Digital Commons Network^™

Corporations-''Fair Plan" Under Section 77b-Applicability Of Boyd Case, Edward B. Barrett

Michigan Law Review

Few controversies can arise that present so many variables and require such delicate balancing of not easily ascertainable economic and legal interests as the one occurring when it becomes necessary for a court to pass on the fairness of a reorganization plan. The recognition of this is clearly seen in the provision of Section 77B of the Bankruptcy Act which reads in part: "after hearing such objections as may be made to the plan, the judge shall confirm the plan if satisfied that it is fair and equitable and does not discriminate unfairly in favor of any class of creditors …

Federal Gross Estate Tax-Constitutionality-Revocable Transfers By Way Of Trust

Michigan Law Review

Five recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court, together with a decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, have considerably changed some of the currently accepted theories regarding the taxability under the Federal Estate Tax of transfers reserving various degrees of control to donors, both with respect to what may be considered to be a sufficient reserved control and what the constitutional limits on the taxing power may be. Some perplexing questions have been settled by these decisions while others quite as vexing seem to have been raised and left for future determination.

Trade Restraints-Trade Associations-Open Price Agreements- Sugar Institute Case

Michigan Law Review

The Sugar Institute case, decided March 30, 1936, in a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court, has been eagerly awaited by those interested in 'the limits and possibilities, under the anti-trust laws, of so-called self-regulation by industry through permissible activities of trade associations. The decision has been reported to affect some 2,000 trade associations. The case presented such a diversity of practices that any decision in it gave great promise of answering some of the many perplexing questions growing out of the enforcement of the anti-trust laws, which could not heretofore be answered from the decided cases. The fact that …

Bankruptcy-Disposition Of Insurance Policy Assigned To Beneficiary

Michigan Law Review

Mrs. Humphrey was the beneficiary in an insurance policy taken out by her husband on his own life. He assigned this policy to her at a time when it was pledged to the insurance company for loans slightly in excess of the cash surrender value. Mr. Humphrey died after Mrs. Humphrey had filed her voluntary petition in bankruptcy. Held, the policy is not an asset of the bankrupt estate, but belongs to Mrs. Humphrey rather than the trustee. Curtis v. Humphrey, (C. C. A. 5th, 1935) 78 F. (2d) 73.

Bills And Notes-Negotiability Of Bonds Issued By Massachusetts Trust

Michigan Law Review

In a replevin action to recover stolen bonds, held that the exclusion of the personal liability of the issuing trustees rendered the instruments nonnegotiable, Lorimer v. McGreevy, (Mo. APP. 1935) 84 S. W. (2d) 667.

Municipal Corporations-Fencing Ordinances

Michigan Law Review

Defendant city passed an ordinance which prohibited the erection of fences that exceeded four feet in height, or which were composed wholly or in part of barbed wire. Plaintiff was refused permission to build a woven wire fence, six feet high with barbed wire attached to arms extending inward at the top. Plaintiff thereupon sued to enjoin defendant city from enforcing this ordinance, claiming that it deprived her of property without "due process." Held, by the court, that the right to fence one's land is a right of property that cannot be unreasonably interfered with. The ordinance in question …

The Effect Of Impossibility Upon Conditions In Wills, Lewis M. Simes

Michigan Law Review

Writers may discourse upon the danger of construing trees to mean raspberry bushes or cabbages, but the fact remains that written instruments are interpreted with the aid of something more than a dictionary. Circumstances existing both at the time the document is executed and at a subsequent period are considered in determining what it means. This statement applies to conditions as well as to other parts of a written instrument. Nor should we be surprised to find that impossibility of performance may modify legal consequences.

Constitutional Law-Securities Act Of 1933-Right Of Registrant To Withdraw Registration Statement Filed With Commission

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner filed a registration statement with the Securities Exchange Commission covering a proposed issue of securities. After examining the statement, the commission concluded that it contained false and misleading information concerning certain material facts, and thereupon instituted a proceeding to compel petitioner to appear and answer certain questions pertinent to the papers filed. At the hearing, petitioner sought to withdraw the registration statement but was denied permission to do so. Upon application of the Securities Exchange Commission to the district court, an order was granted compelling petitioner to appear and answer the questions. On appeal to the Supreme Court of …

The Right Of Appeal In Criminal Cases, Lester B. Orfield

Michigan Law Review

In the conduct of a criminal proceeding certain steps are regarded as essential. The accused must be brought before the court. There must be a preliminary investigation to insure that the case is one which should be prosecuted. Notice must be given to the accused of the offense charged. He must have an opportunity to prepare for trial, procure witnesses, and make needed investigations. He should have a speedy trial. He should have a fair trial before an impartial tribunal. Finally, there should be one review of the case as a whole by a suitable tribunal. The principle of a …

