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Michigan Law Review

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Administrative Law-Judicial Review-Federal Equity "Powers Nov 1934

Administrative Law-Judicial Review-Federal Equity "Powers

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff's testator, a resident of New York, died there and at the time of his death owned certain oil paintings on temporary loan to an Art Museum in Pennsylvania, on which the State of Pennsylvania levied an inheritance tax. Plaintiff, executor under a will disposing of the pictures, filed a bill in the Federal District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania to enjoin the defendants, tax officials of Pennsylvania, from attempting to impose or collect the inheritance tax. The bill alleged diversity of citizenship and the requisite jurisdictional amount, and further that the imposition of the tax violated the Fourteenth Amendment, depriving …


Administrative Law - Statutory Interpretation - Conclusiveness Of Decision Nov 1934

Administrative Law - Statutory Interpretation - Conclusiveness Of Decision

Michigan Law Review

Pursuant to an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the government had paid defendant $487,116.31 as the deficit incurred during federal control and due defendant under section 204 of the Transportation Act of 1920. The Commission later reopened the proceeding and annulled the order because it had erroneously interpreted the word "deficit" in the statute to mean a decrease in net railroad operating income in the federal control period as compared with the corresponding months of the test period from July 1, 1914, to June 30, 1917, instead of a "red ink deficit." The government then sued to recover the …


Constitutional Law - New Deal Legislation - Gold Hoarding Statute Nov 1934

Constitutional Law - New Deal Legislation - Gold Hoarding Statute

Michigan Law Review

Two cases involving acts of Congress passed in March 1933 to prevent the hoarding of gold' were denied a review by the United States Supreme Court on October 8. Both of these cases involved the same facts. Plaintiff had delivered certain gold bars to a bank for safe-keeping. Later the bank notified him that, pursuant to an executive order by the President of the United States, it would have to surrender the gold. Immediately the plaintiff demanded the return of the bullion, which demand was refused, and he filed bills for specific performance of the bailment contract against the bank …


Criminal Law And Procedure - Instruction As To The Reasonable Doubt Of Each Juror Nov 1934

Criminal Law And Procedure - Instruction As To The Reasonable Doubt Of Each Juror

Michigan Law Review

The accused in a criminal prosecution requested, in addition to a general charge on reasonable doubt, an instruction stating, "The court instructs the jury that if after the consideration of the whole case, any juror entertains a reasonable doubt of the defendant's guilt it is the duty of such juror so entertaining such doubt, not to vote for a verdict of guilty, or be influenced in so voting for the single reason that a majority of the jury might be in favor of a verdict of guilty:" This instruction was refused and the defendant appealed from his conviction. Held, …


Corporations--Liability Of Stockholder In Non-Complying Foreign Corporation Nov 1934

Corporations--Liability Of Stockholder In Non-Complying Foreign Corporation

Michigan Law Review

The defendant was a stockholder in the A corporation, incorporated in Indiana to go business there, but carrying on its principal business in Tennessee where It had failed to comply with a law requiring foreign corporations to domesticate; Plaintiff, a holder of a trade acceptance on which the A corporation was primarily liable, sued defendant in Indiana, liability on the trade acceptance having been incurred in Tennessee. The A corporation being insolvent, plaintiff sought to hold the defendant personally liable on the ground that the failure of the corporation to comply with domestication statutes of Tennessee made its stockholders liable …


Partnership-Incorporation-Liability To Previous Creditors Nov 1934

Partnership-Incorporation-Liability To Previous Creditors

Michigan Law Review

The two defendants, partners in the operation of the Mulkey Motor Co., an automobile sales establishment, had indorsed promissory notes in the name of the firm and had sold them to the plaintiff. Later the defendants incorporated under the same name and continued to carry on the business as before. Thereafter the plaintiff, without knowledge of the incorporation, purchased from the defendants certain notes which were indorsed in the accustomed fashion. In an action against the defendants as partners, based on such indorsements of the latter notes, it was contended that the debt was that of the corporation. Held, …


Practice And Procedure-Scope Of Court Rules Allowing Discovery Nov 1934

Practice And Procedure-Scope Of Court Rules Allowing Discovery

Michigan Law Review

The declaration alleged that plaintiff's intestate, a tenant of the defendant, sustained fatal injuries from a fall on the grounds of the apartment house, caused by defendant's negligence with respect to the care of the premises. The action was begun one day before the statute of limitations would have run. Defendant gave notice that under Court Rule 41 she would examine the plaintiff as to the particulars of the event which constituted the cause of action. Plaintiff filed a motion to set aside this order, alleging that defendant's rights under the above rule were limited to discovery as to affirmative …


