Digital Commons Network^™

Labor Law - Federal Pre-Emption - An Inroad Through The Violence Doctrine, Richard E. Day

Michigan Law Review

The Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed the circuit court's enforcement of an order obtained by the Kohler Company from the Wisconsin Employment Relations Board enjoining the appellant union, as a violation of the "Wisconsin Employment Peace Act, from further engaging in mass picketing, coercion, and other activities, which were also unfair labor practices under the amended National Labor Relations Act, to which the Kohler Company was subject. On appeal to the United States Supreme Court, held, affirmed, three justices dissenting. While, as a general matter, a state may not, in furtherance of its public policy, enjoin conduct which has been …

Wills - Construction - Conditional Wills, Richard Rosenthal

Michigan Law Review

Testator executed a holographic will immediately prior to departing on an intended journey abroad. The will, making a friend and creditor his sole beneficiary, provided, "This is my will if I should die on this my trip to India You are my sol heiress." Although the trip was postponed, it was never abandoned. Testator subsequently repaid a substantial part of his debt to the beneficiary. Soon thereafter, testator died without having made the journey. His will was contested by his widow and brother. On remand to the surrogate's court from the court of appeals, held, the will is conditional …

Wills - Execution - Attestation, Max H. Bergman

Michigan Law Review

Prospective witnesses to a will saw the testatrix standing in an adjoining room engaged in writing. Soon thereafter, the testatrix asked them to come in and sign a paper. Her name had already been written on the document, and she neither signed it in the witnesses' presence nor in any manner indicated the writing to be her will. The witnesses read enough of the document, however, to know it was a will, before subscribing it in the presence of the testatrix and one another. Three of the testatrix' sons objected to the probate of the will on the ground that …

Periodical Index, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This index includes articles, comments and some of the longer notes which have appeared in leading law reviews since the publication of the last issue of this Review.

Workmen's Compensation - Requirement Of Causal Connection Between Employment And Injury, Thomas S. Erickson S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff-employee was compensated for injuries received when she slipped on a patch of ice and fell on defendant-employer's premises while going from her work to eat lunch in defendant's cafeteria. On appeal, held, reversed. At the time of the injury plaintiff was not rendering any service to her employer. There was no causal connection between employment and injury, and the injury did not arise out of and in the course of her employment as required by statute. Mack v. Reo Motors, Inc., 345 Mich. 268, 76 N.W. (2d) 35 (1956).

Garcia-Mora: International Law And Asylum As A Human Right, Alona E. Evans

Michigan Law Review

A Review of International Law and Asylum as a Human Right. By Manuel R. Garcia-Mora.

Chafee, Jr.: The Blessings Of Liberty, Nathaniel Nathanson

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Blessings of Liberty. By Zechariah Chafee, Jr.

Schwartz: The Code Napoleon And The Common Law World, J. G. Castel

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Code Napoleon and the Common Law World. Edited by Bernard Schwartz.

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Notice Required To Validate Tax Foreclosure Of Property Of Known Mental Incompetent, Frank M. Lacey S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

On May 8, 1952, the town of Somers instituted an action to foreclose a number of tax liens. One of these was upon the property owned by a person known in the community to be a mental incompetent, but who had not yet been so certified by a court. Notice was given to the incompetent taxpayer in compliance with the statute by mail, posting, and publication. When she failed to answer within the prescribed period, foreclosure was entered and a deed to her property delivered to the town. Five days later she was declared a person of unsound mind, and …

Patents - Misuse Doctrine - Exclusive Distributorship Agreements As Patent Misuse, Howard N. Nemerovski

Michigan Law Review

In a suit for infringement of a storm window patent, defendant claimed that relief should be denied because plaintiff allegedly misused the suit patent by requiring its wholesale distributors to maintain sales organizations devoted exclusively to the sale of plaintiff's windows, and by restraining the distributors from offering merchandise for sale in competition with any article manufactured or distributed by plaintiff. The patent did not comprise an element of the distributor agreements, but was mentioned therein. The trial court denied relief, sustaining the defense of misuse of the suit patent. On appeal, held, affirmed. A patentee's right does not …

Periodical Index, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This index includes articles, comments and some of the longer notes which have appeared in leading law reviews since the publication of the last issue of this Review.

Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front Matter for Volume 55, Issue 2 of Michigan Law Review

Dispositions Of Property To Unincorporated Non-Profit Associations, Harold A.J. Ford

Michigan Law Review

It now becomes necessary to examine the cases in which the disposition could not be treated as one to the existing members. This treatment will disclose that some courts have been prepared to regard some dispositions to associations as being for the purposes of the association. The only way in which property may be devoted to a purpose without conferring beneficial interests on particular individuals is by a trust. Accordingly in many instances the disposition takes effect as a trust.

Conflicts Of Law - Extended Application Of Res Judicata In Administration Of Decedents' Estates, Norman A. Zilber S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this comment is to examine the existing law and its rationale, and to see in which situations res judicata could beneficially be applied.

Compelling The Testimony Of Political Deviants, O. John Rogge

Michigan Law Review

At the last term the United States Supreme Court in Ullmann v. United States upheld the constitutionality of paragraph (c) of a federal act of August 1954 which seeks to compel the testimony of communists and other political deviants. Paragraph (c) relates to witnesses before federal courts and grand juries. The Court specifically left open the question of the validity of paragraphs (a) and (b) relating to congressional witnesses. Justice Frankfurter delivered the Court's opinion. Justice Douglas, with the concurrence of Justice Black, wrote a dissent.

It is our purpose to consider the background, history and terms of this compulsory …

Corporations - Securities Regulation - Material Misstatements Of Omissions Of Fact Under The Securities Act Of 1933, Eric E. Bergsten S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued for rescission of his purchase of stock in a corporation under section 12 (2) of the Securities Act of 1933 (hereafter referred to as the act) alleging a material misleading statement of fact in the prospectus. The alleged misstatement was that defendant was an "underwriter (as defined pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933 as amended)." No further explanation of defendant's status and consequent obligation was made in the prospectus. Defendant had agreed in fact to be only a "best efforts" underwriter. The trial court found that the statement was misleading and material. On appeal, held, affirmed. …

Administrative Officers' Tort Liability, Kenneth Culp Davis

Michigan Law Review

Case law on tort liability of public officers and employees is much more interesting than one might expect on the basis of abstract contemplation. The traditional common-law notion that an employee should, as against the employer, bear the ultimate responsibility for his negligence has been exposed as seriously unrealistic in a holding by a unanimous Supreme Court; the decision concerning the government employee is potentially applicable to corporate employees. The many holdings that officers are not liable for deliberate and malicious torts are based on the intriguing view that justice cannot be done when malice is proved, without opening the …

Constitutional Law - Eminent Domain - Condemnation Of Riparian Lands Under The Commerce Power, George F. Lynch S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The power of the United States to regulate commerce comprehends a right to control navigation and the means of navigation. To the extent necessary for the enjoyment of this power the government may condemn riparian property. The federal power of eminent domain is limited by the mandate of the Fifth Amendment which requires just compensation for private property taken for a public use. Usually, the standard of just compensation is the market value of the property, taking into consideration the most profitable uses for which the property is suited and likely to be used at the time of the taking, …

Negligence - Breach Of Duty - Liability Of Telephone Company For Failure To Relay Fire Alarm, Cyril Moscow S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Upon discovering a fire within his business building, plaintiff immediately went to the telephone and dialed the operator. After telling her his address and requesting that she call the fire department, he left the telephone to fight the fire. The message was not transmitted. When the fire department finally arrived in response to an alarm by a neighbor, the fire was out of control and the entire building was destroyed. Plaintiff sought damages, alleging that the telephone company held itself out to the public as willing to convey messages in case of emergency, and that failure to transmit his message …

Negligence - Breach Of Duty - Assured Clear Distance Ahead Doctrine, Herbert A. Bernhard

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, while driving an automobile through a tunnel, collided with defendant's truck, which was stopped without lights. The Pennsylvania Vehicle Code requires an operator to drive at such a speed as will enable him to stop within the "assured clear distance ahead." Plaintiff alleged he was temporarily blinded by the sudden change from bright sunlight to the darkness of the tunnel. The jury found for plaintiff, but defendant's motion for judgment n. o. v. was granted. On appeal, held, affirmed, one justice dissenting. Plaintiff's failure to stop his automobile within the assured clear distance ahead constituted contributory negligence as …

