Law Commons^™

Decedents' Estates, Trusts And Future Interests -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, Herman L. Trautman

Vanderbilt Law Review

The subject matter will be discussed under the three principal headings: Decedents' Estates, Trusts, and Future Interests. Since the legislature has not been in session during the year' covered by this survey, the developments in the subject areas of the law consist entirely of appellate court litigation. Most of the cases discussed in the section on Decedents' Estates involve problems of probate administration and procedure; there was only one case involving the substantive right of intestate succession and one case concerning the federal estate tax. The section on Trusts is practically non-existent this year, although one case is mentioned concerning …

Equity -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, T. A. Smedley

Vanderbilt Law Review

While no decisions involving momentous developments in equity jurisprudence have been handed down during the past year, the Tennessee Chancery Courts have on several occasions demonstrated a tendency to free themselves from artificial restrictions on the operation of traditional equitable remedies. Illustrating this inclination are cases which resulted in decrees removing a cloud on title, granting partial specific performance of a land sale contract, awarding punitive damages, and granting injunctive relief against a county's perpetration of a nuisance. Another series of cases contributed some clarifying rulings regarding the scope of the right to jury trial in chancery proceedings.

Restitution -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, William Wicker

Vanderbilt Law Review

Only two Tennessee restitution decisions were reported in the Southwestern Reporter during the year covered by this survey. One involves a question as to the liability of an intestate's estate for burial expenses which were not ordered by either the administrator or the sole heir and next of kin. The other involves a question concerning indemnity or contribution as between unintentional tort-feasors who were guilty of different degrees of negligence.

Loading And Unloading, Norman E. Risjord

Vanderbilt Law Review

Since the automobile liability policies cover the use, loading and unloading of automobiles anywhere, the general liability policies (comprehensive or manufacturers and contractors or owners, landlords and tenants) correspondingly exclude, substantially, coverage for the automobile while away from premises owned, rented or controlled by the named insured, or the ways immediately adjoining, or the loading or unloading thereof. While the general liability policies do cover the use, loading and unloading of automobiles on premises owned, rented or controlled by the named insured and thus duplicate to a limited extent the coverage under the automobile liability policy where the accident occurs …

Book Note, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Reflections With Edmund Burke

By Timothy P. Sheehan

New York: Vantage Press, 1960. Pp. 288. $5.00

reviewer: Law Review Staff

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Constitutional Law--Due Process--Duty of Non-Resident Vendor to Collect Use Tax

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Evidence--Criminal Law--Circumstantial Evidence Sufficient to Establish Corpus Delicti

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Evidence--Presumptions--Rebuttable Presumption Persists Until Trier of Fact Finds Nonexistence of Presumed Fact as Probable as its Existence

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Restraint of Trade--Sherman Act--Refusal to Sell as Unlawful Means of Effecting Price Maintenance

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Torts--Negligence--Vendor of Alcoholic Beverage to Intoxicated Minor Liable to Third Party

Torts -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, John W. Wade

Vanderbilt Law Review

As usual, there were about forty reported Torts cases this year. There were no striking new developments. Many of the cases were merely routine, some of them indeed carrying quite long opinions without deciding anything which will give them real value as precedents for the future. The great majority of the cases involved actions for negligence, considerably more than half the cases being concerned with traffic accidents.

State And Local Taxation -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, Paul J. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

A congressional statute that became law on September 14, 1959,severely curtails the power of all state and local governments to impose net income taxes. This statute was the aftermath of the Northwestern-Stockham decision, and a series of cases soon to follow, by the United States Supreme Court, which held that neither the due process nor the commerce clause bars the way to a nondiscriminatory, properly apportioned state tax levied directly on net income derived exclusively from interstate commerce. These decisions by the Supreme Court caused such a furor in the business world that demands were soon made on Congress for …