Practice And Procedure - Seventh Amendment- Power Of Federal Court To Increase Inadequate Verdict Nov 1934

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 for injuries received in an automobile accident. The plaintiff thereupon moved for a new trial on the · ground of inadequate damages. The trial judge, having obtained the consent of the defendant to entry of judgment for $1,500, denied the motion. Plaintiff appealed. Held, (Morton, C. J., dissenting) such procedure operates as a violation of the Seventh Amendment, and the only course open to a federal court in a case where damages are inadequate is to grant a new trial. Schiedt v. Dimick, (C. C. A. ·1st, 1934) …


Front Matter, Michigan Law Review Nov 1934

Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front Matter for Volume 33, Issue 1 of Michigan Law Review


Corporate Reorganization Under Section 77b Of The Bankruptcy Act, Jacob J. Kaplan Nov 1934

Corporate Reorganization Under Section 77b Of The Bankruptcy Act, Jacob J. Kaplan

Michigan Law Review

In the closing hours of its legislative life the 73rd Congress adopted the amendment to the Bankruptcy Act providing for the reorganization of corporations, and designated as Section 77B. The Act was approved. by the President on June 7, 1934. The statute had had a long and checkered history in Congress. Such legislation barely failed of enactment in the preceding session when Congress first gave to natural persons availing themselves of bankruptcy procedure the right to call themselves "debtors" rather than "bankrupts," and provided a substantially similar method of reorganization for railroad corporations engaged in interstate commerce. The present statute …


Corporations -Accommodation Obligations - Effect Of "Guarantee" In Powers Section Of Statute Nov 1934

Corporations -Accommodation Obligations - Effect Of "Guarantee" In Powers Section Of Statute

Michigan Law Review

The court in the principal case recognized the general prohibition against corporate accommodation obligations but held the defendant liable on the theory of consent of the stockholders. With this portion of the opinion the writer has no quarrel. But exception is taken both to the interpretation given to the statute by the court and the accuracy of the principle relied upon, as expressed in the dictum quoted.


Executors And Administrators--Powers Of Co-Executors Nov 1934

Executors And Administrators--Powers Of Co-Executors

Michigan Law Review

The powers of co-trustees are usually spoken of as "joint," while the powers of co-executors are commonly referred to as "joint and several." As it is fairly obvious that if executors have a several power they may also exercise it jointly, it might be preferable to refer to the powers of co-executors as "joint or several." For not all the powers of a co-executor are joint and several. Some are several, while others are only joint. The general rule is that a co-executor has the several power to bind the estate as to matters in the ordinary course of administration, …


The Vendee's Lien- On Land And Chattels Nov 1934

The Vendee's Lien- On Land And Chattels

Michigan Law Review

The vendee's lien is now firmly established as an equitable device to insure full restitution to the purchaser of land on his rescission for the vendor's fraud or default. It first appeared in a dictum in an early English case where it was suggested as a possible analogy to the implied vendor's lien for the purchase money. But it was 1855 before the question was presented squarely to an English court of record, and 1860 when the House of Lords definitely approved it. Long before this, however, courts of equity in the United States had begun to μse this device …


Innkeepers - Statutory Limitation Of Liability - Necessity Of Strict Compliance As A Condition Precedent To Exemption Nov 1934

Innkeepers - Statutory Limitation Of Liability - Necessity Of Strict Compliance As A Condition Precedent To Exemption

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff was a guest at a hotel owned by the defendant, and during that period a valuable diamond ring was stolen from his room, without negligence on the part of the defendant. In a suit to recover the value of the ring, the defendant set up a defense by way of the statute exempting innkeepers from liability upon "posting a notice in three or more public and conspicuous places in the office, elevators, or public rooms, or in the public parlors of such hotel" to the effect that the innkeeper would not be liable for any stolen property not …


Limitation Of Actions-Husband And Wife-Suspension Of The Statute Of Limitations During Coverture Nov 1934

Limitation Of Actions-Husband And Wife-Suspension Of The Statute Of Limitations During Coverture

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued in equity to recover for services rendered to her deceased husband for a period of six years prior to her marriage to him. Defendant, the executor of decedent, contended that she could not recover the portion of her claim which represented wages earned more than six years before a claim w.as filed with the estate. Held, the statute of limitations does not run on the claim of one spouse. against the other during the continuance of the marital state, irrespective of whether the claim arose before or during coverture. Therefore, plaintiff could now recover for the six …


