Digital Commons Network^™

Civil Justice In Germany, Burke Shartel, Hans Julius Wolff

Michigan Law Review

Our aim in preparing this paper is to develop for American lawyers a picture of the functioning of German civil justice. This aim, as well as the paper itself, is an outgrowth of a series of lectures on the German legal system delivered by the authors as background in the law of military occupation for the Judge Advocate General's School of the United States Army in Ann Arbor. That part of these lectures which concerns the operation of German civil justice seems to us of sufficient intrinsic interest to warrant publication.

Judicial Legislation-Patent Law-Has The Doctrine Of Contributory Infringement Been Repudiated?, John B. Waite

Michigan Law Review

When leaders quarrel the rank and file may flounder; and, in their recent decision of Mercoid Corp. v. Mid-Continent Investment Co., the justices of the Supreme Court have created confusion for lawyers. Four of the seven opinions clearly express intent to promulgate a new rule of law; two deny that intent; one is indefinite; and the purpose of the Court as a whole is left in doubt. Though the decision affects only the patent law, the process of decision concerns every lawyer.

Evidence-Police Regulation By Rules Of Evidence-Results Of The Mcnabb Case, John B. Waite

Michigan Law Review

In McNabb v. United States the Supreme Court promulgated novel judicial legislation, the gist of which is that confessions or admissions of crime made while the accused is in custody without having been brought before a magistrate as required by law are inadmissible in evidence. That judicial pronouncement assumed that the utterances were made without compulsion, and prohibited their use solely because at the time they were made the officers of justice were themselves disregarding the law-the procedural requirement that persons arrested be taken immediately before a magistrate. In Justice Frankfurter's phrase, "a conviction resting on evidence secured through such …

Covenants-Restrictions Upon The Use Of Land-Negroes

Michigan Law Review

Many years ago a subdivision in Detroit was platted, with recorded building restrictions. When ready for the sale of lots, the intended high character of the subdivision and its desirability for expensive residences was much advertised. An association, an informal organization of some of the owners of houses in the subdivision, assumed the right to pass upon the desirability of prospective lot purchasers, and there was some indication that the person who advertised and marketed most of the lots verbally agreed to submit to the association the names of prospective purchasers and assured some intending purchasers that colored persons would …

Constitutional Law-Congressional Primaries-Voting Rights Of Negroes, Everett S. Brown

Michigan Law Review

The petitioner, Lonnie E. Smith, a Negro citizen of Harris County, Texas, brought suit for damages against election judges who refused to give him a ballot or to permit him to cast a ballot in the primary election of July 27, 1940, for the nomination of Democratic candidates for federal and state officers. The refusal was alleged to have been solely because of Smith's race and color and consequently violated sections 31 and 43 of title 8 of the United States Code by depriving Smith of rights secured under provisions of the Federal Constitution. The District Court of the United …

Future Interests--Powers Of Appointment--May Creditor-Appointee Of Testator Recover Damages For Breach Of Contract To Appoint In Any Future Will, Allen C. Holmes

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff made a contract with the donee of a power of appointment granted in these words: "I give and bequeath the principal of said trust fund unto such person or persons and in such estates, interests and proportions as the said Clarence C. Appleton shall in and by his Last Will and Testament in that behalf appoint. I give the said Clarence C. Appleton this power of disposition in order to enable him to make such legacies as he may desire, to his heirs, relatives, friends, or for charity." The donee agreed to execute and did execute a will in …

Statutes--Legislation In Vague Terms

Michigan Law Review

A Minnesota statute, dealing with the regulation of common carriers and requiring permits for operating as such, contained the following language: "The terms 'common carrier' and 'contract carrier' shall not apply to any person engaged in the business of operating motor vehicles in the transportation of property exclusively within the zone circumscribed by a line running parallel to the corporate limits of any city or village or contiguous cities and/or villages and 35 miles distant therefrom when such person resides within the zone." The plaintiff claimed that under that provision he was not required to secure a permit for his …

Future Interests-Acceleration Of Vested Remainders Subject To Complete Defeasance, Allen C. Holmes

Michigan Law Review

In 1938 the defendant, grantor, executed a deed by which she purported to vest a remainder in her son, the plaintiff herein, subject to a life estate in herself and. in her husband should he survive her. The deed further provided that should her son die before the survivor of her husband and herself, then the property was to pass share and share alike to the son's then living heirs. The grantor survived her husband. Shortly after his death she conveyed her life estate to her son for the express purpose of destroying it through merger with the remainder vested …

