Law Commons^™

Municipal Corporations - Use Of Streets - Validity Of Ordinance Providing For Parking Meters, Charles M. Kneier

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner was convicted and fined for parking in a meter parking space on a city street without depositing a nickel in the meter as required by municipal ordinance. Upon being committed to jail he applied for a writ of habeas corpus, contending that the ordinance providing for parking meters was invalid. Held, the writ was denied, parking meter ordinances being valid police regulations. Ex parte Duncan, 179 Okla. 355, 65 P. (2d) 1015 (1937).

Labor Law - Constitutionality Of State Anti-Injunction Acts - Existence Of A "Labor Dispute", Theodore R. Vogt

Michigan Law Review

Organized labor has long contested the use of the injunction in labor disputes and since the turn of the century has been active in legislative circles to secure statutory relief from the paralyzing effect of the too-freely granted temporary injunction and restraining order. A substantial step forward was the enactment of the Clayton Act by Congress. Similar legislation was adopted by several states, some before and some after the congressional action. However, the expected benefits to labor did not accrue, for the Supreme Court in Duplex Printing Press Co. v. Deering so narrowly construed the statute as to rob it …

Courts Rule - Making Power, Peter S. Boter

Michigan Law Review

A statute of the State of New Mexico delegated to the supreme court of the state the power to promulgate rules regulating pleading, practice, and procedure in judicial proceedings for the purpose of simplifying the same and for the promotion of the speedy determination of litigation upon the merits. The act further provides that all statutes relating to pleading and practice now in force shall have effect only as rules of court and remain in effect as such unless modified or suspended by rules promulgated pursuant to this Act. Held, that the rule-making power can constitutionally be delegated to …

Municipal Corporations - Regulation Of Weights And Measures - Due Process Of Law, Milton Rabinowitz

Michigan Law Review

An ordinance of the city of Chicago required the net weight of all commodities sold in load lots in the city to be determined by a municipal weighmaster prior to delivery of the load to the purchaser. This necessitated weighing the vehicle of transportation first empty, and then again when loaded. On indictment for violation of the ordinance defendant, a coal dealer, whose place of business was located 63 miles outside the municipal limits, asserted that compliance with the ordinance would involve extremely expensive rehandling of the load unless the trucks were first sent into the city unloaded, a financially …

Police Power - Validity Of A State Statute Fixing Maximum Charges For Tobacco Warehousemen, Peter S. Boter

Michigan Law Review

A statute of the state of Georgia prescribed maximum charges for handling and selling leaf tobacco. In this action, warehousemen sought to restrain the enforcement of the act, attacking it as an arbitrary exercise of state power contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution and also as placing a substantial burden on interstate commerce in violation of the commerce clause. Held, that the statute was a constitutional exercise of the state's police power. Townsend v. Yeomans, (U.S. 1937) 81 L. Ed. 840.

Landlord And Tenant - Disability To Recover Rent For Failure To Comply With Tenement Law, Theodore R. Vogt

Michigan Law Review

A Connecticut statute provides: "No building constructed as . . . a tenement house shall be occupied . . . until the issuance of a certificate . . . that said building conforms . . . to the requirements of this chapter . . . . " (Section 2592.) It is further provided (Section 2593): "If any building . . . be occupied . . . in violation of the provisions of section 2592, during such unlawful occupation no rent shall be recoverable by the owner or lesee . . . and no action or special proceedings shall be maintained …

Constitutional Law --Twenty-First Amendment And Its Effect On The Commerce Clause And Equal Protection Clause As Applied To Liquor, William Stout Gordon

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs were granted an injunction in the lower court restraining the enforcement of the California Alcoholic Beverage Control Act on the ground that it violated the commerce clause and the equal protection clause of the Federal Constitution. The act imposed a license fee of $500 for the privilege of importing beer, in addition to the $50 fee to be paid by all wholesalers for the privilege of selling the beer. The Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision and held that the Twenty-first Amendment withdrew the protection of the commerce clause from liquor and that there was no denial of …

Grand Jury - Power Of Court In Pennsylvania To Direct A General Investigation -Where No Specific Crime Charged, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In a criminal case the judge of a Pennsylvania trial court was erroneously informed that the committing magistrate had discharged the accused's accomplices. The judge thereupon charged the magistrate with "fixing," but after investigation merely censured the latter for (1) failing to require bail in certain cases, and (2) remanding one defendant to a trial court without jurisdiction. The judge expressly said that he had no reason to believe the magistrate had acted from any corrupt motive. He nevertheless told a grand jury that a magistrate's violation of law had come to his attention and ordered the jury to investigate …

Police Power - Due Process And State Regulation Of Food Production And Distribution, Charles C. Spangenberg

Michigan Law Review

It is well settled that the state, in the exercise of its police power, may legislate to protect the health and promote the general welfare of its citizens. It is equally well settled that the objects of this solicitude have the right, protected by the Fourteenth Amendment and similar provisions in the state constitutions, to follow such industrial pursuits and make such contracts as they choose. Unfortunately, "these correlative rights, that of the citizen to exercise exclusive dominion over property and freely to contract about his affairs, and that of the state to regulate the use of property and the …

Curbing The Supreme Court-State Experiences And Federal Proposals, Katherine B. Fite, Louis Baruch Rubinstein

Michigan Law Review

The avalanche of proposals introduced in the last session of Congress seeking to curb the power of the Supreme Court to declare legislative acts unconstitutional and President Roosevelt's recent message to Congress on the judiciary have focused attention on the problem of the function of that Court in our governmental system.

