Law Commons^™

Federal Procedure - Availability Of Coram Nobis In Federal Cases Involving Right Of Counsel, John Leddy S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

ln 1939 Robert Morgan pleaded guilty to a charge of mail theft and was sentenced by a federal district court to four years imprisonment. He served the term and was released. In 1950 he was convicted of a crime in New York state and sentenced as a second offender because of his previous federal conviction. In 1952 he made application to the district court of original sentence for a common law writ of coram nobis, seeking an order vacating and setting aside his conviction by that court on the ground that he was not given assistance of counsel and had …

Evidence-Privilege-Right Of Third Person To Assert Privilege As To Accident Report Made Confidential By Statute, Richard W. Young S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff brought a negligence action for injuries sustained when the automobile in which she was a passenger collided with that operated by the defendant. Defendant questioned a police officer, who had filed the accident report, concerning statements made to him by the driver of the vehicle in which the plaintiff was riding. The trial court permitted this testimony over the plaintiff's objection that these statements were privileged under an Iowa statute purporting to make written accident reports confidential and inadmissible in evidence. On appeal after a verdict was returned in favor of the defendant, held, reversed. The statute can …

Legislation-Statutory Construction-Validity Of Canon That Statutes In Derogation Of The Common Law Should Be Strictly Construed, Alan Reeve Hunt S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs brought suit to recover damages for the death of their adopted son under the Mississippi wrongful death act, which provides that an action may be brought by "the parent for the death of the child." The defendants incorporated in their answer a special plea that the statute does not vest a cause of action in adoptive parents. On appeal from a judgment sustaining this plea, without prejudice to the rights of the deceased's natural parents to bring another action, held, affirmed. The Mississippi wrongful death statute gives a right of action to natural parents only. Boroughs v. Oliver …

Divorce For Temperamental Incompatibility, Lester B. Orfield

Michigan Law Review

One not acquainted with American or Continental legal history might conclude that temperamental incompatibility as a ground for divorce is a novel and radical innovation. In fact, such divorces have been possible from the beginning of our history. Legislatures granted divorces until the last quarter of the nineteenth century. 'We are told that the legislature was appealed to in cases that were too flimsy or too whimsical for the courts."

About a century ago and for more than a generation later at least nine states had "omnibus clauses in their divorce statutes broad enough to include incompatibility of temper." No …

Constitutional Law - Censorship Of Obscence Literature, Donald M. Wilkinson, Jr. S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The right to a free expression of ideas, without interference from governmental authorities, is inherent in the very nature of a democracy. On the other hand, it is also clear that the greater interests of the state at large will conflict with certain forms of expression, and in such circumstances obviously the former must prevail. It is the purpose of this comment to discuss the constitutional limitations on the governmental suppression of literature on grounds of obscenity.