Practice And Procedure - Direction Of Verdict - Scintilla Rule Nov 1934

Practice And Procedure - Direction Of Verdict - Scintilla Rule

Michigan Law Review

In an action to recover from the defendant gas company damage to the plaintiff's building caused by a gas explosion resulting from a defective pipe, the plaintiff's only evidence to prove the defendant's duty to repair it was that the pipe was used exclusively for the conveyance of the defendant's gas, and that the meters to which the pipe was connected were owned and controlled by the defendant. The trial court, by virtue of the scintilla rule, submitted the case to the jury which rendered a verdict for the plaintiff. Held, the scintilla rule no longer prevails in Ohio, …


Trusts - Change Of Circumstances As Basis For Variation Of Trust Instrument Nov 1934

Trusts - Change Of Circumstances As Basis For Variation Of Trust Instrument

Michigan Law Review

The testator left his estate to trustees with directions to pay the income to his widow and three sons in equal shares, the principal to vest in the sons upon his widow's marriage or death. The widow in addition was given the use of the family homestead or the use of a new home not to exceed the price of $25,000. The homestead, valued at $200,000, became undesirable for residential purposes due to the growth of the business center of the city. The widow petitioned the court to direct the trustees to pay her $15,000 a year from the trust …


Book Notes, Michigan Law Review Nov 1934

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.


Contracts --Anticipatory Breach- Denial Of Liability As A Repudiation Nov 1934

Contracts --Anticipatory Breach- Denial Of Liability As A Repudiation

Michigan Law Review

A life insurance policy provided that the insured was to be paid a certain sum per month in case of permanent disability. A dispute arose between the company and the insured as to the proper construction of the contract. The company expressed willingness to perform the contract as it construed it, but this was a refusal to pay the monthly disability income. The insured brought an action to recover total damages for anticipatory breach, of the contract to pay the permanent disability benefits. Held, that the insurer had not made such an unequivocal refusal to perform the contract as …


Public Utilities-Street Railway Regulation By State Commission In Home Rule City-Permission To Withdraw From Service Nov 1934

Public Utilities-Street Railway Regulation By State Commission In Home Rule City-Permission To Withdraw From Service

Michigan Law Review

A street railway company, located in a city with a home rule charter adopted in accordance with the state constitution, petitioned the state railway commission and was granted authority to curtail its transportation by buses. The company had been in bad financial condition during recent years; the number of passengers carried had been substantially decreasing, and the company was not able to pay full interest on bonded debt. Upon the insistence of the city, the company had put bus lines in operation several years earlier and these had continually been operating at a deficit. Upon appeal, the court held that …


Effect Of Insolvency Proceedings On Creditor's Right To Interest, Fred T. Hanson Jun 1934

Effect Of Insolvency Proceedings On Creditor's Right To Interest, Fred T. Hanson

Michigan Law Review

Where the claims of all creditors are of the same class and. assets are insufficient to pay in full the amount due on all claims when insolvency proceedings are begun, the general rule is that interest thereafter accruing will not be included in computing dividends on claims. The reasons usually given for this rule are: (a) The delay in payment is not the act of the debtor but is an act of the law for the mutual benefit of all the creditors. (b) In the case of claims bearing different rates of interest, it would be inequitable to permit the …


Constitutional Law-Validity Of Statute Exempting Insurance Benefits From Process For Debts Jun 1934

Constitutional Law-Validity Of Statute Exempting Insurance Benefits From Process For Debts

Michigan Law Review

C, a judgment creditor of W, instituted garnishment proceedings to recover the amount of the judgment out of moneys owed by the X insurance company to W as beneficiary of H's life insurance. Subsequently the Arkansas legislature passed a statute exempting all moneys paid or payable to any resident of the State as the insured or beneficiary designated under any life, sickness, or accident insurance policy, from liability or seizure under judicial process, and provided that such benefits should not be subjected to the payment of any debt. Held, by a unanimous decision of the United …


The Johnson Amendment To The Judicial Code, Edwin C. Goddard Jun 1934

The Johnson Amendment To The Judicial Code, Edwin C. Goddard

Michigan Law Review

The so-called Johnson bill amending the Judicial Code was passed by Congress and signed by the President on May 14, 1934. The bill was the result of long agitation against the alleged pernicious interference by United States District Courts with rate regulations of the state utility commissions and the state courts. It was charged that the removal of cases from state to federal tribunals was burdening the District Courts and, what was far more serious, was favoring the public utilities and preventing their proper state regulation by submitting controversies to judges having life tenure and who were out of touch …


