Law Commons^™

Contracts -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, Paul J. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

I. Offer and Acceptance--Notification of Acceptance Before Notification of Revocation--Duration of Offer with Fixed Expiration Date

II. Implied and Quasi Contract--Claim for Services Where Family Relationship Involved

III. Parol Evidence Rule--Application of Rule to Third Party Not a Party to the Written Instrument--Pre-existing Duty as Consideration

IV. Exculpatory Contracts--Contracting Against Liability for Consequences of Own Negligent Conduct

V. Agreement in Restraint of Trade-Agreement of Seller of Business Not to Compete--Enforcement of Restraint in Area Greater than Required to Protect Purchaser

Personal Property And Sales -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, James O. Bass, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Tennessee courts have heretofore denied recovery in actions for breach of warranty in the absence of privity of contract between the plaintiff and the defendant.' The required privity had not previously been found when a manufacturer was sued by a consumer who purchased from an intermediate dealer. . . .

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Contractual Disclaimer.-In the Dodson case, there was an alter-native holding that the consumer could recover on the theory of an implied warranty of quality or fitness. The significance of such a holding lies in the fact that the express warranty which the court found running from General Motors …

Procedure And Evidence -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, Edmund M. Morgan

Vanderbilt Law Review

In this article no mention is made of the numerous reiterations of the rule that in considering a motion for a directed verdict, the trial court must deny the motion where there is any material evidence that would warrant a jury in finding against the moving party. Nor is there noted the many, many applications of the courts' settled practice to deny a petition to rehear which merely reargues matters which counsel insist were improperly decided after argument and full consideration. Again, it must be said that this survey is in most respects a mere "horizontal digest." Thus far the …

Characterization Of An Income Tax For The Purpose Of The Foreign Tax Credit, Stanley L. Ruby

Vanderbilt Law Review

Perhaps the best reconciliation of the many conflicting policies underlying the foreign tax credit would be to give preferential treatment by tax treaties to investment income from those areas where our foreign policy dictates that investment should be encouraged, whereas taxes imposed on income from other areas should be handled by the deduction approach. Thus the loss of revenue through investment in heavily industrialized areas (with stable governments and relatively little risk-taking) with high tax rates would end, but there would exist the flexibility, through treaties, to encourage investment in underdeveloped areas.

The Federal Conflicts Of Interests Statutes And The Fiduciary Principle, William P. Swain

Vanderbilt Law Review

Three events of recent months have concurred to focus public attention on conflict of interests in the federal service. The most significant of these events is the appointment by President Kennedy of a committee to inquire into the problems of ethics in government. It is to be hoped that the projected inquiry will amount to more than a footnote in a law review article, which seems to have been the fate of its predecessors.' The most spectacular event was the decision in the Dixon-Yates case, in which the Supreme Court held unenforceable a government contract because of the dual interests …

Local Government Law -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, Eugene Puett

Vanderbilt Law Review

Change of Boundaries.--Incorporated cities and towns continued to use the authority in the annexation statute to annex by ordinance,'and the courts were presented with several questions of interpretation of the statute not heretofore answered.

Discretion To Annex by Ordinance--The question in Central Soya Co. v. City of Chattanooga was whether or not a municipality when petitioned by "interested persons" must propose extension of its corporate limits by the referendum method.

Burden of Proof in Annexation--Since the action of the municipality is by ordinance, the suit to contest the validity of an annexation ordinance is in the nature of a quo …

Law And History, C. J. Friedrich

Vanderbilt Law Review

Law is frozen history. In an elementary sense, everything we study when we study law is the report of an event in history, and all history consists of such records or reports. It therefore cannot be my task to develop a sermon on the importance of historical records for the understanding of the law; the tie is too intimate and too obvious to need laboring." The work of Professor Maine on 'Ancient Law,'" wrote Professor T. W. Dwight in his Introduction to that book in the sixties of the last century, "is almost the only one in the English language …

A Decade Of The Celler-Kefauver Anti-Merger Act, Charles J. Steele

Vanderbilt Law Review

Corporations intent upon expanding via the acquisition route have had three statutory hurdles placed in their way by the Congress of the United States. As hurdles, the first two, the Sherman Act of 1890 and the Clayton Act of 1914, were failures. A judiciary which refused to give effect either to the language or intent of the acts nullified completely their usefulness as anti-merger weapons.

