Digital Commons Network^™

Constitutional Law - Regulation Of Small Business, Alfred G. Ellick Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Ever since the development of the guild system the small tradesman or shopkeeper has attempted in various ways to reduce the number of his competitors. The time-honored method, in theory at least, has been to give better service for less money. The more modern method is to select a delegation from the trade itself whose duty it will be to proceed to the state capitol, there to urge the passage of "protective legislation." As a result, legislators have found themselves beseiged by lobbyists who show altruistic concern for the health, safety, and welfare of the general public. Strangely enough, the …

Injunctions - Power To Restrain Foreign Divorce Proceedings Declaratory Judgment As Adequate Legal Remedy, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff petitioned a New York court to restrain her husband from prosecuting an action for divorce in a Florida court, alleging that the parties were married in New York, had lived there as husband and wife for twelve years, were still residents of New York, and that the defendant's business was located in the state. The complaint also alleged that the defendant had abandoned the plaintiff without cause; that plaintiff could not bear the expense of defending the Florida action and, in the event of judgment, would lose her status as wife and her concomitant property rights. Held, this …

Banks And Banking - Right Of National Bank To Sue On Personal Guaranty To State Bank After Consolidation L Of State Bank With National Bank, William C. Whitehead

Michigan Law Review

Defendants guaranteed payment to a state bank of the notes and renewals made by a borrower. Shortly thereafter the state bank was consolidated with a national banking association. The borrower issued a renewal note to the consolidated bank for the indebtedness owing the state bank. This was followed by a consolidation with another state bank, the appointment of a receiver, and the sale of the consolidated bank's assets to plaintiff. In answer to the claim on the guaranty for payment of the renewal note, defendants declared that the obligation was not assignable and that the identity of the obligee was …

Rule Against Perpetuities - Construction Of Wills, Kenneth J. Nordstrom

Michigan Law Review

Testator devised properties to trustees to provide his wife and son with an income for life. The will directed that upon the death of the survivor the corpus should be distributed to testator's grandchildren. A later codicil changed the will by providing that the trust principal and undistributed earnings left at the death of the survivor of the life tenants should be payable to the grandchildren when they should reach the age of thirty-five years. No provision was made for the continuance of the trust after the death of the life beneficiaries. Upon the death of the life beneficiaries, an …

Workmen's Compensation - Injury By Accident - Compensation For A Contagious Disease Contracted From A Fellow Employee, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

P and X were both employed by D. Their work made it necessary that they be in close proximity to one another. X, who was infected with tuberculosis, frequently coughed in P's face and on one occasion the spray and sputum went into P's face and mouth. Within several months P was forced to leave the employ of D. Applying for relief under the North Carolina Workmen's Compensation Act, P made a showing that he was disabled with tuberculosis, and the Workmen's Compensation Commission, finding that P had been in contact with no other source …

Parties - Representative Suits As Res Judicata- Rejection Of Doctrine Of Class Suits In Successive Actions To Enforce Mutual Covenants In Land, Gerald M. Lively

Michigan Law Review

Some 500 frontage owners in a certain described residential district entered into mutual covenants which stipulated against the sale to, or occupation of, such land by negroes. In an action to enjoin a breach of one of these covenants the defense was asserted that a condition precedent requiring ninety-five per cent of the frontage owners to sign the agreement had not been performed. On a trial of the merits it was found that only about fifty-four per cent of the frontage owners had actually signed. However, in a prior action, an owner, on behalf of herself and other like property …

Interstate Commerce - Motor Carrier Act Of 1935 - Power Of States To Regulate Interstate Carriers As To Sizes And Weight, Spencer E. Lrons

Michigan Law Review

The Motor Carrier Act of 1935 provides, in section 204 (a) (1) and (2), that the Interstate Commerce Commission, in performing its duty of regulating interstate motor carriers, shall have power to "establish reasonable requirements with respect to . . . safety of operation and equipment." In section 225, the act authorizes the commission "to investigate and report on the need for Federal regulation of the sizes and weight of motor vehicles. . . ." These two sections, when read together, indicate that Congress felt that sizes and weight regulations deserved consideration apart from general safety regulations. The former are …

