Law Commons^™

Running Covenants And Public Policy, Olin L. Browder

Michigan Law Review

When first encountering covenants running with the land, one may react against the very idea. Why should any person be able to enforce a promise not made to him or be bound by a promise he did not make? Modern contract law, particularly the rules about the assignment of contract rights and the rights of third-party beneficiaries, may answer the first question, but does not explain how anyone can be bound by a promise neither expressly nor impliedly made or consented to by him.

On the other hand, persons_ familiar with easements, liens, or mortgages understand that land ownership can …

A Legal Approach To Equitable Servitudes, Ralph A. Newman

Michigan Law Review

The variety of conceptions of the nature of equitable servitudes is only one indication of the complexity of this particular branch of the law; the difficulty of classifying the topic as a branch of equity rather than of real property, or the reverse, is another, and one which grows out of the interplay of both of these divisions of the law upon the particular field of equitable servitudes. The following discussion is designed to indicate that many of the difficulties inherent in the concept of equitable servitudes may be resolved by analyzing the subject from the point of approach of …

Contracts - Assignment- Unsealed Assignment Of Sealed Instrument

Michigan Law Review

Defendants sold and conveyed their grocery business by a bill of sale under seal and covenanted not to engage in a like business within a one-mile radius for a period of three years. The purchaser assigned the bill of sale by an instrument not under seal to the plaintiffs. When the defendants opened a competing business in violation of their agreement, the plaintiffs filed a bill in equity asking that the defendants be restrained. Held, that an injunction should issue, notwithstanding the bill of sale was sealed while the assignment was not. Adamowicz v. Iwanicki, (Mass. 1934) 190 …

Segregation Of Residences Of Negroes, Arthur T. Martin

Michigan Law Review

Most white people do not want Negroes for neighbors. For many years this race prejudice alone seemed adequate to secure the type of domiciliary segregation which the majority desired. In recent years, however, Negro incursions into so-called white territory have become more numerous, and white landowners have resorted to legal devices to secure race exclusiveness in residential sections. In considering the validity of these segregation devices the courts have not ordinarily purported to take into account the social desirability of the end sought. No examination has been made of the factors back of Negro migration into white territory. No thought …

Bankruptcy - Proof Of Claim For Loss Of Future Rents

Michigan Law Review

A covenant in a lease provided:

" . . . that the filing of any petition in bankruptcy or insolvency by or against the Lessee shall be deemed to constitute a breach of this lease, and thereupon, ipso facto and without entry or other action by the Lessor, this lease shall become and be terminated; and, . . . the Lessor shall forthwith upon such termination be entitled to recover damages for such breach in an amount equal to the amount of the rent reserved in this lease for the residue of the term hereof less the fair rental value …

Mistake Of Law In Connection With Titles To Land

Michigan Law Review

The confusion resulting from hasty and inaccurate generalization is nowhere better illustrated than in the field of mistake of law as to land titles. The doctrine that no relief can be given for mistake of law is constantly re-asserted by respectable authority, particularly in the case of money paid. But the peculiar hardship in the cases of complete failure of title to land has led to a special treatment of these cases, for which the explanations in judicial opinions are unusually obscure.

Contracts - Illegality- General Restraint Of Trade

Michigan Law Review

Defendants sold their stock in a manufacturing corporation with a covenant in the contract to the effect that they would not engage in the sale or manufacture of bunghole appliances in the United States, east of the Mississippi, for a period of sixteen years. Held, a contract which does not permit one to engage in his trade anywhere within the state is one in general restraint of trade and is ipso facto illegal and void. Parish et al. v. Schwartz et al. (Ill. 1931) 176 N.E. 757.

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Equitable Servitudes, George L. Clark

Michigan Law Review

Specific performance of restrictions upon property before Tulk v. Moxhay. Before the decision in Tulk v. MoXhay 2 a contract not to use land in a particular manner was treated by equity courts in the same way as were other negative contracts; if the plaintiff was so injured in the enjoyment of his own land that damages at law did not furnish an adequate remedy, equity would specifically enforce the contract by granting an injunction against the promisor.8 The right thus to control the use of the property in the hands of the promisor can hardly be classified as other …

Content Of Covenants In Leases, Harry A. Bigelow

Michigan Law Review

In determining what covenants in a lease will run so as to be enforceable by or against the assignee of the lessee or lessor, the formula that has been consecrated to this problem is that the covenant "must affect the nature, quality, or value of the thing demised or the mode of occupying it." This phrase which was used by Lord ELLENBOROUGH in Congleton v. Pattison is an expansion of the statement in Spencer's case that such a covenant must "touch or concern the thing demised." A second statement not so frequently quoted is that of that "if it be …

The Execution Of Sealed Instruments By An Agent, Floyd R. Mechem

Michigan Law Review

Purpose of this article--The manager of the execution of instruments under seal, such as deeds, bonds and other solemn writings, is of so much importance and has been so frequently discussed, as to merit the more extended treatment, which it is the purpose of this article to devote to it. The word "deed" herein is used to describe all it instruments under seal, and not merely conveyances of land. It is to be observed that the question here is not how authority to execute sealed instruments is to be conferred, but how such an authority is to be executed.

Covenants As Quasi Contracts, Louis L. Hammon

Michigan Law Review

It is the scope of this article to discuss briefly certain forms of covenant with a view to determining whether in their nature they are contractual or quasi contractual. "Quasi contract may be defined as an obligation whereby one person becomes bound to another, without regard to his consent, by a legal tie similar to that arising from contract. It may exist either by statute or by common law, and, if by the latter, it may be enforced either on principle or by reason of custom. As to the cause of the obligation, it may be imposed upon a man …