Attack On Decrees Of Divorce, Albert C. Jacobs

Michigan Law Review

Hitherto we have been concerned with the extent to which a decree is impeachable at the suit of one of the so-called "contestants" to the divorce litigation. But other parties, second spouses, children, personal representatives, grantees of a divorced party, and other third persons, may be affected; they may desire to question its efficacy. Are they controlled by the same principles of attack which govern the divorce litigants? Do these third persons all stand in the same position when they seek to assail the decree?

Conflict Of Laws-Jurisdiction Over Nonresident Carriers As Limited By Doctrine Of Unreasonable Burden On Interstate Commerce

Michigan Law Review

There is little question today but that a foreign corporation may be subject to suit and a personal judgment in a state where it is doing business if service has been had upon a proper agent of the corporation, designated by law or otherwise. There may be consider able question as to what constitutes "doing business." The fact that the business carried on by a corporation is wholly interstate in character will not prevent that corporation from being subject to service in the same manner as though it were doing intrastate business as well a It also seems clear that …

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.

Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front Matter for Volume 34, Issue 6 of Michigan Law Review

The Reduction Of Income Taxes Through The Use Of Trusts, William C. Warren

Michigan Law Review

Obviously the draftsmen of the first Revenue Act under the Sixteenth Amendment could not foresee every possibility of tax avoidance and adequately prevent such avoidance by express statutory provisions. Since the enactment of the Revenue Act of 1913, Congress has made constant efforts in each succeeding Revenue Act to close the loopholes discovered by tax lawyers. The success of these efforts has been most remarkable, particularly in comparison with the similar efforts of England under her income tax laws. Indeed, it may fairly be said that the enactment. of the Gift Tax Act in 1932 wrote the final chapter of …

Contracts-Fraud-Rescission For Non-Disclosure Of Insolvency, Sheridan Morgan

Michigan Law Review

Modern decisions have provided an important device for the protection of creditors through extension of the duty of disclosure by persons in extreme financial distress. The remedy chiefly used is rescission, which can be secured on the ground of "fraud," with restitution of property transferred in ignorance of the purchaser's distressed condition. The "fraud" need not consist of express misrepresentation of fact, though express misrepresentation often appears as an independent ground leading to the same result. The commercial importance of the remedies thus developed seems to justify consideration both of their practical consequences and of the theories on which relief …

Evidence-Alienation Of Affections-Wife's Testimony As To Statements Made To Her By Alienated Husband Concerning Defendant

Michigan Law Review

In a suit for alienation of husband's affections, plaintiff testified as to certain statements made by her husband in the absence of the defendant. These statement purported to be repetitions of statements made by the defendant to plaintiff's husband. Defendant objected to the admission of this testimony on the ground that it was hearsay. The court held that the testimony was admissible, not to prove the truth of the facts, words, or conduct embodied in the statements and chargeable to the defendant, but to show the husband's state of mind toward the plaintiff. Richards v. Lorleberg, (App. D. C. …

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.

Attack On Decrees Of Divorce, Albert C. Jacobs

Michigan Law Review

This paper deals with attacks on decrees of divorce. The attack may arise in the state of the divorce or elsewhere. F-1 is used to designate the state in which the divorce was granted; F-2 a state other than that in which the decree in' question was rendered. The attack in F-1 may be on purely local or non-jurisdictional grounds, such as fraud, collusion, duress or perjury, or upon the ground that the proper jurisdictional requirements were lacking. The attack in F-2 will generally be on jurisdictional grounds, though in certain situations a decree has been impeached for non-jurisdictional factors. …

Simes On Future Interests, Charles C. White

Michigan Law Review

It is encouraging that the law teachers are turning their talents to the writing of treatises. Recent examples are Professor Bogert's monumental work on Trusts and Professor Griswold's volume on Spendthrift Trusts. And now comes this comprehensive work on Future Interests, about which little has heretofore been written with an especial appeal to the average practitioner. Too much of the law teacher's energy has. gone into editing case books and writing law review articles. And case books and law review articles are not read by lawyers in general.

