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Michigan Law Review

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Taxation - Constitutionality Of Chain Store Taxation Apr 1935

Taxation - Constitutionality Of Chain Store Taxation

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff corporation filed a bill asking a permanent injunction against the enforcement of the Michigan chain store tax, which imposes a graduated levy, the amounts increasing from ten dollars per year per store for two stores owned, to two hundred fifty dollars per year per store for stores in "chains" of twenty-six or more. The plaintiff contended that the statute was unconstitutional under the "uniformity" clause of the state constitution and the equal protection of the laws clause of the federal Constitution. Held, the act is constitutional. C. F. Smith Co. v. Fitzgerald, 270 Mich. 659, 259 …


Book Notes, Michigan Law Review Apr 1935

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.


Contracting By Reference To Price Indices, John P. Dawson, James Will Coultrap Mar 1935

Contracting By Reference To Price Indices, John P. Dawson, James Will Coultrap

Michigan Law Review

The commodity price index number has been defined as a "figure which shows the average percentage change in the prices of a number of representative goods from one point of time to another." In the preceding article it has been argued that the use of the index number in private contracts as a method of expressing stable values is not prohibited by the gold-clause resolution of June 5, 1933; that in the decisions of the United States Supreme Court sustaining this legislation there is nothing to indicate that such contracts would run counter to the Government's policies in the control …


Corporations - Depreciation And Net Profits For Dividend Purposes Mar 1935

Corporations - Depreciation And Net Profits For Dividend Purposes

Michigan Law Review

This discussion will deal only with cash dividends on par value stock. It proceeds on the assumption that dividends in a particular jurisdiction may be paid only from "net profits," but it is not the writer's purpose to interpret "net profits" except so far as that term is affected by depreciation. The discussion will consist of a short examination of the economic nature of depreciation; a consideration of accounting techniques for handling depreciation in the accounts, with an evaluation of these techniques from the point of view of analytical jurisprudence; and a discussion of the case law.


Criminal Law And Procedure - Statute Of Limitations - Time Of Commission Of Offense Matter Of Defense Or Of Jurisdiction Mar 1935

Criminal Law And Procedure - Statute Of Limitations - Time Of Commission Of Offense Matter Of Defense Or Of Jurisdiction

Michigan Law Review

Defendant pleaded guilty to rape and was sentenced to imprisonment upon an indictment which showed upon its face that the period allowed by the statute of limitations had elapsed since the offense charged had been committed, and there were no allegations setting forth an exception to the running of the statute. Later, defendant moved to set aside the judgment on the ground that the court lacked jurisdiction. Held, the judgment was void and the defendant should be released. People v. McGee, (Cal. 1934) 36 Pac. (2d) 378.


Bills And Notes - Excuse Of Presentment For Payment Mar 1935

Bills And Notes - Excuse Of Presentment For Payment

Michigan Law Review

The X bank at which a certificate of deposit was payable was in the hands of a receiver at the time of maturity of the certificate. Plaintiff, holder, sued defendant on his liability as an indorser. Defendant claimed a discharge of his liability because of plaintiff's failure to present for payment to the maker (X bank) at maturity. Held, plaintiff was excused from presenting for payment. O'Neal v. Clark, (Ala. 1934) 155 So. 562.


Practice And Procedure-Seventh Amendment-Power Of Federal Court To Increase Inadequate Verdict Mar 1935

Practice And Procedure-Seventh Amendment-Power Of Federal Court To Increase Inadequate Verdict

Michigan Law Review

A jury in a federal court awarded the plaintiff $500 in a personal injury action; he moved for a new trial on the ground of inadequate damages. Having obtained consent of defendant to entry of judgment for $1500, the trial judge denied the motion. Plaintiff appealed. Held, this procedure was a violation of the Seventh Amendment of the Constitution; a new trial must be granted. Dimick v. Schiedt, (U. S. 1935) 55 Sup. Ct. 296.


