Digital Commons Network^™

Injunction - Mutuality- Personal Service Contract

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff and defendant entered into a contract whereby plaintiff was to teach defendant boxing and to use his best efforts to negotiate and manage boxing bouts for defendant over a period of five years, the proceeds of the contests to be divided between plaintiff, defendant, and a brother of defendant on a percentage basis. Defendant agreed not to engage, during the life of the contract, in any "boxes, exhibition fights, or theatrical performances except such as have been procured by" the plaintiff. On appeal by defendant from a temporary injunction restraining his breach of the negative covenant, held, assuming …

Legislation - Wisconsin Unemployment Insurance Act

Michigan Law Review

Culminating years of activity in its state legislature, Wisconsin on January twenty-eighth adopted the Groves Bill (Bill No. 8, A) providing for compulsory unemployment insurance, the first legislation of the sort to be enacted in the United States. For a discussion of unemployment insurance measures introduced at the 1931 legislatures see 30 MICH. L. REV. 410 (January, 1932). The compulsory plan is to become operative July 1, 1933, unless Wisconsin employers employing more than 175,000 workers in the state have by that date established approved voluntary insurance systems.

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 …

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.

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 …

Vendor And Purchaser - Liability Of Purchaser In Possession For Rent

Michigan Law Review

Defendant contracted to buy land from plaintiff for $2500. He was to have the right to immediate possession when the balance due was reduced to $1000, but he took possession at once, apparently without objection from plaintiff. A year later, the payments made totalling only $150, plaintiff sued for the unpaid balance, and for rent for the year. Held, he was entitled to both. Prouty v. Tupper (S. D. I93I) 236 N.W. 303.

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 …

Conflict Of Laws-Admiralty -Torts In Territorial Waters

Michigan Law Review

A civil wrong having been committed on board a vessel in foreign territorial waters, the tort by hypothesis being maritime and the court having jurisdiction, the problem then arises as to what law governs the disposition of the case. Stated more specifically, does the nature of admiralty jurisdiction demand that a court, in determining liability for civil wrongs committed in foreign territorial waters, should ignore or modify well-settled principles of the conflict of laws as applied to delictual obligations? This is the point of departure for the discussion to follow.

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 …

Bailments - Parking Lots

Michigan Law Review

The defendant operated a parking lot in the business section of the city. There were two entrances and exits, the balance of the lot being enclosed by barriers. B parked his car on the lot, paying twenty-five cents and receiving a ticket which stated: "This ticket must be surrendered when car is taken from lot." Attendants were on duty at all times. It was the custom to leave all cars unlocked and at night to move them near a shack which was occupied by the attendants. The car was stolen, and in a suit against the defendant corporation it was …

Banks And Banking - Statutory Liability Of Directors Of Insolvent Bank For Issuing Renewal Certificate Of Deposit

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff renewed certain certificates of deposit with the defendant bank. When each renewal was issued the bank was "unsafe or insolvent," and the directors knew or had good reason to know it to be so. This was not the situation when the original certificates were issued. The plaintiff based his right of recovery from the directors of the bank upon Gen. Stat. 1923 (2 Mason, 1927) sec. 10407, which makes it a penal offense for the officers or directors of a bank to receive deposits knowing the bank is "unsafe or insolvent." Plaintiff recovered in the lower court. Held …

Banks And Banking -Sending Items Directly For Collection - Liability For Accepting A Draft In Payment

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff deposited two checks, drawn on the X bank, with the A bank, a member of the B Federal Reserve Bank. The A bank sent the items for collection directly to the defendant Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, which forwarded them directly to the X bank. After marking the checks paid, the X bank remitted to the defendant its draft on the Y bank. The draft was dishonored because of the intervening insolvency of the X bank; and the checks were accordingly charged back by the defendant to the B bank ( of which the A bank was a …

Federal Practice - Appeal And Error - Harmless Error

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff in error was convicted of illegally transporting intoxicating liquor. Federal officers were permitted to testify over defendant's objection: (1) that they found intoxicating liquor in defendant's automobile parked in his farm-yard; (2) that the radiator of the car was heated as if it had been recently used; (3) that they had followed defendant's car on the highway and into his farm-yard; (4) and that the defendant had admitted to them that he had driven the car. Defendant admitted on the witness stand that he owned both the liquor and the automobile, but denied that the automobile had been used …

Torts - Malpractice - Master And Servant

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff, on threat of discharge from employ of defendant in case of refusal, submitted to a physical examination by a physician retained by the defendant. In making the examination the physician negligently caused a hernia. Held, the suit was not barred by the one year period of limitation on actions for malpractice because no physician-patient relation had been established, there having been nothing more than an examination, and that for the sole benefit of the defendant. Defendant was liable for the acts of the physician on the basis of respondeat superior. New York Central R.R. v. Wiler …

Trade Restraints - Resale Price Maintenance

Michigan Law Review

Petition to review an order of the Federal Trade Commission requiring the petitioner to cease and desist certain trade methods found to be unfair. Held, that while the petitioner had a right to refuse to sell goods to those who did not sell them at the suggested resale prices, with the further right to state to them its reasons for so doing, the petitioner was rightly ordered to desist from requiring dealers, placing orders, to give assurance that they would be governed by the suggested resale prices as a condition precedent to the acceptance of the orders. Shakespeare Co. …

Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

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

The Assignment Of Trade Marks And Trade Names, Grover C. Grismore

Michigan Law Review

Unfortunately there is much confusion in the books in regard to the transferability of trade marks and trade names. The law on the matter is neither clearly stated nor always uniformly applied. The generalization that one finds most frequently, both in cases and in text books, is the categorical assertion that trade marks and trade names are not assignable in gross - that they can be transferred only as incidental to a transfer of the business or property in connection with which they have been used. Rightly interpreted, this statement is doubtless a truism. However, the implications frequently drawn from …

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 …

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.