Trusts-Interest Required To Support Suit For Protection Of Res

Michigan Law Review

The deceased had established a trust making the trust company and one Percy S. Peck co-trustees, and Peck was also made one of several beneficiaries. The will provided that Peck should have a general power of appointment by will over the corpus of the estate, and that in default of the exercise of such power, it should go to his issue if living. The plaintiffs are the issue of Peck, who is still alive. The trustees made certain investments which the plaintiffs claim injure the corpus of the trust, for which they ask that the transactions be declared illegal and …

Congress And The Appellate Jurisdiction Of The Supreme Court, Ralph R. Martig

Michigan Law Review

A democratic government such as ours, based upon the theory of popular sovereignty, presents many curious political phenomena. For example: in order to insure a proper balance of the powers, it has been necessary for the Supreme Court to assume the onerous task of passing upon the constitutionality of congressional legislation. It is unfortunate, but necessary, that the Court be obliged to exercise this power of judicial review at a time when the entire country is suffering from the effects of a severe and sustained economic depression. It is unfortunate, too, that the legislation under judicial examination should involve questions …

Front Matter, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Front Matter for Volume 34, Issue 5 of Michigan Law Review

The Federal Spending Power And State Rights, John W. Holmes

Michigan Law Review

The cry for constitutional change, that dwindled to a small voice with the repeal of Prohibition, has risen to a new pitch following decapitation of the AAA by the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Butler. Burgeoning in Congress is a portentous, if unorganized, attack upon the Supreme Court's power of judicial review.

It seems timely, therefore, to inquire how far the current conception of the Supreme Court as an obstacle to the exercise of legislative power by the central government is justified, and to canvass the extent of the need, if any, for curtailment of the …

Contracts-Effect Of A Stipulation Denying Legal Effect In An Employer's Voluntary Pension, Bonus Or Death Benefit Plan, Grover C. Grismore

Michigan Law Review

It has generally been supposed that where two persons go through the form of offer and acceptance but at the same time mutually agree that their undertakings shall not be legally obligatory, they are not contractually bound. In fact, it has frequently been asserted that the intent to have legal obligation must appear affirmatively before a contract can be found to exist. It may be doubted whether this is so, since it is clear from the decided cases that no showing of such an intention is ever required. The intention to have a contract is invariably assumed to exist in …

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.

The Corporate Entity As A Solvent Of Legal Problems, Elvin R. Latty

Michigan Law Review

If a layman were to ask a lawyer what is the reason that a stockholder is ordinarily not liable for his corporation's debts or that a deed to corporate property by the sole stockholder in his own name is not a flawless conveyance, the answer the layman would get would be: a corporation is a wholly different person from its stockholders-it is an entity separate and distinct from them. That answer reveals the traditional approach to scores of problems in corporation law, an approach which, it is submitted, can lead the incautious into considerable trouble.

Unforgetable Knowledge, Maurice H. Merrill

Michigan Law Review

In another article, the writer had occasion to analyze the concept of notice. He there called attention to the fact that in some instances the existence of notice depends upon awareness by the person to be charged, either of the ultimate facts or of circumstances placing him upon inquiry thereof, while in other cases notice exists entirely independent of such awareness. To characterize notice of the first class he suggested the term "cognitive notice," applying to the latter the designation "absolute notice."

Future Interests - Effect Of Eminent Domain Proceedings

Michigan Law Review

This study is concerned with the effect of condemnation proceedings upon future interests. The problems which arise are chiefly whether the owner of a future interest has such an interest in land as to be awarded a share of the fund given as compensation for the land, and if he does have such an interest as to be awarded a share, how it will be determined or apportioned to him and at what time. The first part of the study is a consideration of the question: what types of future interests are compensable? The second part involves an examination of …

Bankruptcy-Receivership As Basis For Action Under Section 77b

Michigan Law Review

The Bankruptcy Act, Section 77B (a), provides that creditors with more than a fixed minimum of claims may file a petition proposing a corporate reorganization and stating "that such corporation is insolvent or unable to meet its debts as they mature and, if a prior proceeding in bankruptcy or equity receivership is not pending, that it has committed an act of bankruptcy within four months . . . . " On a petition which alleged no prior proceeding in bankruptcy nor any act of bankruptcy within four months but did allege the appointment of receivers in an action in the …

Municipal Corporations-Standards Required In Licensing Ordinances

Michigan Law Review

Defendant appealed from conviction for operating a used auto business without obtaining a license for such business under a city ordinance requiring same to be granted by the city commission if in its opinion applicant was a proper and suitable person, the place to be used was proper, having in mind the nature and character of the business and possibility of commission of crime, and the sanitary facilities thereon were proper. There was no specific legislative grant for passage of such ordinance. Defendant's application was rejected by the commission mainly because of lack of proper sanitary facilities. Held, standards …