This article does not take sides in the controversy. Its purpose is merely to review the developments in the four states, Colorado, Ohio, North Dakota and Nebraska, which by amendments to their constitutions have sought to place curbs on their supreme courts, and also to classify the proposals which …

The Problem Of Transfers Under Bulk Sales Laws: A Study Of Absolute Transfers And Liquidating Trusts, Thomas Clifford Billig, William L. Branch Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Although the first bulk sales law in the United States was enacted more than forty years ago, the host of decisions still emanating from the courts bears ample witness to the fact that this field of legal learning remains remarkably fertile. For the first decade following the original Louisiana Bulk Sales Act of 1894 the several state legislatures were busily engaged in passing statutes of similar import. During the next three decades the courts became as fully occupied as had been the legislatures in determining precisely what the legislatures meant by the language employed in the several acts. This process …

Municipal Corporations - Constitutional Home Rule, Charles M. Kneier

Michigan Law Review

The home rule provision of the New York. constitution provides that as to the "property, affairs or government of cities," the legislature may pass special or local laws only on message from the governor declaring that emergency exists, and the concurrent action of two-thirds of the members of each house of the legislature is necessary in such cases. In 1936 the legislature passed an act providing for the establishment of the three platoon system for fire departments in all cities of over 1,000,000 population. The act provided for a referendum vote on the question in such cities. A mandamus action …

Taxation - Special Assessments For Street Lighting, Herbert J. Bloom

Michigan Law Review

The city of Los Angeles, under the authority of the "Public Works and Utility Act" of California, passed two ordinances levying special assessments for street lighting purposes upon abutting property specially benefited according to the front foot rule. The validity of the ordinance ordering the necessary lighting posts and appliances, which were installed before the present proceeding was brought, was conceded. The other ordinance provided for the furnishing of electric current to light the public streets for a period of fourteen months. This was contested by the plaintiff, who owned three lots subject to the assessment, on the ground that …

Declaratory Judgments - Justiciable Controversy, Herman J. Bloom

Michigan Law Review

The governor of Wisconsin instituted a declaratory proceeding against the secretary of state. The governor wanted to determine his power to make ad interim appointments to allegedly vacant statutory offices and to positions incumbents were holding over. Prior to this action he had made no appointments to these offices, for the secretary of state had advised him that he would not honor the commissions, or audit and pay the expense account of such appointees. The governor claimed that the alleged conduct of the secretary of state prevented him from securing suitable persons to fill these offices. The court held that …

Municipal Corporations - Constitutional Limitation On Indebtedness - Delinquent Taxes As Deductible Asset, Emma Rae Mann

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff taxpayer sued to enjoin defendant city from borrowing $500,000 for general public improvements, alleging that if, the city so obligated itself it would be indebted beyond the limit fixed by the constitution at two per cent of the assessed valuation of taxable property. Defendant showed that such limit would not be exceeded if two-thirds of the outstanding delinquent taxes were regarded as deductible. The court denied the injunction and held that since collection of at least two-thirds of such outstanding delinquent taxes was certain this item was properly deductible. Ward v. Pittsburgh, 321 Pa. 414, 184 A. 240 …

Constitutional Law-Resale Price Maintenance -Fair Trade Acts, Joseph H. Mueller

Michigan Law Review

Four cases upholding the validity of the California and Illinois Fair Trade Acts were recently sustained by the United States Supreme Court. All four cases involved a similar set of facts. Plaintiffs, the owners or authorized distributors of certain well known trade-marked articles, entered into a series of contracts with wholesalers and retailers fixing the resale prices of their branded products. When defendants, certain retailers who had refused to enter into such agreements, persisted in reselling the articles below the prices stipulated in the contracts with other retailers, plaintiffs sued to enjoin them under the provisions of the state Fair …

Railroads - Violation Of Ordinance Limiting The Obstruction Of Highways By Trains - Collision At Crossing - Proximate Cause, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff was injured, when an automobile in which she was a passenger, was driven into a freight train standing across a highway on a misty night. This train had been obstructing the crossing for more than five minutes, in violation of a state statute. Plaintiff sued the railroad, alleging negligence in violating the statute. On appeal from a judgment for the plaintiff, held that plaintiff had made no case, and that the judgment should be reversed without a new trial, and with costs to the defendant. Simpson v. Pere Marquette Ry., 276 Mich. 653, 268 N. W. 769 (1936).

Automobiles - Statutory Liability Of Owner - Registered Titleholder Estopped To Deny Ownership, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs, injured in New York by an automobile driven by defendant's minor son, sued under a New York statute which makes the owner of an automobile liable for damages for injuries resulting from negligence of its operator. The automobile was registered in Connecticut in defendant's name to avoid compliance with the Connecticut statute which requires proof of financial responsibility as a prerequisite of registration for minors over sixteen years of age. Held, defendant estopped to prove ownership of the automobile in his son. Shuba v. Greendonner, 271 N. Y. 189, 2 N. E. (2d) 536 (1936), reversing 245 …

Constitutional Law-Prohibition Of Advertisement Of Prices By Barbers - Improper Police Regulation - Denial Of Freedom Of Speech, Elbridge D. Phelps

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was convicted of violating an ordinance of the City of Long Beach. That ordinance related exclusively to the barber trade and made it a misdemeanor, punishable by fine or imprisonment or both, to advertise prices of services in any publication, handbill, or notice whatsoever, provided, however, that prices might be displayed within a barber shop in such manner as not to be visible from the outside, and provided further that no advertising of prices should be allowed on the windows or on the outside of the shop, or on the adjacent sidewalk or street. Held, the ordinance was …