Adoption - Effect On Adoption Proceeding Of Prior Consent Of Parent, Felicia I. Hmiel

Michigan Law Review

In 1923 the mother of an illegitimate child surrendered the child to the Children's Home Society and signed an agreement consenting to adoption by any parents chosen by the institution. In 1926 in an adoption proceeding, the child was adopted by the plaintiff's intestate with the society's consent, but with no consent of the mother other than that given in 1923. Upon the death of the intestate in 1936 the plaintiffs, the natural heirs at law, brought suit to set aside the adoption proceedings as being void for lack of parent's consent. Held, that the general consent given by …

Appeal And Error - Order Granting A New Trial As An Appealable Order, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

By an Ohio statute a final order might be reversed, vacated, or modified on appeal. After verdict was returned plaintiff filed a motion for a new trial claiming misconduct on the part of the jury. The trial court granted the motion and the defendant appealed. Held, the granting of a motion for a new trial is not a final order and, therefore, not subject to review, except in cases where it clearly appears from the record that the trial court has abused its discretion in granting the motion. Petro v. Donner, 137 Ohio St. 168, 28 N. E. …

Corporations - Officers And Directors - Duty To Investigate Purchasers Of Controlling Interest, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff corporation, an investment trust specializing in shares of small life insurance companies, brought an action against its former officers and directors, referred to as "the management group," who in 1937 owned twenty-seven per cent of the outstanding stock of the corporation. This group sold all their stock at an inflated price to another group, referred to as "the Boston group," who on the resignation of the management group immediately elected themselves to the control of the corporation. By this control the Boston group obtained access to the portfolio and proceeded systematically to rob the corporation of all its securities. …

Bankruptcy - Right Of Trustee Against Claimant Of Vendor's Lien, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

More than four months before bankruptcy the vendor sold an automobile truck to the bankrupt grocer under an unrecorded conditional sales contract, and a part of the purchase money, represented by an installment note, is still owing. The appellant was assigned the contract and note before the first installment became due. The truck was turned over to the trustee in bankruptcy, who sold it and holds the proceeds. Appellant filed a claim in bankruptcy asserting a statutory purchase money lien. Held, that the lien of the vendor prevails over the trustee. Commercial Credit Co. v. Davidson, (C. C. …

Trusts - Tort Liability Of Trustee In His Representative Capacity, Reid J. Hatfield

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff brought suit to recover damages for injuries allegedly sustained because of the unsafe condition of a hotel building owned and operated by the defendant trustee. The trustee was an insolvent bank and trust company in the hands of the state superintendent of banks, who was also joined as defendant. The prayer was for a "judgment against the defendants in their fiduciary capacity toward the trust." On appeal of the lower court's judgment sustaining defendants' demurrer, held, that the trustee could be sued in his representative capacity. Carey v. Squire, 63 Ohio App. 476, 27 N. E. (2d) …

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.

Monthly Periodical Index, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This department lists the articles and comments which appear in twenty-five leading law reviews.

Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front Matter for Volume 39, Issue 4 of Michigan Law Review

Labor Law - Constitutional Law - National Labor Relations Act- Right Of Employer To Disparage Labor Unions And To Advise His Employees Against Joining Them, William C. Wetherbee

Michigan Law Review

In the spring of 1937 the respondent distributed anti-union literature to its employees. Some of the material specifically denied any design on the part of the employer to prevent the employees from joining a union, and none of the literature pretended to be more than the advice and opinions of the employer. Nevertheless, the unions were thoroughly condemned as rackets, controlled by Communists, which deprive the workingman of his economic freedom and force him to pay for the privilege of working. The National Labor Relations Board found that the distribution of this literature interfered with, restrained, and coerced the employees …