Taxation-Assessment Of Government-Owned Property Leased To Private Enterprise, Allen C. Holmes

Michigan Law Review

The Board of Property Assessment, Appeals, and Review of Allegheny County for ad valorem taxes in the state of Pennsylvania increased the assessed value of the realty of the Mesta Machine Company by the sum of $618,000 to include the value of certain additional machinery which had been installed on the premises. The machinery was leased by the United States Government to the company and was placed in the factory in order that the company might manufacture heavy field guns for the Government, under a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The legal title and the beneficial ownership of the machinery remained in the …

Wills-Interpretation Of Wills Statute Requiring Witness To Sign "In The Presence Of" The Testator, Allen C. Holmes

Michigan Law Review

Decedent died leaving a purported will dated October 30, 1930, by the terms of which all her property, real and personal, was devised to her daughter, the appellant herein. The decedent's husband was made executor. The document was perfectly regular upon its face. It was witnessed by two persons and the attestation clause recited "that we [the subscribing witnesses] were present and saw Susie Raby Alexander [the deceased] sign the above instrument." When the will was offered for probate one of the witnesses was dead. The one who did testify stated that the will had been signed by the decedent …

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.

Current Periodical Index, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This department lists the articles and comments which appear in twenty-four leading law reviews. The index embraces material published since the last issue of this REVIEW.

Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front Matter for Volume 42, Issue 4 of Michigan Law Review

The Impact Of The War On Private Contracts, Werner W. Schroeder

Michigan Law Review

The destruction and impairment of contracts caused by governmental agencies because of the necessities of war production have been more far-reaching than is generally realized. A report that one large industrial organization has been prevented from performance of contracts involving more than one hundred and fifty million dollars gives a hint of the extent of these commercial casualties.

Proposed Rules Of Federal Criminal Procedure: Final Draft, Albert J. Harno

Michigan Law Review

In February 1941, the Supreme Court appointed an advisory committee to prepare a draft of Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. That committee has made its report to the Court and has presented a final draft of the rules. The adoption of these rules would be a landmark in criminal law administration. The importance of the draft does not lie in the fact that it projects matters that are novel or new, but rather in that it presents in successive provisions, stated in simple language, the best practices in criminal law procedure that have been evolved through experience. Of equal, or …

Service On Foreign Corporations After Withdrawal From The State, Alvin E. Evans

Michigan Law Review

It might reasonably be expected in this corporate age that the question of how service of process should be made upon foreign corporations would have been solved, especially in situations where the cause of action arose within the state and grew out of business done there. Such is not the case, at least respecting suits brought after the withdrawal of the corporation from the state on causes of action arising during the period that it did business there. That there is a conflict in the decisions seems to be due either to a difference inter se of the statutes under …

Evidence-Police Regulation By Rules Of Evidence, John Barker Waite

Michigan Law Review

The judicial rules of Evidence, said their great expounder, "were never meant to be an indirect process of punishment." Yet twice the Supreme Court has promulgated new rules of evidence for precisely that purpose. The rule that evidence is inadmissible, regardless of its relevance and materiality, if it was obtained by unreasonable search was first suggested by Justice Bradley, who wrote the majority opinion in Boyd v. United States in 1886. The other rule was voiced in 1943 by Justice Frankfurter, writing the majority opinion in McNabb v. United States. And each rule demonstrates the inherent evil of judicial …

Legal Aspects Of Renegotiation, Charles W. Steadman

Michigan Law Review

The Renegotiation Act which became effective April 28, 1942, was designed to eliminate and remove exorbitant profits from war contracts. No other recent statute has been the subject of so much controversy and misunderstanding. Since the beginning of renegotiation of contracts in the late summer and early fall of 1942, policies have been crystalizing and many interpretations of the act have been made, but many more questions as to its meaning must still be answered.

Exclusive And Nonexclusive Powers And The Illusory Appointment, John E. Howe

Michigan Law Review

Powers of appointment may be classified as either general or special. Under this classification a power is said to be a special power when the donee has the right to exercise it only in favor of a limited group of persons of which he himself is not a member.

