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Full-Text Articles in Law

Marriage And Divorce - Power Of Court To Modify Decree For Alimony Or Property Settlement As Affected By Agreement Of The Parties, Roy L. Rogers Nov 1940

Marriage And Divorce - Power Of Court To Modify Decree For Alimony Or Property Settlement As Affected By Agreement Of The Parties, Roy L. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

Contracts settling the property interests of a husband and wife or providing for support of the wife or for both of these ends are no doubt valid in all jurisdictions where the parties may contract with each other if the purpose is not to facilitate divorce or future separation. Even at common law, separation agreements could be made, however, through the intervention of a trustee. If not invalid, the contract may ordinarily be enforced in an action on the promise. But, when a divorce is decreed, it is quite often the practice to incorporate in the divorce decree the provisions …


Contracts - Intervening Impossibility - Nature Of Excuse Under Casualty Clause, Edmund R. Blaske Nov 1940

Contracts - Intervening Impossibility - Nature Of Excuse Under Casualty Clause, Edmund R. Blaske

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff sought to compel the performance of a contract by which the defendant obligated himself to make deliveries of logs in specified months. The contract contained the following casualty clause: "And the seller is not liable for delay or nonshipment or for delay or nondelivery if occasioned by . . . strikes, lockouts, or labor disturbances. . . . Buyers agree to accept delayed shipment and/ or delivery when occasioned by any of the aforementioned causes, if so required by the seller, provided the delay does not exceed thirty days." When performance got under way, the longshoremen's strike intervened …


Contracts - Sales - Effect Of Reasonable Belief In Buyer's Insolvency On Seller's Duty To Perform, W. Wallace Kent Nov 1940

Contracts - Sales - Effect Of Reasonable Belief In Buyer's Insolvency On Seller's Duty To Perform, W. Wallace Kent

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff ordered goods from the defendant, for immediate delivery, terms $1,500 down, balance covered by notes of three and six months. The check given for the down payment was dishonored because of insufficient funds but was subsequently honored. On investigation the defendant discovered that there were unpaid judgments outstanding against the plaintiff, some of which were upwards of three years old. Inferring that the plaintiff was insolvent, the defendant refused to deliver the goods unless cash was paid therefor and when plaintiff refused this offer defendant attempted to return the down payment. Held, plaintiff's affairs were in such …


Vendor And Purchaser-Vendor's Release Of Sub-Assignee Held A Discharge Of All Prior Assignees, Robert M. Warren Jun 1940

Vendor And Purchaser-Vendor's Release Of Sub-Assignee Held A Discharge Of All Prior Assignees, Robert M. Warren

Michigan Law Review

The bank for which plaintiff is receiver sold land on contract. There followed four successive assignments of the vendee's interest, in each of which the assignee expressly assumed the contract obligation. After the fourth assignment, default occurred as to payments and taxes, and plaintiff began negotiations to sell the property to an intermediate assignee, R. To effectuate this sale, plaintiff procured an assignment in blank from the fourth assignee, W, in consideration of a release of W from further liability on the contract. The negotiations with R having failed, plaintiff brought suit against the vendee and all the …


Public Policies Underlying The Law Of Mental Incompetency, Milton D. Green Jun 1940

Public Policies Underlying The Law Of Mental Incompetency, Milton D. Green

Michigan Law Review

Mental incompetency, or legal insanity, has usually been studied in the patchquilt fashion. It appears as a sub-heading of incidental interest in such widely diversified subjects as crimes, contracts, domestic relations, torts and wills. It can, however, be conceived of as a single strand in the seamless web. So viewed, it may appear to wind in and out of the various artificial subdivisions of the law, cutting across each at one particular place or another. And so conceived, it can be studied according to the second and less orthodox method of analysis. Few are the isolated areas in the law …


Corporations - Preincorporation Contracts Of Promoters And Incorporators - Effect Of Statute On Personal Liability Of Incorporators, Roy L. Rogers Jun 1940

Corporations - Preincorporation Contracts Of Promoters And Incorporators - Effect Of Statute On Personal Liability Of Incorporators, Roy L. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

It seems difficult to draw such a conclusion directly from the terms of the statute. Indeed, the section is not very definite as to the liability either of the incorporators or of the corporation on contracts of the designated class. However, in Hart Potato Growers' Association v. Grenier, it was intimated that this section made the corporation liable upon the contracts of the incorporators immediately upon incorporation. Toward this conclusion certain provisions of the section are rather persuasive. The clause providing that all property held by the incorporators for the benefit of the corporation shall be deemed to be …


Damages - Contracts - Recovery For Mental Suffering, G. Randall Price May 1940

Damages - Contracts - Recovery For Mental Suffering, G. Randall Price

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff bought a loaf of bread at defendant's bakery. After she had eaten half of one of the slices, plaintiff discovered a dead cockroach near the upper crust of the bread whereupon she became ill and suffered serious emotional disturbances. Held, no recovery for mental suffering arising out of breach of an implied warranty of wholesomeness. Wheeler v. Balestri, (Mass. 1939) 23N.E. (2d) 132.


