointment of a receiver to collect the rents and profits upon default. After hearing, the mortgagee was appointed receiver on the theory that non-payment of taxes constituted waste. Held, that the appointment was unauthorized. Union Guardian Trust Co. v. Rau, 255 Mich. 324, 238 N. W. 166 (1931).

An Important Study Of The Interstate Commerce Commission

Michigan Law Review

A review of THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION - A STUDY IN ADMINISTRATIVE LAW AND PROCEDURE. By I. L. Sharfman

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.

Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front Matter for Volume 30, Issue 5 of Michigan Law Review

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 …

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.

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 …

Civil Pleading In Scotland, Robert Wyness Millar

Michigan Law Review

It might be expected that, after the lodging of the answers and pleas in law on the part of the defender, a brief period would now be allowed the pursuer to put in a reply to any affirmative allegations contained in the defender's pleading. But this is not the case, at least in the sense of his lodging a separate pleading. He is given opportunity to reply, but by way of revising his condescendence. Basically, the principle is the same as that obtaining in our classic chancery practice, whereby the complainant amended his bill in order to include any special …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Corporations - Restrictions Upon Transfer Of Corporate Stock

Michigan Law Review

Due to the flexibility and fluctuation of proprietorship in corporations, attempts have frequently been made to restrict effectively along certain lines the free transfer of corporate stock. Such efforts have been motivated by a desire to secure a continuity of management, or to insure ownership by stockholders deemed actually advantageous to the success of the common undertaking.

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 …

Waste - Improvement Of Premises By Life Tenant

Michigan Law Review

The possible difficulties of a life tenant and some of the rigid and anachronistic doctrines of the law of waste are suggested by the recent case of Brokaw v. Fairchild, 135 Mis. 70, 237 N. Y. S. 6 (1929); aff'd 231 App. Div. 704,245 N. Y. S. 402 (1930), Finch, J., dissenting; aff'd, 177 N. E. 186 (1931), without opinion.

Constitutional Law - Extent Of State Police Power In Protection Of Public Health

Michigan Law Review

An Illinois statute prohibited the manufacture or sale of milk to which had been added any fat or oil other than milk fat. The defendant was engaged in manufacturing for sale outside of the state a product composed of skimmed milk and cocoanut oil which was not deleterious to health in any way. When it was sought to recover the penalty imposed by the statute for its violation, it was claimed that the law was unconstitutional in that it deprived the defendant of property without due process of law. The court held that the statute was an invalid exercise of …

Descent And Distribution - Issue Of Void Miscegenous Marriage As Heirs Under Legitimation Statute

Michigan Law Review

An Indian married a negress in Oklahoma. The proper forms were observed, the parties acted in good faith, and thereafter lived together as husband and wife. Children were born to them. The marriage was absolutely void under an Oklahoma statute prohibiting such miscegenation and making it a felony. On the father's death intestate, the guardian of the children petitioned for letters of administration. Held, that under Okla. Comp. Stat. 1921, sec. I 1303, reading, "The issue of all marriages null in law . . . are legitimate," the children of the void marriage took as heirs, and the petition …

Taxation-Power To Determine Income Tax Rate Of Husband On Basis Of Combined Income Of Husband And Wife

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff and his wife had separate incomes and estates. The Wisconsin income tax law provided that married persons living together might make separate returns, but that the tax rate should be that rate which would apply had their incomes been combined in a single return. Wis Stat., 1927, c. 71.05 (2) (d), c. 71.09(4) (c). Income tax rates, under the Wisconsin law, are graduated according to the size of the income. Married women are given equal property and contract rights with men under the Wisconsin statutes. The plaintiff, protesting against payment of a higher rate than that prescribed for …

Taxation - Tenancies By The Entirety - Retroactive Application Of The Federal Estate Tax Laws