Insurance-Delay In Acting On Application-Tort Liability Mar 1935

Insurance-Delay In Acting On Application-Tort Liability

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued for damages for alleged negligence of defendant in failing to take action within a reasonable time upon plaintiff's application for a policy of health and accident insurance, plaintiff having paid defendant's soliciting agent the premium quoted by him. Held, there is no liability, since there is no duty for defendant to accept or reject an application within a reasonable time. Schliep v. Commercial Casualty Ins. Co., 191 Minn. 479, 254 N. W. 618 (1934).


Rights In Land - Lateral Support - Statute Increasing Common Law Rights And Duties - Constitutionality Mar 1935

Rights In Land - Lateral Support - Statute Increasing Common Law Rights And Duties - Constitutionality

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued for damages to his building which collapsed during excavating operations on defendant's adjoining land. A Michigan statute makes it the duty of land owners excavating to a depth of 12 feet or more below grade level to furnish sufficient lateral support to protect adjacent land and structures thereon from injury "due to the removed material in its natural state, or due to the disturbance of other existing conditions caused by such excavation," and imposes liability for injuries due to failure to comply with the act. The excavation on defendant's land, reaching a depth of 14 feet below grade …


Taxation-State Taxes Upon Federal Instrumentalities-Who May Raise Question Of Unconstitutionality Mar 1935

Taxation-State Taxes Upon Federal Instrumentalities-Who May Raise Question Of Unconstitutionality

Michigan Law Review

In connection with the performance of a contract with the federal government, the plaintiff corporation was required to pay a state sales tax on lumber, cement, steel and other materials used in the construction work. An action was brought to enjoin the collection of the tax and to have it declared unconstitutional as impeding and hampering the federal government in the performance of its governmental functions, and as depriving the plaintiff of its property without due process of law. Held, the plaintiff is not a proper party to raise the question of the constitutionality of the tax: first, because …


Trusts-Possible Extension Of The Tentative Trust Doctrine Mar 1935

Trusts-Possible Extension Of The Tentative Trust Doctrine

Michigan Law Review

The settlor established a trust for the plaintiff, his daughter, appointing a trust company as trustee. The trust deed expressed the purpose of adding to the estate, but no additional property was delivered to the trustee. Later the settlor rented a deposit box from the trust company in the name of the plaintiff by himself as agent and informed its officers that he was creating another estate for the plaintiff for her use later in life, that he would manage the estate, and that he did not want plaintiff to know about the box. From time to time he placed …


Book Notes, Michigan Law Review Mar 1935

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.


The Gold Clause Decisions, John P. Dawson Mar 1935

The Gold Clause Decisions, John P. Dawson

Michigan Law Review

The gold clause decisions of February 18, 1935, have already taken their place among the great landmarks of American constitutional history. They have given a partial answer to some basic questions of constitutional law. Directly they have disposed of claims amounting to a total of many billions of dollars. But their further implications, both for public and private law, are of even greater magnitude; it may be many years before these wider implications are more fully understood.


The Effect Of Inflation On Private Contracts: United States, 1861-1879, John P. Dawson, Frank E. Cooper Mar 1935

The Effect Of Inflation On Private Contracts: United States, 1861-1879, John P. Dawson, Frank E. Cooper

Michigan Law Review

The American Civil War provides ample material for studying the legal consequences of currency depreciation. The sudden demands of war on government budgets made it necessary in both North and South to issue a large volume of paper money, which produced a general rise in prices, a premium on gold, and all the other indices of major monetary inflation. American history had already illustrated the dangers in the use of unstable monetary standards and in too rapid an expansion of the monetary supply. The period of the Civil War is of peculiar interest to lawyers, however, because the record of …


Banks And Banking - Incidence Of Loss Resulting From Payments By Drawee Bank Not In Accordance With Depositor's Orders Mar 1935

Banks And Banking - Incidence Of Loss Resulting From Payments By Drawee Bank Not In Accordance With Depositor's Orders

Michigan Law Review

The ordinary commercial deposit normally results in a debtor-creditor relationship between bank and depositor. It is familiar doctrine that in this situation a duty rests upon the bank to honor its creditor's properly drawn orders to the extent of the depositor's balance. Payments by the bank, ostensibly according to such orders, but which are in truth not in accordance therewith, are the bank's loss at least so far as the supposed drawer is concerned. In bookkeeping terms this means that payments by the bank not strictly in pursuance of genuine orders ordinarily cannot be charged against the account of the …


Bills And Notes - Execution Of Instruments By Agents - Liability Under N.I.L. Mar 1935

Bills And Notes - Execution Of Instruments By Agents - Liability Under N.I.L.