Council And Court: The Handbill Ordinances, 1889-1939, James K. Lindsay

Michigan Law Review

The extent to which a municipality may regulate or prohibit the distribution of handbills and circulars on its streets and from house to house has been thoroughly considered by the courts in the last two years. These recent cases reveal one phase of a battle historically rich and presently important to the American people. It is the thrust of a principle-the right of free speech and press-against the encroachments of municipal governing bodies concerned with the practical problem of keeping their streets clean. The municipal official sees the problem thus: "One of the small but aggravating nuisances which most cities …

The Revision Of The Treaties Of Montevideo On The Law Of Conflicts, Ernst Rabel

Michigan Law Review

In its issue of July 1940, the Revista Juridica Argentina of Buenos Aires has published the new "Tratados de Derecho Internacional Privado" of Montevideo concluded in 1939 and 1940. We are grateful to this review for apprising us of a significant event in the field of international codification.

Paul's Studies In Federal Taxation, Third Series -A Review, Josiah Willard

Michigan Law Review

This Third Series of Mr. Paul's Studies in Federal Taxation is a welcome addition to the literature on the subject. Too few members of the tax bar reduce their views on the subject to writing, and many of those who do apparently feel that they must never concede any merit to a contention of the treasury on any doubtful point, for fear that such a concession will be used against them by some treasury attorney in the future. On the other hand, many academic writers on the subject tend to assume that every decision in favor of the taxpayer represents …

The Right Of Privacy, Louis Nizer

Michigan Law Review

It is only during the last half-century that the law has recognized the "right to be let alone"-the right under certain circumstances to protect one's name and physiognomy from becoming public property.

No mention of such a right will be found in the works of the great political philosophers and tract-writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries-Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Spencer, Paine. In discoursing on "natural rights," "the state of nature," "social contract," and "the inalienable rights of man," they were concerned only with the power of the state to abridge the liberties of the people. Society had not yet …

Appeal And Error - Bad Faith Of Counsel As A Basis For Granting A New Trial Where Fact That Defendant Was Insured Was Brought To Attention Of Jury, Raymond H. Rapaport

Michigan Law Review

It is generally agreed that the jury in a personal injury action should not be informed that the defendant is covered by indemnity insurance. The reasons for the rule are that the matter of insurance is irrelevant, and that the exposition of its existence is prejudicial. The jury is likely to grant more and larger verdicts for the plaintiff when it is known that an insurance company, rather than the individual defendant being tried, will have to pay the judgment. However, the fact that the defendant is insured reaches the jury in a multitude of ways. While direct evidence of …

Boundaries By Agreement And Acquiescence, Harold M. Street

Michigan Law Review

An accurate summation of the present-day status of the doctrines of boundaries by agreement and acquiescence is contained in the, following statement made by an eminent text writer: "There are, in this country, a great number of decisions bearing upon the effect of an agreement by adjoining owners as to the boundary line between their lands, or of their recognition of a certain line as the boundary without any express agreement in relation thereto. These decisions are frequently most unsatisfactory in their discussion of the principles involved, and, purporting, as they variously do, to be based on principles of agreement, …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Federal Price Control Under Commerce Clause For Milk And Coal Industries, Stark Ritchie

Michigan Law Review

As a natural concomitant of the prevailing laissez-faire economic philosophy, a strong feeling against any governmental regulation of business prevailed in American legislatures until well into the second half of the nineteenth century. Prices were considered to be especially immune to governmental tampering. The first step in the breakdown of the notion that government had no power over prices was the case of Munn v. Illinois. This decision introduced the doctrine that the legislature had the right to regulate prices in any business which the courts should find to be "affected with a public interest." Posed as a deceivingly …

Bankruptcy - Effect Of Discharge - Suspension Of Driver's License For Non-Payment Of Judgment As Conflicting With The Bankruptcy Act, Walter Muller