In considering special powers it is helpful to subdivide them into two separate groups, one being termed exclusive and the other nonexclusive powers. In a factual situation where the intent of the donor is such that the donee of the power has the right to exclude any of the objects, it …

Abstracts, Benjamin M. Quigg, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

The abstracts consist merely of summaries of the facts and holdings of recent cases and are distinguished from the notes by the absence of discussion.

Banks And Banking-Bank Deposits And The N.I.L.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued H and W and a writ of garnishment was issued against B who filed a disclosure of an indebtedness owing to H and W as joint creditors. W was later dropped from the case by a voluntary non-suit. Shortly after such dismissal, W applied to B for payment of the debt, but payment was refused because of the outstanding garnishment. B, however, expressed to W an intention, perhaps even an assurance, to honor such application when freed of the garnishment. That garnishment was dismissed several days later, but in the meantime another writ of garnishment in the …

Trusts-Participation By Banks In Diversion Of Trust Funds

Michigan Law Review

That fiduciaries who misappropriate or divert trust funds from their proper purpose are bound to make good is familiar doctrine. It is equally clear that those who guiltily participate in such. diversions by faithless fiduciaries are also liable. The point of chief difficulty is the determination of what participations are properly classified as guilty, for innocent participators clearly are not bound to make good. For example, a fiduciary with power to sell things held in trust may wish to turn the subject matter into cash preliminary to a misappropriation. A bona fide purchaser who provides the cash no doubt stands …

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.

Constltutional Law - Labor Unions - Injunction

Michigan Law Review

Complainants owned and operated a small cafeteria conducting the business without the aid of any employees. Defendants, a labor union and its president, picketed the cafeteria in an attempt "to organize it." The picketing was carried on by parade of one person at a time in front of the premises, at all times in an "orderly and peaceful" manner. Signs were carried which tended to give the impression that the complainants were "unfair" to organized labor and that the pickets "had been previously employed in the cafeteria." These representations were knowingly false in that there had been no employees in …

Waters And Watercourses-Fishing-Right Of Public In Floatable Streams

Michigan Law Review

Through defendants' lands flowed a stream, a little over thirty feet in width and averaging in depth approximately one foot. It had a flow of less than fifty cubic feet per second. The stream was not capable of "commercial travel by any kind of boat" and it was doubtful whether it was "practical to use a boat on it in fishing." Some testimony indicated that in logging days some loose timber had been floated down the stream, but it was also testified by oldsters that it was "never possible to run logs down the stream without the use of dams." …

Current Periodical Index, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This department lists the articles and comments which appear in twenty-four leading law reviews. The index embraces material published since the last issue of this REVIEW.

Negligence -Automobiles - Illegal Parking - Does Negligence Of Second Actor Relieve Original Tort-Feasor Of Liability?, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff brings action for personal injuries sustained when the car of defendant P, negligently driven, struck the rear of the car of defendant R, which was parked on the highway in violation of the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code. The lower court gave verdict and judgment for plaintiff against both defendants. Defendant R appeals. Held, reversed, and judgment entered for defendant R. In order for defendant R to be liable it must appear that his illegal parking was a concurrent cause of the accident; and in cases which involve illegally parked vehicles the Pennsylvania courts have adopted the …

Resulting Trust-Statute Of Frauds-Advance Of Purchase Money In Exchange For Transferee's Promise To Furnish A Life Home For The Payor, Craig E. Davids S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, an illiterate sharecropper, advanced money to purchase an eighty acre farm, record title being taken in the name of defendant and wife with whom plaintiff had been living for more than a year pursuant to an agreement that defendant was to furnish plaintiff with a home for life. The arrangement worked satisfactorily for more than thirty years, during which time the premises were improved and a mortgage discharged by plaintiff. Defendant then remarried and the friction which followed was climaxed by defendant ordering plaintiff off the premises. Suit was filed in equity, under an Oklahoma statute to have defendant …

Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front Matter for Volume 42, Issue 3 of Michigan Law Review

The Proposed Federal Rules Of Criminal Procedure, Wendell Berge

Michigan Law Review

The recently published Preliminary Draft of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure is now before the bench and bar for discussion. The rules proposed are, of course, tentative. Following a procedure similar to that adopted in the case of the civil rules a few years ago, they have been printed and distributed by the Advisory Committee at this stage for the purpose of obtaining criticisms and suggestions. Some of the rules merely restate existing law as provided by statute or adopted by general agreement in judicial decisions. Others work substantial procedural changes. How is the product to be judged?