Michigan Law Review

The liability of parties on negotiable instruments executed by agents or representatives is a matter which has not been satisfactorily settled by the cases under the N.I.L., due partly to the ambiguity of the statute itself and partly to the obstinate refusal of some courts to adopt the approach of the ordinary business man. Under the law merchant the agent ran a great risk of personal liability in executing a negotiable instrument unless he was careful to spell out that he was signing for a named principal as agent only. If he merely added to his name the phrase "agent …


Constitutional Law-Validity Of State Anti-Injunction Legislation Mar 1935

Constitutional Law-Validity Of State Anti-Injunction Legislation

Michigan Law Review

The development of organized labor in the United States has created difficult legal and social problems with which the courts and the legislatures are required to deal. The courts were the first to deal with these problems and, rightly or wrongly, attempted to apply to them the existing rules of law. For instance, the rules of property law have been applied. Where organized labor interfered with the carrying of the mail, it was said that the federal government had a property right in the mails. Where the carrying on of a business was interfered with, it was held that the …


Corporations-Voting Trust Agreements - Extensions Beyond Statutory Limit Mar 1935

Corporations-Voting Trust Agreements - Extensions Beyond Statutory Limit

Michigan Law Review

A voting trust agreement provided that the trust should continue for ten years from the date thereof, and authorized the trustees at the expiration of such term to renew the agreement for a further term. Held, that under the New York statute limiting voting trusts to ten years the agreement was valid for such period, but the provision authorizing renewal was invalid. Kittinger v. Churchill Evangelistic Ass'n, 151 Misc. 350, 271 N. Y. S. 510 (1934).


Negligence - Liability For Injury Resulting From Fright Mar 1935

Negligence - Liability For Injury Resulting From Fright

Michigan Law Review

While crossing the street in front of her home the daughter of the plaintiff's intestate was killed by the negligent driving of the defendant. The plaintiff's intestate was watching from the window at the time and saw the accident. The shock resulted in illness, which caused her death several weeks later. Plaintiff, as administrator under the Wisconsin Death Act, recovered a judgment for the injury to the mother. Held, that the judgment should be reversed since there was no duty to the mother. Waube v. Warrington, (Wis. 1935) 258 N. W. 497.


Statutes- Constitutional Law - Legislative Action At Special Session Limited By Governor's Message Mar 1935

Statutes- Constitutional Law - Legislative Action At Special Session Limited By Governor's Message

Michigan Law Review

At a special session called by the executive to consider, among other matters, a bill "providing for the validation of bonds issued by a municipality under sufficient popular vote regardless of technical requirements," the legislature enacted a statute permitting validation of bonds even when issued without legal power, and the bill was approved by the governor. Pursuant to the statute, the common council of Detroit, in order to refund the city's bonded debt, approved the validity of the old obligations of the municipality, and petitioned for a writ of mandamus to compel the city controller to issue the refunding bonds …


Front Matter, Michigan Law Review Mar 1935

Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front Matter for Volume 33, Issue 5 of Michigan Law Review


Unfair Competition -- Appropriation Of Good Will By A Non-Competitor -- Literary Property Mar 1935

Unfair Competition -- Appropriation Of Good Will By A Non-Competitor -- Literary Property

Michigan Law Review

The Texas Co. and the National Broadcasting Co. sought to enjoin the unauthorized publication and sale by the Uproar Co. of a pamphlet containing the subject-matter of Ed Wynn's advertising program, broadcast under the auspices of the Texas Co. The name "Graham," which was associated with the announcer Graham McNamee and had acquired a secondary meaning in connection with the N. B. C., appeared frequently in the pamphlet. The court found that the Texas Co. had the sole right under a contract with Wynn to the use of Wynn's script, that the N. B. C. had the exclusive right under …


The Delegation Of Federal Legislative Power To Executive Officials, Theodore W. Cousens Feb 1935

The Delegation Of Federal Legislative Power To Executive Officials, Theodore W. Cousens

Michigan Law Review

It will be the purpose of this article to attempt (1) a chronological survey of the previous Supreme Court cases relating to alleged delegations of legislative power, and (2) an analysis and discussion of the Panama Refining Co. decision in the light of this background. No discrimination is made between delegations of state and of federal legislative power, as the Supreme Court makes no such discrimination.