Michigan Law Review

Under section 94-b of the New York Vehicle and Traffic Law, as amended in 1936 and 1939, if a judgment entered against a driver for 'damages for injury to person or property remains unpaid for fifteen days, the clerk of the court where the judgment was entered must (but only upon written demand of the judgment creditor) forward a copy thereof to the commissioner of motor vehicles, whose duty it then becomes to suspend the driving license of such judgment debtor; further, section 94-c provides (a) that such suspension shall continue for such part of three years as the judgment …

Insurance - Insurable Interest - Occupant Or Possessor Of Realty, Raymond H. Rapaport

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued upon an insurance policy, issued to her by the defendant, covering a building in which she was conducting a merchandising business. The building was owned in fee by the plaintiff's father-in-law, who had told the plaintiff that she might occupy it so long as she wished, and that he intended to deed it to her and her children. Held, plaintiff had an insurable interest in the building. Liverpool & London & Globe Ins. Co. v. Bolling, (Va. 1940) 10 S. E. (2d) 518.

Election Of Remedies- Contracts Induced By Fraud, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In 1939, plaintiff brought an action alleging in his complaint that defendant became indebted to him on December 17, 1928, for $13,400, for money had and received by defendant to the use of plaintiff. In a bill of particulars plaintiff pointed out that the indebtedness arose from the purchase of certain bonds and the subsequent rescission of the contract of purchase prior to the commencement of this action, basing his right to rescind upon misrepresentations made by, and the fraud of, defendant in inducing the purchase of said bonds. When defendant moved for a summary judgment on the ground that …

Fraudulent Conveyances - Executory Consideration As "Fair Consideration" Under The Uniform Fraudulent Conveyance Act, Robert Kneeland

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a purchaser of mortgaged realty, claimed that there had been a series of conveyances of this property originating with a remote grantor, fraudulent as to said grantor's creditors. At the time plaintiff learned of this, he had already paid taxes on the property and paid $4605 on the purchase price, leaving a balance of $2986 due on his contract. Since, allegedly, plaintiff would have been subject to an action of the creditors to have the conveyance to him set aside/ plaintiff sought to join all creditors and defrauders in an attempt to clear the title, or, if the transaction …

Insurance - Conditional Vendor's Insurance - Effect Of Repair By Or Restoration To The Vendee Or Sub-Vendee, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a Minnesota corporation, purchased the vendor's interest in an automobile sold under a conditional sales contract. The defendant insured the plaintiff against direct loss or damage to the automobile by collision and/or upset. The vendee, without plaintiff's knowledge or consent, sold the car to a sub-vendee who drove it to Texas, became involved in an accident, and sold the wreckage to a resident of Texas who purchased in good faith. The car was rebuilt and resold. Plaintiff sued for the loss caused by the collision. Held, plaintiff may recover even though the car was repaired by others prior …

Labor Law - Existence Of Labor Dispute Under Norris-La Guardia Act - Relation Of Norris-La Guardia Act To Sherman Act, Philip W. Buchen

Michigan Law Review

Action was brought in a federal court to enjoin the Chicago local of the A. F. of L. Mille Wagon Drivers' Union from picketing and committing acts of violence in violation of the Sherman Act against retail stores that sold milk produced out of the state, processed by the plaintiff dairies and distributed by "vendors" belonging to the plaintiff C. I. O. union of dairy workers. "Vendors" were individuals owning their own trucks who purchased milk from the dairies and sold it to the retail stores, which charged prices lower than those charged for milk supplied by dairies employing the …

Labor Law -- Injunctions -- Permissible Objects Of Strikes -- Prevention Of Use Of Labor-Saving Devices, Reed T. Phalan

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a travelling grand opera troupe, used recordings for orchestral accompaniment. The American Federation of Musicians opposed use of mechanically reproduced music wherever orchestras could be hired, and, in support of such opposition, the stagehands' union forbade its members to work for plaintiff. As a result, since most of the theaters throughout the country were "closed shop" theaters, plaintiff's business was greatly restricted: Plaintiff brought an action for an injunction against the musician's union and the stagehands' union, and the lower court granted the injunction. Held, in a three-two decision, the stagehands' union had sufficient direct interest to act …