Labor Law - Labor Management Relations Act - Unfair Labor Practice Strike Permitted During Sixty-Day "Cooling-Off" Period, Edward C. Hanpeter S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner clearly committed unfair labor practices and a strike in protest resulted. Thirty-one days prior to the strike the union had given petitioner notice, in accordance with section 8 (d) of the amended National Labor Relations Act, of its desire to 'modify the existing collective bargaining agreement. [Section 8 (d) makes it an unfair labor practice for a party to an existing contract to modify the contract without, inter alia, giving notice to the other party of the desire to modify 60 days before the expiration of the contract, and continuing in effect, without resorting to strike or lockout, all …

Regulation Of Business - Jurisdiction Of The Civil Aeronautics Board And The Federal Trade Commission - Investigations In The Interest Of The Public, Robert W. Steele S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner, American Airlines, filed a memorandum with the Civil Aeronautics Board requesting that respondent's request for registration of the name North American Airlines be denied. Section 411 of the Civil Aeronautics Act provides that the board has the authority to prevent air carriers from engaging in unfair methods of competition in commerce and unfair or deceptive acts or practices, and may issue a complaint against any air carrier when it shall appear to the board that a proceeding by it would be in the interest of the public. The board found that the public was confused as to the origin …

Constitutional Law - Privilege Against Self-Incrimination -Effect Of Immunity Statute, Paul A. Heinen S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner was brought before a federal grand jury and questioned as to his and other persons' membership in the Communist Party. After petitioner refused to answer the questions on the ground that the answers would be self-incriminating and therefore his refusal was privileged under the Fifth Amendment, the United States attorney, proceeding under the provisions of the Immunity Act of 1954, filed an application in the United States district court requesting that petitioner be required to answer the questions. The district court, upholding the constitutionality of the act, ordered petitioner to answer the questions, and petitioner's appeal from this order …

Torts - Nuisance - Personal Annoyance As Sole Injury, Michael Scott

Michigan Law Review

Several thousand sales slips, mistakenly printed to bear plaintiff's telephone number, were supplied to the defendant store and were circulated widely by the latter's employees incident to normal sales transactions. Calls from defendant's customers soon burdened plaintiff's telephone, and despite numerous complaints by plaintiff over a two-year period, defendant refused or neglected to terminate use of the incorrect slips. On appeal from judgment for plaintiff in a suit for damages, held, affirmed. Defendant's acts resulted in an actual invasion of plaintiff's right to enjoy her property without unreasonable interference. Damages for personal annoyance and inconvenience alone are allowable in …

Taxation - Federal Income Tax - Secret Withdrawals Of Corporate Receipts By Stockholders As Income In Absence Of Surplus, Kenneth H. Haynie S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

As sole stockholder of the Robbins Tire and Rubber Company, the defendant managed and controlled the affairs of the corporation. Over a period of years he intercepted the company's receipts from several of its large customers and diverted them to his own use. No entries of such receipts were made on the books of the company, nor was any tax paid on them. Defendant was convicted for attempted evasion of his personal income tax on these funds. On appeal, held, affirmed. Taxation is concerned with actual command over property: If does not matter whether defendant got the funds as …

Recent Books, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A List of Books Received by Michigan Law Review

Morgan: Some Problems Of Proof Under The Anglo-American System Of Litigation, Roy R. Ray

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Some Problems of Proof Under the Anglo-American System of Litigation. By Edmund Morris Morgan.

Constitutional Law - Grand Jury Under The Fifth Amendment Indictments Not Subject To Attack On Evidentiary Ground, Jerome K. Walsh, Jr. S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was indicted by a grand jury on four counts of willfully evading federal income taxes due for the years 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1949. His motion before trial to dismiss the indictment on the ground that he was firmly convinced that there could have been no legal or competent evidence before the grand jury was denied by the trial court. At the conclusion of the government's case, and again just before the case went to the jury, counsel for the defendant moved to dismiss the indictment on the ground that only hearsay evidence offered by three revenue agents had …

Parsons, Penn, Raup: Land Tenure, John C. Payne

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Land Tenure. Edited by Kenneth H. Parsons, Raymond J. Penn and Philip M. Raup.

Estoppel And Crown Privilege In English Administrative Law, Bernard Schwartz

Michigan Law Review

Perhaps the most anachronistic doctrine in Anglo-American public law is that of sovereign immunity. Under it, the State is placed in a privileged position of immunity from the principles of law which are binding upon the ordinary citizen, unless it expressly consents to be bound by such principles. In Anglo-American law the infallibility attributed to the King in the days when he was personally sovereign has been more recently recognized in the State, which the Crown now merely personifies. Thus, even today, and even in the American democracy, the basic principle of public law is that the King can do …