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 …

Carriers - Allocation Of Rate Charges On Cost Basis

Michigan Law Review

In a proceeding in equity to secure the annulment of an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission fixing the cost of icing, for shipments of poultry and dairy products originating in the six western states, on the "cost of ice" basis already existing in the other forty-two states, it was held that the rate is reasonable if it furnishes reasonable and adequate return for service rendered, and such return must pay cost of that service as distinguished from all other service, plus reasonable profit thereon; but that, in arriving at this "cost of ice" rate, the Interstate Commerce Commission was …

Carriers - Ferries - Liability For Automobile Lost In Transit

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff purchased a ticket for passage on the defendant's ferry and drove his car aboard. During transit, and through no negligence on the part of the defendant, the boat ran upon a stone piling and sank. Held, that the defendant, although a common carrier, had not received and accepted the automobile, and therefore was not subject to insurer's liability. Mercer v. Christiana Ferry Co. (Del. 1930) 155 Atl. 596.

Federal Practice - Class Suits - Community Of Interest Under Federal Equity Rule 38

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff filed suit in a federal court, sitting in equity, in behalf of himself and others, to enjoin the collection of an illegal tax imposed by North Carolina upon peddlers of foreign fruit within that state. He alleged that 400 others were similarly situated and that over 100 of them had contributed to the expense of the litigation. Held, the individual legal remedy available under state statute was inadequate in view of the multiplicity of suits it necessitated, and the plaintiff was entitled under Federal Equity Rule 38 (post) to bring a class suit to enjoin the collection of …

Insurance - "Liability" Of "Indemnity" Contract - "No Action" Clause

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued his insurer upon a policy which provided that the defendant would indemnify the insured against loss from liability for damages and would defend any suit brought against the assured to recover such damages. The policy contained a "no action" clause which denied a right of action unless a final judgment had been rendered and the assured had actually sustained a loss by payment of such judgment. Such a suit, brought against the plaintiff, had been unsuccessfully defended by the insurer. It was held that plaintiff could recover on the policy upon the rendition of the judgment and without …

Taxation - Jurisdiction To Tax Intangibles Of Nonresident Decedents - Corporate Stock

Michigan Law Review

The decedent, a resident of Massachusetts, died in 1924 owning a large block of stock in a Maine corporation. After Massachusetts had already collected an inheritance tax assessed against these shares, the Maine tax authorities levied a similar tax, basing their claim on the fact of incorporation under Maine law. The state supreme court, 130 Me. 123, 154 Atl. 103 (1931), held that such shares were within the jurisdiction for taxing purposes even though their owner was a nonresident decedent. An appeal was taken to the United States Supreme Court. Held, the rule in Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. …

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.

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 …

Federal Practice - Jury - Motion To Quash Panel - Summons Accompanied By Questionnaire

Michigan Law Review

Gideon was convicted in the district court of conspiracy to violate the National Prohibition Act. Along with the summons to the prospective jurors, the clerk sent out a questionnaire calling for information as to business or occupation, period of residence, age, whether married or single, number of children, religious faith, views on prohibition, and prior jury service. It purported to be for jury records but was not authorized by statute. Held, a failure to sustain the motion to quash the panel was reversible error. Gideon v. United States (C. C. A. 8th, 1931) 52 F.(2d) 427.

Public Utilities - Private Carrier Cannot Be Made A Common Carrier By Legislative Fiat

Michigan Law Review

The appellant, a private carrier for hire, was arrested for operation of motor vehicles upon the state highways without having obtained a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the state railroad commission and without having paid the mileage tax required by the state statute. This statute also gave the commission power to fix and approve rates and schedules, and otherwise regulate carriers. It further stated that, if any of its provisions were held to be unconstitutional, the validity of the remaining portions should be unaffected. Laws of Florida, 1929, c. 13700. In view of this latter provision, the state …

Torts - Negligence - Res Ipsa Loquitur As Applied To Foreign Matter In Foods

Michigan Law Review

The defendant manufactured and sold through a retailer a loaf of bread to the plaintiff's mother. The plaintiff, while eating the bread, saw a larva, five-eighths of an inch long in a slice she was about to eat, as a result of which she became sick. Held, on appeal, there was no error by the lower court in directing a verdict for the defendant on the ground that the plaintiff gave no sufficient proof of negligence, which was the basis of her action, and that negligence could not be presumed from the circumstances stated. Swenson v. Purity Baking Co. …