The third hurdle, the Celler-Kefauver Amendment to the Clayton Act, was enacted in 1950. Relatively few judicial opinions have interpreted this act, "new section 7," as it is called. It is clear, however, that it …

Annual Survey Of Tennessee Law, Val Sanford

Vanderbilt Law Review

The principal conclusion to be derived from a survey of the decisions reported and the statutes adopted during the past year in the field of administrative procedure is that sound policy necessitates the enactment of a general, uniform and effective administrative procedure act in this state.The standards by which any procedural system should be measured can readily be stated. The basic purpose of any procedural system should be to attempt to assure that all matters within its scope are resolved on their true merits, and not on some failure to follow exactly the prescribed path. To accomplish this end, there …

Bills And Notes -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, John A. Spanogle Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Tennessee courts decided three cases involving commercial paper this year. The Tennessee Supreme Court decided one case which, unless it is clarified in the near future, may upset principles which were heretofore well-established. Of the two cases decided by the appellate courts, one adopted a rule well-known in other jurisdictions, and the other adopted a sound minority view on a question not settled by the Uniform Negotiable Instruments Law.

Comment: The Enforcement Of Agreements To Arbitrate, Irving Kovarsky

Vanderbilt Law Review

Three 1960 Supreme Court decisions' have limited the ability of litigants to challenge successfully the jurisdiction and award-making powers of labor arbitrators. The limitations imposed by the Court upon the judiciary's power to question the arbitrator, a reversal of traditional procedure, is of great significance and will unquestionably necessitate some readjustment on the part of management. This article attempts to place these recent developments in perspective and to suggest briefly certain practical changes in the attitudes of courts and contract negotiators that may result from them.

Creditors' Rights And Security Transactions -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, Forrest W. Lacey

Vanderbilt Law Review

Two cases involving a claim of usury were decided during the period of this survey. However, in one, Post Sign Co. v. Jemc's, Inc.,'the court did not reach the issue of usury, but instead held that this issue could not be raised by the parties involved. The facts were somewhat complicated.

Constitutional Law -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, James C. Kirby, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Although a relatively small number of cases turned upon constitutional questions during the survey period, some important decisions were handed down in this area. In five separate decisions legislation was declared unconstitutional. The impact of the constitutional decisions varies from the right to millions of dollars in school funds in Shelby County and the salary of the clerk of General Sessions Court of Clay County to approval of permanent tenure for all franchised automobile dealers in the state. The scope of governmental power over the administration of estates, condemnation of private property and the pursuit of private businesses brought forth …

Conflict Of Laws -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, Elliott E. Cheatham

Vanderbilt Law Review

1. Non-Resident Motorists.-The statute subjecting non-residents to suit in Tennessee for injuries inflicted within the state has been extended by interpretation to non-resident parents who join in their minor child's application for a driver's license.

2. Watercraft.-The principle of the non-resident motorists statutes has been applied to watercraft by a statute entitled "Operation of watercraft in state as appointment of agent for process."

III. Support In Thomas v. Thomas a woman had been granted a divorce in Tennessee and custody of the children of the marriage, with a decree of support for the children against the father but with it …

Real Property -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, Thomas G. Roady, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Probably no area of the law is fraught with more confusion than that involving construction of clauses in deeds and wills which impose some restraint on the conduct of grantees or devisees- seemingly not in the best interest of society. Clauses which tend to deter grantees or devisees from marriage or remarriage have constituted a fertile source of litigation for centuries. And though the stated rules of law prohibit and restrict the use of marriage or remarriage as a condition to vest or divest interests in real property, there are very few cases in which the courts in this country …

Restitution -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, John W. Wade

Vanderbilt Law Review

"A person who has been unjustly enriched at the expense of an-other is required to make restitution to the other." This is the first section of the Restatement of Restitution.' It indicates the principle underlying a field of the law coordinate with tort and contract.About a dozen cases during the survey period may be classified as raising a problem within this general subject. They do not cover the whole range of the field and have here been classified on a pragmatic rather than an analytical basis.