Ancillary Rights Of The Insured Against His Liability Insurer, Robert E. Keeton

Vanderbilt Law Review

The primary right of the insured against his liability insurer is the right to reimbursement of loss falling within the coverage defined in the policy. The scope of that right is ordinarily determined by construction of the clauses defining the Bodily Injury Liability and Property Damage Liability Coverages.' The present article is concerned with ancillary rights, arising in part from these and other policy provisions and in part from the relationship created by liability insurance. These rights of the insured are, from the opposite point of view, duties of the insurer--duties concerned principally with settlement of the tort claim or …

Semi-Direct Action Against Liability Insurers: Current Problems, Ronan E. Degnan

Vanderbilt Law Review

The legislatures of the various states of the union have by and large seen fit to forbid actions by an injured party directly against a liability insurer. This limitation, founded upon policy reasons which are doubtless apparent to the reader, has led the interested parties to seek out various indirect or semi-direct methods for reaching the insurance fund. This article is designed to discuss two particularly difficult problems which have arisen because of this semi-direct mode of proceeding: (1) By what appropriate methods can a judgment be obtained against a nonresident tort feasor or his estate so as to create …

Automobile Policy Exclusions, A. L. Plummer

Vanderbilt Law Review

The exclusions in the automobile liability insurance policies have required much litigation to clarify and interpret the intent of the draftsmen and underwriter who wrote them. An exclusion takes away or modifies certain coverages given in the insuring agreements. The giving and taking-away provisions of insurance policies are necessary in the making of a limited contract. They tend to avoid duplication of coverage, limit the assumed risk or hazard, avoid underwriting the primary liabilities of others that should be covered by other policy forms, and otherwise limit the scope of coverage. Since 1936 there has been a constant effort by …

Insurance Coverage Against Explosion Damage, William C. Brewer Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Astronomers tell us that the world began with an explosion, and common sense tells us that it may end with one. Today, the explosion is the symbol of the corruption of knowledge. It has always suggested the devastation of property and the tragedy of death, reminding us that man is never in full control of the forces he has loosed for his material benefit. When accidental explosion became frequent enough for consideration by actuaries, it became a natural subject for insurance. It is proposed here to survey the contractual provisions under which explosion may be insured, and to examine briefly …

Contracts -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, Paul J. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

During the period covered by this survey, the Tennessee courts have had occasion to decide some rather basic questions in the law of contracts. These cases are the subject of comment. Other cases involving only questions of burden of proof regarding contracts questions have not be commented on.

Bills And Notes -- 1960 Tennessee Surveys, B. Gilreath

Vanderbilt Law Review

The fact that there was only one reported Tennessee decision during the survey period for 1958, none in 1959 and again only one for 1960, is a high tribute to the settled condition of the law of negotiable instruments, and the knowledge and wisdom of the lawyers of that state. When the law on any subject is settled and known men can make their contracts and engage in their transactions with security; uncertainty breeds doubt, confusion, strife, litigation and loss.

Agency -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, Warren A. Seavey

Vanderbilt Law Review

In Richardson v. Snipes' both parties to an exchange of land employed the plaintiff, the contract providing that the defendant would pay no commission unless the transfer was completed. The other party satisfied the conditions imposed by the defendant, who, however, refused to go through with the exchange. The court properly reversed judgment for the defendant; but the result should not have turned upon the finding of bad faith of the defendant, as the court held. The plaintiff had performed his undertaking which was to provide one who would exchange titles and who would have gone through with the transaction …

Domestic Relations -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

Domestic Relations--1960 Tennessee Survey

I. Adoption of Children

II. Persons in Loco Parentis

III. Divorce, Alimony and Counsel Fees

1. Venue

2. Jurisdiction

3. Cancellation of Decree

4. Alimony and Counsel Fees

(a) Discretion To Deny Alimony

(b) In Solido--In Futuro

(c) Duty To Pay Counsel Fees

(d) Court Alteration of Support Agreement

(e) Attachment of Property-Non-Residents

5. Jointly-owned Property

IV. Family Immunity in Tort

V. Tenancy by Tenancy by the Entireties

Constitutional Law--1960 Tennessee Survey, James C. Kirby Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Eminent Domain--Just Compensation.-Landowners sued the Tennessee Commissioner of Highways and Public Works for compensation for a taking of property for the state's superhighway program in Brooksbank v. Leech. The trial court sustained a demurrer on the ground that the suit was barred by sovereign immunity. In order to dispose of this question on appeal the supreme court first determined whether the legislature had provided an adequate statutory method for just compensation, the absence of which would have rendered the taking unconstitutional under both article I, section 21, of the Constitution of Tennessee and the due process clause of the United …