Evidence-Use Of Photostatic Copies In Proving Books Of Account-Model Statute Feb 1935

Evidence-Use Of Photostatic Copies In Proving Books Of Account-Model Statute

Michigan Law Review

Private records, books of account, and documentary evidence in general present an evidenciary problem in litigation if one, in proving his case, must use the records and books of account of a third person outside the jurisdiction of the forum. A subpoena duces tecum is limited to the boundaries of the state of the forum. Written evidence in the hands of a third person outside the state where the litigation is being pursued can only be obtained by permission of the owner, and even if the owner does permit the transportation of records and books of account necessary to the …


Foreign Enforcement Of Actions For Wrongful Death, William H. Rose Feb 1935

Foreign Enforcement Of Actions For Wrongful Death, William H. Rose

Michigan Law Review

Actions for wrongful death have a long history in the common law. Homicide was once a private matter giving rise to the blood feud and later to the wergild, whereby a money substitute replaced private warfare. With the development of criminal law the crown took jurisdiction over all killings. At a time when all felonies carried with them the death penalty, forfeiture of chattels and escheat of lands, the right to sue for wrongful death was scarcely of practical importance. This was especially so since felony included negligent killing, and even an accidental killing required the king's pardon if …


Corporations -De Facto Existence Of Corporations Where Charter Expired Feb 1935

Corporations -De Facto Existence Of Corporations Where Charter Expired

Michigan Law Review

After expiration of its charter the defendant corporation, which had been operating under the name of "Trustees of the Young Harris Institute," continued to conduct the business for which it was incorporated, holding itself out to the public as a corporate entity under the name of "Young L. G. Harris College." Plaintiff sued on a contract for goods and services furnished to defendant as "Young L. G. Harris College." Held, defendant is a de facto corporation and cannot escape liability on the ground that there was in fact no legal corporation by the name of "Young L. G. Harris …


Wills - Statute Of Nonclaim As Bar To Contingent Claim Feb 1935

Wills - Statute Of Nonclaim As Bar To Contingent Claim

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, the receiver of an insolvent state bank, filed a claim against the estate of deceased who had been a stockholder in the bank. The estate had been closed for twelve years when the claim was filed, the bank not having become insolvent until eight years after the decedent's death. The state constitution provided double liability for the stockholders of the bank to its creditors. Defendant urged that the claim was barred by the statute of nonclaim. Held, the claim is not barred, for the constitutional liability was not a "claim or demand, contingent or absolute," against the stockholder's …


Book Notes, Michigan Law Review Feb 1935

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.


Taxation-Constitutional Limitations On Sales Taxes Feb 1935

Taxation-Constitutional Limitations On Sales Taxes

Michigan Law Review

There are twenty-three states having general sales tax statutes today. For the most part these statutes have been prompted by the recent economic depression as emergency measures. Most of them are license or privilege taxes, and are of two classes: those of the first type are sales taxes in name only, and consist of taxes upon the privilege of engaging in various occupations, of which selling personal property is but one; those of the second type are taxes solely upon the privilege of selling personal property at retail. Such taxes have met with considerable opposition in the form of litigation, …


Corporations-Creditors' Right To Avoid Contract Between Holding And Subsidiary Corporations Feb 1935

Corporations-Creditors' Right To Avoid Contract Between Holding And Subsidiary Corporations

Michigan Law Review

In an ancillary proceeding, the receiver of a subsidiary corporation sought inter alia to recover from the parent corporation, which had owned for about thirteen years all of the stock of the subsidiary except shares necessary to qualify directors, fees paid under contracts during that period for management and engineering services. Held, the court will read just the consideration paid for these services and permit recovery against the parent corporation for the excess. Grand Rapids Trust Co. v. United Light and Power Co., (D. C. W. D. Mich. 1931) 7 F. Supp. 511.