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Full-Text Articles in Law

Evidence-Probative Value Of Inferences From Failure To Call A Witness, Cleaveland J. Rice S.Ed. Dec 1950

Evidence-Probative Value Of Inferences From Failure To Call A Witness, Cleaveland J. Rice S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

lnsured sued to recover sickness benefits under an insurance policy. The defense was that the insured was not in good health when the policy was issued. The only evidence introduced by the defendant insurance company was plaintiff's refusal to consent to taking the deposition of an examining hospital physician. Defendant's request for a directed verdict on the issue of good health was refused. After being instructed that from the refusal to permit taking of the deposition they might "presume that such evidence . . . would operate against plaintiff and be against his interest in this suit," the jury returned …


Administrative Law-Hearing On Questions Of Law As A Requirement For Due Process Jun 1950

Administrative Law-Hearing On Questions Of Law As A Requirement For Due Process

Michigan Law Review

The Federal Communications Commission granted a permit for a radio station to the Coastal Plains Broadcasting Company. WJR, not a party to that proceeding, filed a petition for reconsideration and hearing, alleging, inter alia, that the new station would cause objectionable interference with WJR. Coastal Plains entered an opposition, asserting that the petition, on its face, was legally insufficient to make WJR a party. WJR did not respond. The commission, without oral argument, denied the application, holding that there was no objectionable interference. The court of appeals treated this as equivalent to a holding as a matter of law, essentially …


Criminal Law-Proof Of The Corpus Delicti By The Use Of Extra-Judicial Confessions, Theodore Sachs Jun 1950

Criminal Law-Proof Of The Corpus Delicti By The Use Of Extra-Judicial Confessions, Theodore Sachs

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, a physician, was accused of the murder of his cancer-ridden patient by the injection of 40 c.c. of air into a vein of the patient's arm shortly before her death. The defendant had noted on the patient's medical chart the fact of the injection and that of her death, apparently a few minutes later. He subsequently dictated the same facts to his nurse, and later made similar admissions to local enforcement authorities and others making such statements on the day of his arrest and immediately thereafter. At the trial, a pathologist, called as an expert witness on behalf of …


Criminal Law-Indictment And Information-Variance Between Allegation And Proof, Daniel A. Isaacson S.Ed. May 1950

Criminal Law-Indictment And Information-Variance Between Allegation And Proof, Daniel A. Isaacson S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In a Texas prosecution for drunken driving, the complaint and information charged that the defendant " . . . on or about the 11th day of April, A.D. 1948 . . . did then and there unlawfully while intoxicated and while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, drive a motor vehicle . . . upon a public highway within said county, to-wit: U.S. Highway #108 about two miles north of the City of Stephenville, Texas .... " Upon conviction, defendant appealed, one ground being that the State had introduced evidence to the effect that he drove his automobile on Highway …


Wills-Interference With Revocation-Constructive Trust, John S. Yates May 1950

Wills-Interference With Revocation-Constructive Trust, John S. Yates

Michigan Law Review

The complaint alleged that testatrix who had executed a will leaving her whole estate to defendants attempted to make a new will containing legacies to plaintiffs, but that by means of misrepresentations, undue influence, force, and murder, testatrix was prevented by defendants from signing the new will. On appeal from dismissal of the complaint for insufficiency, held, reversed. If the allegations of the complaint be taken as true, plaintiffs are entitled to a judicial declaration that defendants hold the property under a constructive trust for plaintiffs. Latham v. Father Divine, 299 N.Y. 22, 85 N.E. (2d) 168 (1949).