Services are normally rendered under a contract which governs the nature of the services …

Domestic Relations -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the case of In re Van Huss' Petition' the Tennessee Supreme Court denied an adoption under a literal interpretation of the residence requirements inserted into the adoption statutes in 1959. Under the 1959 statutes, although the petitioners in adoption proceedings were not required to make Tennessee their legal residence, they were required to "have lived, maintained a home and been physically present in Tennessee, or on federal territory within the boundaries of Tennessee for one (1) year next preceding the filing of the petition .... -

In the Van Huss case the petitioning husband met all of the other …

State And Local Taxation -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, Paul J. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Not many cases involving state taxes have been decided by the Tennessee courts during the period covered by this survey. Action taken in the halls of Congress, however, has the potential of a major revamping of the taxing power of all state and local governments.

Decedents' Estates, Trusts And Future Interests -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, Herman L. Trautman

Vanderbilt Law Review

The subject matter will be discussed under the three headings indicated above. The developments of the year' include court decisions and relevant new legislation enacted by the Eighty-second General Assembly of the State of Tennessee. Perhaps the most significant development of probate law in Tennessee during the period was the enactment of the Uniform Testamentary Additions to Trusts Act, referred to generally as the "pour-over" statute. Very likely this statute will have a substantial and dramatic impact upon (1) the arrangements of decedents' estates, and (2). the future role that the executor and the lawyer will have in the settlement …

The Western Hemisphere Trade Corporation, Edward C. Blank, Ii

Vanderbilt Law Review

The existing complexity involved in the taxation of corporate income derived from sources without the United States has motivated Congress to undertake an extensive review of our governmental policy pertaining to this area of taxation. The particular provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 relating to this subject are merely an ad hoc accumulation, noticeably void of any systematic design. The intended purpose of the present congressional inquiry is to determine whether or not incentive taxation is a proper method by which this nation's foreign policies can be implemented. If it be deemed advisable to offer tax benefits to …

Equity -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, T. A. Smedley

Vanderbilt Law Review

During the past year noteworthy decisions have been handed down by the Tennessee courts relating to the availability of injunctive relief to restrain the perpetration of a nuisance, the commission of a trespass, the violation of a non-competition covenant, and the prosecution of an action at law. A suit for specific performance required a determination on the issue of whether the written memorandum was sufficient to satisfy the statute of frauds; and a ruling on the application of the clean hands maxim was necessary in a suit to remove a cloud on title. Finally, a clarification was made regarding a …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Constitutional Law--Freedom of Speech--Prior Restraint on Motion Picture Exhibition

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Criminal Law--Murder--Year and a Day Rule Rejected in Pennsylvania

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Real Property--Restraints on Alienation--Conveyance Giving Housing Cooperative First Option to Buy and Right to Redeem is not an Invalid Restraint on Alienation

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Taxation--Income Tax--Uncompensated Casualty Loss Due to Drought Allowed as Section 165 Deduction

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Torts--Negligence--Fireman in Performance of Duties Allowed Recovery as Invitee

Torts -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, Dix W. Noel

Vanderbilt Law Review

The tort cases reported during the past year were of unusual interest. A number of them dealt with points of first impression in this state. Others represent developments of the law designed to bring it into harmony with changing conditions, as in the application of the res ipsa loquitur doctrine to the unexplained fall of an air-liner, or in the clarification of the duties of an automobile driver to a mere licensee in the vehicle. While the basic pattern for justice in the field of torts has been worked out by our courts with much care and wisdom, occasional modifications …