Michigan Law Review

H and W became tenants by the entirety in certain lands in 1917. H died in 1925. A federal estate tax was collected under section 302 of the Revenue Act of 1924, 43 Stat. 253, 304, which provides that the gross value of the decedent's estate subject to tax shall include all property "to the extent of the interest therein held . . . as tenants by the entirety by the decedent and spouse," with certain exceptions. The same provision appeared in the 1916 and successive revenue acts without material change. W protested the levy on the ground that Congress …

A Reference Work On Post War Treaties

Michigan Law Review

A review of POSTWAR TREATIES FOR THE PACIFIC SETTLEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL DISPUTES. By Max Habicht

A Valuable Record Of International Practice

Michigan Law Review

A review of PUBLIC DEBTS AND STATE SUCCESSION. By Ernst H. Feilchenfeld

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.

The Constitution And The International Labor Conventions, Harold W. Stoke

Michigan Law Review

The International Labor Organization, since its establishment in 1919, has become one of the most active of the international institutions of the post-war period. It was founded upon that provision of the Treaty of Versailles which binds each signatory nation and those which should later join the organization to endeavor to secure and maintain fair and humane conditions of labor for men, women and children, both in their own countries and in the countries to which their commercial and industrial relations extend.

Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front Matter for Volume 30, Issue 4 of Michigan Law Review

Insolvency Statutes Preferring Wages Due Employees, Paul G. Kauper

Michigan Law Review

Insolvency statutes of a majority of American states and the bankruptcy acts of the United States and England allow a preference to the claims of employees for wages accruing prior to the employer's insolvency or bankruptcy. Related types of legislation such as statutes creating an absolute lien on the employer's property to secure payment of wages, giving a preference to the employees of a deceased employer in the administration of his estate, exempting the wages of laborers from attachment or garnishment, making stockholders of a corporation individually liable for debts representing wages due employees, allowing employees to interpose their claims …

Civil Pleading In Scotland, Robert Wyness Millar

Michigan Law Review

Said Lord Chancellor Loreburn, in his answers to the questions addressed to him by Mr. Justice Lurton, preparatory to the drafting of the Federal Equity Rules of 1912: "It may be worth while for Mr. Justice Lurton and his coadjutors to consider the Scottish method of pleading which, in my opinion, is the best." This can only mean that the Lord Chancellor regarded the method in question as superior to that obtaining under the English Rules - certainly a high testimonial coming from such a quarter. Whether the opinion is justified or not is a question which may be left …

Foreign Consul - Exemption From Suit In State Courts, Julius I. Puente

Michigan Law Review

In a recent case decided in California the defendant, De Besa, and others, were licensed brokers, and in that character acted as fiscal agents for the sale of the stock of a certain California corporation. Plaintiff sued to rescind the contract for misrepresentation. Neither at the time suit was filed, nor at any time prior to the day when he testified at the trial was the defendant, De Besa, a recognized consular officer; but it seems (on this point the facts of the case are very vague) that on the date of the trial and at the time of the …

Presumptions - Constitutional Validity Of Statute Establishing Proof Of Reputation As Prima Facie Evidence Of Commission Of Crime

Michigan Law Review

The rise and sway of the gangster as a menace to American social and economic security has led, of late, to the employment of unique means of combating lawlessness. Faced by a tremendous increase in the difficulties lying in the path of those seeking the conviction of professional criminals for major crimes, the police and prosecutors often turn towards a means of fighting crime originally devised to make life uncomfortable for petty off enders. The enforcement of the pistol laws and the vagrancy statutes against millionaire gangsters, and repeated arrests on suspicion, have been resorted to as a means of …

Bankruptcy - Claims Against Bankrupt Indorsers

Michigan Law Review

Bankrupts were indorsers of promissory notes payable to claimants. None of these notes was due before the filing of the petition in bankruptcy and some of them did not mature within the year following adjudication during which proof of claims may be made. The court of appeals for the sixth circuit held that claimants could not prove on the indorsements because their claims were contingent. Held, that the claim was one "founded upon a contract express or implied," and provable even though not due until after the year allowed for proof of claims, the requirement of presentment and notice …