Law Commons^™

Constitutional Law-Taxation Of Foreign Corporations

Michigan Law Review

The constitutional limitations on the power of the states to tax foreign corporations present many intricate questions. In general it may be said that a state may tax foreign corporations the same as it may tax domestic corporations, but subject to the limitations found in the commerce clause and the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution. The commerce cause takes certain subjects out of the realm of state taxation altogether. The state cannot directly impose a burden of any sort upon interstate commerce. It cannot even lay an excise on the privilege of doing intrastate business if the basis includes …

Constitutional Law-Eminent Domain-Michigan Constitutional Provision

Michigan Law Review

The necessity for the exercise of the power of eminent domain in a given case is a legislative question into which the courts cannot inquire, unless an abuse of legislative power is asserted. This results from the very nature of the power to take property for a public use, which power in itself is inherent in sovereignty. When the legislature determines to take a piece of property it is exercising the power in the normal manner. If the use is public, no further determination is necessary once the legislative decision is made. The real reason for the rule would seem …

Carriers-Statute Of Limitations For Bringing Suit For Injury To Goods

Michigan Law Review

A recent case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States suggests the query-ls there a federal statute of limitations for bringing suit for injury to goods in an interstate shipment? The answer depends on the interpretation of the Cummins Amendment of March 4, 1915 and the Transportation Act of 1920. The relevant and germane provision of these acts as to the time limit for commencing suit for injury to goods on an interstate carriage is "That it shall be unlawful for any such common carrier to provide by rule, contract, or regulation a shorter period for giving notice …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Conflict Of Laws-Jurisdiction-Foreign Corporation Not Doing Business In The State

Michigan Law Review

A summons addressed to the defendant corporation was served upon one of its officers at his private residence in Minnesota. The defendant, appearing specially, moved to set aside the service on the ground that it was a foreign corporation not transacting business in the state and that it had empowered no one to accept service of process there in its behalf. The plaintiff contended that the acquisition and ownership of property in Minnesota brought the defendant into the state and under the jurisdiction of its courts. Held, jurisdiction over the corporate property did not give jurisdiction over the corporate …

Natural Law In American Constitutional Theory, Fowler Vincent Harper

Michigan Law Review

Natural law has had many meanings and diversified interpretations. Whether in the form of jus naturale, the law of nature, the law of reason, lex naturalis, lex aeterna, natural justice, or due process of law; natural law, in the broadest sense, has evolved as the needs of a particular civilization and the endeavors of its legal scholars have directed. It is significant, however, that as a philosophy of law, natural law continues to thrive, although the particular system which one community constructs may be abandoned by succeeding generations. Periods of growth in the law have been frequently accompanied …

Mortgages-Sale Under Trust Deed Mortgage For Inadequate Price-Effect

Michigan Law Review

The defendant, administrator of the estate of the mortgagee, bought the mortgaged property at the foreclosure sale for one thousand dollars. He bought for himself and not for the estate. He sold the property to a third party for three thousand five hundred dollars. The plaintiff mortgagor brought this suit to compel the defendant to account for the two thousand five hundred dollar difference between the price he paid for the property, and the amount he received for it, allowing a credit for the amount still due on the plaintiff's note-two thousand dollars. Held, where, as in this case, …

A Rational Theory For Joinder Of Causes Of Action And Defences, And For The Use Of Counterclaims, William Wirt Blume

Michigan Law Review

In discussing, first, the joinder of actions it will be convenient to consider three groups or classes of cases:

Class I : Where one plaintiff (or joint plaintiffs) unites in a single proceeding two or more causes of action against one defendant (or joint defendants).

Class 2: "Where two or more plaintiffs, each having a cause of action against the same party (or parties), unite their causes of action in one proceeding.

Class 3: Where one plaintiff (or joint plaintiffs) having several causes of action, each against a different party, unites them in one proceeding.

In considering each group or …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Constitutional Law-Searches And Seisures-Distraction Between Searching A Building And An Automobile Without Warrant

Michigan Law Review

An officer observed the odor of boiling mash and fermentation issuing from the dwelling of the defendant. The officer, without warrant, entered the basement and there found the defendant operating two stills. Considerable whiskey was found stored within the room. Defendant was arrested and convicted. On appeal he contended that the search was unlawful. Held, the search without warrant was unreasonable and in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. Schroeder v. United States, 14 F. (2d) 500.

Public Utility Valuation For Rate Making Purposes

Michigan Law Review

Ever since Munn v. Illinois (1876) 94 U. S. 113, which first decided that the charges to be made for services rendered by public utilities were to be subject to governmental regulation, the courts have been confronted with a problem, so elusive and indefinite, that over five decades of litigation and wrangling have failed to provide a satisfactory solution. The so called "rule" of Smyth v. Ames (1898) 169 U. S. 466, specifying the elements to be considered in ascertaining the value of public utilities for the purpose of rate-making, has only served to submerge the problem further in its …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Publicity Of Accounts And Directors' Purchases Of Stock, A. A. Berle Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Two debates have been carried on in recent years, whose echoes are at present much before the attention both of the public and the courts. The older and quieter one, maintained in the law reviews and in a line of conflicting judicial decisions, concerns the duty, if any, resting on a corporate director who bought or sold shares of stock in his own corporation. The newer and more violent discussion, reverberating through the daily newspapers, the lay magazines, and the financial chronicles, has dealt with corporate accounts; whether they should be public and to what extent; and if not, how …

When Revocable Trusts Are Subject To An Inheritance Tax, Edward M. Stimson

Michigan Law Review

A settlor transferred property to trustees upon trust to pay the income to himself during life and after his death to his children and, ultimately, to divide the principal. The settlor reserved a power to revoke the trust and also to change its terms. Subsequently a law was passed taxing successions, i.e., all transfers by will or inter vivos, "made or intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment after the death of the grantor or donor."