Workmen's Compensation -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, J. Gilmer Bowman, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Two bills amending the Workmen's Compensation Law' were enacted during the survey year. The first placed a limit of $12,500 on compensation payable for any permanent partial injury, not limited to those set forth in the schedule. It also added the following self-explanatory sentence to the first paragraph of section 50-1027, Tennessee Code Annotated: To receive benefits from the Second Injury Fund, the injured employee must be the employee of an employer who has properly insured his workmen's compensation liability or has qualified to operate under the Tennessee Workmen's Compensation Law as a self-insurer. The second amendment changed the definition …

Labor Law -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, Paul H. Sanders

Vanderbilt Law Review

In considering basic rights in connection with labor organization, it must be noted that there may be a fundamental conflict between giving dominant emphasis to the interest of the group of organized workers in advancing and maintaining the standards applicable to the group as opposed to giving comparable emphasis to the wishes of the individual employee of a particular employer. The various policy statements contained in the Wagner Act, the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 and the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959 indicate a public interest (within the scope of federal authority) in the protection of employees' right to organize, to choose …

Book Reviews, Winthrop R. Munyan, John W. Fager, Walter P. Armstrong Jr., Jerry L. Moore

Vanderbilt Law Review

Taxation of Foreign Income By Boris I. Bittker and Lawrence F. Ebb. Stanford: Stanford University, 1960. Pp. xii, 580.

reviewer: Winthrop R. Munyan

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The Planning and Administration of Estates Edited by Rene A. Wormser. New York: Practising Law Institute, 1961. Pp. 324.

reviewer: John W. Fager

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How to Evaluate and Settle Personal Injury Cases By Allen Bush Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1959. Pp. x,148.

reviewer: Walter P. Armstrong, Jr.

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The Tax Practice Deskbook By Harrop A. Freeman and Norman D. Freeman Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown and Co., 1960. Pp. vii, 581. $17.50.

reviewer: Jerry L. …

Routine Bifurcation Of Jury Negligence Trials: An Example Of The Questionable Use Of Rule Makings Power, Jack B. Weinstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois recently adopted a rule providing for submission of the issues of negligence to a jury before evidence on the issue of damages is introduced (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the bifurcation rule or split trial rule). While reflecting a commendable spirit of judicial responsibility for reducing court congestion, the issue of its propriety raises some of the most subtle and difficult problems of the proper relation of courts to legislature in our system of independent branches of government; of the characterization of matters as substantive and procedural for various purposes; …

The Hearsay System: Around And Through The Thicket, John M. Maguire

Vanderbilt Law Review

All these complicated rules about hearsay are very strange for us, our judges having the right to evaluate the importance of what a witness says or a paper may prove. In this regard, the position of our judges is much freer than yours; in general a German judge can refuse any means of evidence only if he thinks that the fact to be proved is without relevance to the case, or if he accepts the fact to be proved as true, or if the evidence cannot be reached or in his opinion is only designed to delay the procedure. The …

Judicial Notice -- Excerpts Relating To The Morgan-Wignore Controversy, John T. Mcnaughton

Vanderbilt Law Review

Author's Note: These two excerpts are from the author's preliminary draft of his proposed revision of the judicial notice chapter of Wigmore on Evidence. The excerpts are submitted for publication in this Edmund M. Morgan issue of the Vanderbilt Law Review for two reasons: First, because of the important role played by Professor Morgan in the recent development and articulation of the law of judicial notice and, second, because Professor Morgan and Dean Wigmore stand at opposite poles in the argument over judicial notice. At least they do with respect to one significant particular. They do not differ with respect …

Hickman V. Jencks, Edward W. Cleary

Vanderbilt Law Review

In recent years the Supreme Court of the United States has decided two cases with fundamental impact upon the status of the legal profession in the litigatory process. Although the two cases are intimately related, the opinion in the second did not mention the first, and the two decisions have never really been laid side by side.' It is proposed here to explore their mutual implications.