Corporations-Qualifications Of Officers-Effect On Existing By-Laws Of Change In Statute Jun 1934

Corporations-Qualifications Of Officers-Effect On Existing By-Laws Of Change In Statute

Michigan Law Review

Corporate by-laws adopted under and following Act No. 84, Michigan Public Acts of 1921, required that directors be chosen from stockholders, the positions to become vacant should the directors dispose of their stock. In 1931 the statute was changed, now reading that "directors . . . need not be shareholders unless the articles so provide." The by-laws were not altered. Qualified directors subsequently disposed of their stock and petitioned the chancery court under the statute for dissolution of the corporation and appointment of a receiver. Appealing from an order granting that petition, creditors and stockholders of the corporation contended that …


Book Notes Jun 1934

Book Notes

Michigan Law Review

This department undertakes to list and, when possible, describe briefly current books on law and matters closely related thereto.


Public Utilities-Rate Base-Allowance For Depreciation Jun 1934

Public Utilities-Rate Base-Allowance For Depreciation

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff toll bridge company appealed from an order of the Pennsylvania Public Service Commission which set a value for rate-making purposes on their bridge property, constructed in 1924-25, identical to the original valuation order of 1926, for the rate-base as of February 2, 1932. The order allowed a depreciation deduction annually which, with 4 per cent simple interest, would amount to enough to replace the bridge at the end of its estimated period of usefulness. The company claimed the order was confiscatory, as based solely on original cost, without taking into account current cost of reproduction; and that interest should …


Torts - Libel - Photographs - Right Of Privacy Jun 1934

Torts - Libel - Photographs - Right Of Privacy

Michigan Law Review

Defendant in its newspaper published a photograph of plaintiff and her husband's chauffeur standing in front of an airplane at an airport. The picture was captioned "Principals in Local Divorce Scandal," and the accompanying news story stated that plaintiff had sued her husband for divorce, the husband had filed a cross bill, and he had sued the chauffeur for alienation of affections. Plaintiff's declaration alleged that the picture had been cut from a larger one in which her husband had appeared, that the airplane was her husband's, and that the picture was believed to have been taken under a contract …


Wills-Right Of Beneficiaries To Compromise So As To Defeat Provisions Of Will-Waiver Of Benefit Jun 1934

Wills-Right Of Beneficiaries To Compromise So As To Defeat Provisions Of Will-Waiver Of Benefit

Michigan Law Review

Testator died leaving a valid will. The beneficiaries, who were also the heirs at law, presented a stipulation to the court, signed by all the parties in interest, agreeing that the will should not be admitted to probate; and the court refused the will. Later a dispute arose as to the settlement, and some of the beneficiaries brought a bill in equity to set aside the court order. Held, the agreement was supported by a valid consideration and is binding on the parties. Order of the court refusing probate upheld. In re Murphy's Estate, (Iowa 1934) 252 N. …


Taxation-Tax On Rolling Stock-Situs Of Personal Property Employed In Interstate Commerce Jun 1934

Taxation-Tax On Rolling Stock-Situs Of Personal Property Employed In Interstate Commerce

Michigan Law Review

An Illinois corporation owned a fleet of tank cars which were used to carry oil from the corporation's Oklahoma refinery to other States. The State of Oklahoma sought to impose a tax upon the entire fleet, although the cars were outside of Oklahoma at least twenty days each month. Held, Oklahoma had only the jurisdiction to tax the average number of tank cars habitually employed within the State. Johnson Oil Refining Co. v. Oklahoma, 290 U.S. 158, 54 Sup. Ct. 152 (1933).


Wills-Contract Not To Contest Jun 1934

Wills-Contract Not To Contest

Michigan Law Review

A testatrix left the bulk of her estate to the plaintiff whom she named as her executor. Defendant, dissatisfied with his bequest, threatened to contest the will. Thereupon, the parties entered into a contract whereby the plaintiff agreed to give the defendant a piece of land and a sum of money in addition to his legacy in consideration of defendant's promise not to contest the will. Shortly thereafter defendant joined relatives of the decedent in opposing probate. In an action in equity to specifically enforce the agreement, held, that the contract was valid and that the defendant be permanently …