Contracts - Third Party Beneficiary - Power Of Promisee To Discharge Promisor - Necessity For Consideration, Roy L. Rogers May 1940

Contracts - Third Party Beneficiary - Power Of Promisee To Discharge Promisor - Necessity For Consideration, Roy L. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

Stanfield recovered judgment against W. C. McBride, Inc. for personal injuries suffered in an automobile accident which was occasioned by the negligence of Strunk, employee of the McBride company, who at the time of the accident was driving (with the owner's consent) an automobile owned by the Miller-Morgan Auto Company. The McBride company in turn recovered a judgment against its employee, Strunk, and now as garnishor seeks to reach an insurance policy issued to the Miller-Morgan company which at the time of its issuance contained an omnibus clause insuring all persons driving the insured car with the consent of the …


Contracts - Assignment - Authority To Pay Out Of A Particular Fund, Michigan Law Review May 1940

Contracts - Assignment - Authority To Pay Out Of A Particular Fund, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff had a contract to receive a commission from the defendant based on the number of shares of stock sold by the defendant. Plaintiff subsequently made an agreement with Gray in which it was stipulated, "that the first $2,500 received by the said George Allardyce [plaintiff] shall be given to John C. Gray, and the said George Allardyce hereby gives the said Dart & Company [defendant] authority to issue a check to John C. Gray in that amount." Because the state securities commission authorized fewer shares of stock for sale than was anticipated, plaintiff's commission amounted to only $2,250. Defendant's …


Contracts - Discharge - Accord And Satisfaction With A Third Person, W. Wallace Kent Apr 1940

Contracts - Discharge - Accord And Satisfaction With A Third Person, W. Wallace Kent

Michigan Law Review

Action by P against D on an alleged oral promise to pay a debt owed to P by D's mother. P had agreed to discharge the mother from liability. There was no direct evidence that the mother was a party to the transaction. Apparently the defense was that D's promise was within the statute of frauds if the agreement to discharge was executory, or, if it was executed, that there was no consideration for D's promise because the discharge of D's mother was not legally binding since it was an accord and satisfaction with a third …


Municipal Corporations - Liability For Services Performed Under Invalid Contract, Michigan Law Review Apr 1940

Municipal Corporations - Liability For Services Performed Under Invalid Contract, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff was employed by the board of overseers of defendant city to supervise obtaining employment for recipients of welfare relief, thus relieving the city of the expense of providing for them. The powers of the board were restricted by an ordinance which provided that before any increase should be made in the number of subordinates, a report thereof would be sent to the mayor for his approval. It appeared that the original employment of the plaintiff was in violation of this provision, although the mayor subsequently approved it up to April 5, 1936, when plaintiff's civil service appointment expired. Plaintiff …


Contracts - Wills - Third Party Beneficiary Contract As Testamentary Disposition, Harold M. Street Apr 1940

Contracts - Wills - Third Party Beneficiary Contract As Testamentary Disposition, Harold M. Street

Michigan Law Review

The defendant executed a bond and mortgage to one Catherine McCarthy Jackman. Subsequently the parties entered into an extension agreement wherein it was provided that in the event of the death of the mortgagee prior to the .maturity of the mortgage, the interest and principal were to be paid one-half to a brother of the mortgagee and one-half to the heirs of a deceased sister. After the death of the mortgagee prior to the maturity of the mortgage, the plaintiffs (the brother and heirs of the deceased sister) claimed a right to the payment of interest as third party beneficiaries. …


Contracts - Illegality - Collateral Agreements Under Home Owners' Loan Act, Roy L. Steinheimer Feb 1940

Contracts - Illegality - Collateral Agreements Under Home Owners' Loan Act, Roy L. Steinheimer

Michigan Law Review

In transactions under the Home Owners' Loan Act it is customary for the holder of the mortgage on the property on which a new loan is sought to agree with the H. O. L. C. to accept in full settlement of his claim bonds of the H. O. L. C. of a face value often times less than the amount of the obligation secured by the old mortgage. However, not infrequently the mortgagee also exacts from the home owner a collateral agreement under which the home owner gives him a new second mortgage on the property as security for an …


Labor Law - Collective Agreements- Validity After Change Of Union Affiliation By Employees, William F. Andersen Feb 1940

Labor Law - Collective Agreements- Validity After Change Of Union Affiliation By Employees, William F. Andersen

Michigan Law Review

Among the problems raised in magnified form by the AFL-CIO schism is the determination of rights and duties under a collective agreement when there is a change in affiliation of the members of the union which negotiated the agreement. Suppose that union A, as sole bargaining representative for the employees in the particular unit, has negotiated an agreement with the employer, that thereafter a majority of union A shift their allegiance to union B. Does the agreement continue to canter rights upon employees who have changed their affiliation? Upon the employees who have not changed their affiliation? This …


Eminent Domain - Covenants - Violation Of Building Restrictions By Exercise Of Public Authority - Necessity For Compensation, Edmund R. Blaske Jan 1940

Eminent Domain - Covenants - Violation Of Building Restrictions By Exercise Of Public Authority - Necessity For Compensation, Edmund R. Blaske

Michigan Law Review

It is the purpose of this comment to examine the contract and the property theories of restrictive covenants; and to suggest other possible grounds upon which to decide whether or not a public agency should compensate owners in the subdivision for interference with their restrictive covenants.


Quasi-Contracts -- Unsolicited Performance Of A Statutory Duty, Edward S. Biggar Jan 1940

Quasi-Contracts -- Unsolicited Performance Of A Statutory Duty, Edward S. Biggar

Michigan Law Review

An Indiana statute required county officers to publish reports of public business in two newspapers, representing the leading political parties of the county. Plaintiff, one of the two newspapers in Decatur county, printed the required notices without first obtaining official authorization. After defendant had disallowed the claim for this service, plaintiff appealed to the circuit court, there obtaining a verdict. Defendant appealed from the denial of its motion for a new trial. Held, that plaintiff had performed an obligation created by law and was entitled to recover on quasi-contract principles. On motion for rehearing, defendant urged the statute prohibiting recovery …