Trial-Evidence-What May Jury Take To Jury Room To Aid In Deliberation, Richard B. Gushée S.Ed. Mar 1950

Trial-Evidence-What May Jury Take To Jury Room To Aid In Deliberation, Richard B. Gushée S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Upon the trial of a case under the Texas Workmen's Compensation Act, X-ray photographs, properly authenticated, were introduced in evidence by both parties to the suit. After retiring to deliberate, the jury requested that the X-ray pictures be sent to the jury room for their examination and consideration. This request was granted. Appellant objected on the ground that the pictures were technical and could not be understood by the jury without interpretation. On appeal, held, affirmed. X-ray photographs are "written evidence" and come within the provisions of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure which provide that the jury may …


Origin And Development Of The Directed Verdict, William Wirt Blume Mar 1950

Origin And Development Of The Directed Verdict, William Wirt Blume

Michigan Law Review

Recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States have aroused a new interest in the familiar motion for a directed verdict. In this discussion the writer will undertake a brief examination of the antecedents of the motion, and then will trace its short but significant history.


Negligence-Proof Of Causation, Walter Dean Feb 1950

Negligence-Proof Of Causation, Walter Dean

Michigan Law Review

Decedent, a passenger on defendant's railroad was bound for X Terminal. The car doors were open and a trainman called out, "X Terminal, next," but the train stopped in the dark at point Y before reaching the announced destination to allow another train to pass. Decedent's body was found near point Y. Suit was brought by decedent's widow under the state "wrongful death" statutes. The lower court held that the plaintiff's failure to show that decedent left the train at point Y was a fatal gap in the causal chain, and gave judgment for the defendant notwithstanding the …


Witnesses-Wife As Witness Against Husband In Prosecution Under Mann Act, James F. Gordy S. Ed. Feb 1950

Witnesses-Wife As Witness Against Husband In Prosecution Under Mann Act, James F. Gordy S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was convicted of having transported his wife in interstate commerce for the purpose of prostitution in violation of the White Slave Traffic Act. Defendant's wife testified to the various transportations which defendant had made of her and to her practicing of prostitution at their different destinations. Defendant contended that the trial court erred in permitting his wife, over his objection, to testify against him. On appeal, held, affirmed. So far as appellant's rights were concerned, the wife's testimony was competent evidence against him. Shores v. United States, (8th Cir. 1949) 174 F. (2d) 838.


Alternative Pleading: Ii, Roy W. Mcdonald Feb 1950

Alternative Pleading: Ii, Roy W. Mcdonald

Michigan Law Review

In any save the most elementary of litigation, the practicing lawyer frequently encounters difficulty in estimating with confidence, in advance of the trial, what precise fact propositions may be established by the evidence. As a result, he desires to preserve for himself the maximum area in which to maneuver as the testimony unfolds. One device for assuring such flexibility is the use of alternative pleading. The present series of articles undertakes to depict the extent to which the pressure of this common professional experience is reflected in our civil practice.


Evidence-Status Of Microfilmed Business Records, William P. Sutter S. Ed. Feb 1950

Evidence-Status Of Microfilmed Business Records, William P. Sutter S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Many businesses today are turning to microfilm to record their essential papers in an effort to achieve ease and economy of operation through a reduction in storage requirements. Sixteen hundred pages of letter-press, transcripts or manuscripts can be reproduced on 100 feet of 35 mm. film to make a roll three inches in diameter. This is the equivalent of four thousand sheets of standard foolscap paper. Further illustrating the space savings is the fact that, on an average, the contents of 120 four-drawer file cabinets can be condensed into a single file cabinet and still leave some room for expansion. …


Constitutional Law-Due Process-Use Of Extraneous Evidence In Determining Criminal Sentence, Colvin A. Peterson, Jr. S. Ed. Feb 1950

Constitutional Law-Due Process-Use Of Extraneous Evidence In Determining Criminal Sentence, Colvin A. Peterson, Jr. S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner was convicted of murder in the first degree with a recommendation for life imprisonment. In reliance on police and probation reports showing petitioner's background which included over thirty burglaries for which he had never been arraigned and a "morbid sexuality," the trial judge disregarded the jury's recommendation and imposed the death sentence. Although petitioner did not have an opportunity to examine the reports prior to the sentence hearing, he was represented by counsel at the hearing and did not challenge them at that time. Petitioner contended that he had been denied due process of law because his sentence had …