The Rule, The Principle, The Standard In Fluctuating Exchange, Joseph H. Drake

Michigan Law Review

Three methods of solution of the problems of damages in fluctuating exchange have evolved out of the welter of conflicting decisions and the hubbub of contradictory discussions during the reconstruction period of the last decade. The use of the rule and of the principle have been advocated with much vigor and acumen, and there have been some suggestions that we might be driven to resort to an equitable standard as a means of solving the difficulties.

Constitutional Law-Regulation Of Resale Of Tickets Of Admission To Places Of Entertainment

Michigan Law Review

An addition has been made to a series of cases indicating that the United States Supreme Court is turning away from a tendency to sustain state legislation, especially where the factual basis constituting the inducement of the enactment involves debatable factors. in a five to four decision that gives the unscrupulous ticket scalpers free rein to shear all the fleece from the theatre going lambs of greater New York, the Supreme Court has held to be in violation of the Fourteenth-Amendment a New York statute limiting the resale price of tickets of admission to places of entertainment to fifty cents …

Legal Protection Of Ideas

Michigan Law Review

In the recent Pennsylvania case of Mackay v. Benjamin Franklin Realty & Holding Company, an architect was employed to draw plans for the erection of the Benjamin Franklin Hotel at Philadelphia. For some reason the construction of the hotel was abandoned before the plans were accepted. Later it was again decided to build the hotel, but in the interval the architect had died, and a second architect was employed to draw plans. He, without the consent of the personal representative of the first architect, copied his plans, which were accepted and used in the construction of the building. The …

A Re-Interpretation Of Gee V. Pritchard

Michigan Law Review

It has been said that the office and jurisdiction of equity unless enlarged by express statute are limited to the protection of rights of property. This doctrine, often repeated, has been so severely criticized and so strained in its application that one is inclined to doubt that it has appreciable vigor at the present time. Yet to borrow the phrase in which a learned writer disposed of another of equity's hoary errors, "though we may observe that the rule is dying, it is unfortunately not yet a corpse; and the difficulty is that no lawyer knows when it will be …

Injunction Against Search By Police Officers

Michigan Law Review

A nice equipoise of public and private interest is disclosed in the case of Des Moines Drug Co. v. Doe, in which the Iowa Supreme Court recently had occasion to consider questions raised by a bill in equity to enjoin a search by police officers endeavouring to enforce the liquor laws.

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Waiver Of Trial By Jury In Criminal Cases, S. Chesterfield Oppenheim

Michigan Law Review

Waiver of jury trial in criminal cases generally is a highly practical issue at the present time both from the standpoint of the public and of the accused. The belief is common that the element of delay is one of the primary causes of the general disrespect attaching to the courts of criminal juridiction. It is said that an overzealousness in shielding the citizen against oppression and injustice has resulted in shifting to the background expedients designed to simplify and give momentum to the disposition of criminal cases.

Juristic Idealism And Legal Practice, Joseph H. Drake

Michigan Law Review

The relation of the "idea" of just law to the "principles" [Grundsaetze] of just law and the "model" [Vorbild] of just law is somewhat difficult to grasp and Stammler's application of the idea, through the intermediate principles and model, to the practice of just law, has given much trouble to the critics. A rule of law may be thought of as a particular conclusion, a principle as a general conclusion, while a standard or norm is a means of reaching conclusions. This is of course the old logical division of conceptions into particular, general and universal, …

Unconstitutional Conditions-The Chrysler Automatic Insurance Plan

Michigan Law Review

The recent decision of the United States Supreme Court in Palmetto Fire Insurance Co. v. Conn. and consolidated cases, terminates the interesting litigation provoked in four states by the novel insurance scheme of the Chrysler Sales Corporation.

Bills And Notes-Discharge-What Is "Renunciation."

Michigan Law Review

The recent and interesting Minnesota case of McGlynn v. Granstrom again raises the question of the construction of certain sections of the Uniform Negotiable Instruments Law. It is there held, that Sec. 122 of the N. I. L., requiring a "renunciation" to be in writing, does not apply to a discharge by accord and satisfaction.

Constitutional Law-Statutory Prohibition Of Possession Of Liquor

Michigan Law Review

The Michigan court has recently declared the state statute prohibiting the mere possession of liquor to be constitutional. People v. Burt, 236 Mich. 62, 210 N. W. 97. The court does not enter into any: discussion as to the constitutionality, but relies on a previous decision, People v. Stambosva, 210 Mich. 436, 178 N. W. 226. This phase of the case is stressed, however, in a vigorous dissent by Chief Justice Bird, who denies that the Stambosva case is controlling. That case held the statutory provision in question to be valid, as not violative of due process, but …

Taxation-Jurisdiction To Levy An Inheritance Tax

Michigan Law Review

A Massachusetts decedent by will created a trust in stocks and bonds. By the terms of the trust the trustee was to pay the income to the settlor's daughter during her life and upon her death was to pay the corpus to such persons as she should by will appoint. She died domiciled in North Carolina leaving a will appointing her husband and son to receive the property. North Carolina imposed an inheritance tax under a statute making the exercise of the power of appointment subject to the tax in the same manner as though the property belonged absolutely to …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.