Creditors' Rights And Security Transactions -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, Forrest W. Lacey

Vanderbilt Law Review

Two cases involving mechanic's liens were decided during the period under survey. Rowland v. Lowe' presented the question of the validity of a material men's lien against the owner of land subject to a contract of sale which required the purchaser to erect improvements on the land. In order to protect the vendor's lien, which was to be retained in the deed, the contract provided:

"The purchaser obligates himself to pay all sums for labor and materials in the construction of the improvements on said lot, and in no event shall there be any lien on the lot of ground …

Insurance -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, William R. Andersen

Vanderbilt Law Review

One of the most delicate problems in insurance underwriting is that of describing the events whose occurrence is the primary condition of the insurer's obligation to pay. Several interesting cases were decided during the survey period involving disputes over whether or not an insured event had occurred.

Personal Property And Sales -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, Gilbert S. Merritt Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

A foreigner given to rash generalizations would quickly conclude upon reading this year's sales and personal property cases that the three most flourishing and litigation-producing institutions in Tennessee are the automobile, the General Motors Acceptance Corporation and bootlegging. The automobile is responsible for all five of the cases covered in this survey; in four of the five the General Motors Acceptance Corporation is the defendant; and two of the five grow out of bootlegging activities.

Real Property -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, Thomas G. Roady, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is unfortunate that the statutes in this state on which such decisions as the instant one are based have not long since been repealed or modified. It is becoming more and more apparent that the courts cannot be expected to lessen the oftentimes arbitrary and seemingly unjust result which flows from the literal application of these statutes. The instant case would have been an excellent one in which to permit the defendant to establish the title of his grantors on the merits. But in spite of the desirability of relaxing the rigorous enforcement of such statutes, the court continues …

Labor Law And Workmen's Compensation -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, Paul H. Sanders, J. Gilmer Bowman, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Labor law is concerned with the rules governing the various phases of the employment relation and the activities of employers and labor organizations vis-a-vis such phases. Sometimes such rules are embodied in criminal law or tort law. If the substance of the alleged crime or tort is not directed toward or used in some respects as a regulation of employment or labor relations, it is excluded by the above definition even though some "labor" aspect is prominently identified with the case. For example, during the survey period the Supreme Court of Tennessee decided the case of Smith v. State, affirming …

Local Government Law -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, A. E. Ryman, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

This survey is directed to the law peculiar to local government. Although nearly every case involves law applicable to parties other than governmental agencies, the focus of attention here is on the aspects peculiar to such agencies. Critique of the law of general application is not within the scope of this article. Although "Elections and Representation" could be treated (as it was last year) under the topic of "Relations of Local Government and Private Persons," it is separated here to emphasize the logical distinction between laws concerned with the creation of governmental agencies on the theory that power is derivative …

I Am Not My Guest's Keeper, Warren A. Seavey

Vanderbilt Law Review

The laisez-faire policy of the common law recently won a resounding victory in Pennsylvania. In an action for the death of her husband, the plaintiff alleged that he was invited by the defendant to visit the latter's land for a consultation upon problems common to their work, strip-mining for coal, which requires deep cuts in the land from which it is necessary to remove accumulated water; that during the conversation the defendant invited the deceased to aid in the repair of a pump in one of the water-filled cuts; that the defendant, by "urging, enticing, taunting and inveigling" his visitor, …

Cost Adjustment In Utility Rate Schedules, Joe H. Foy

Vanderbilt Law Review

For many years public utilities and regulatory commissions have been greatly concerned over the time and expense involved in proceedings relative to utility rates. Few types of legal proceedings are more complex, intricate and expensive than the full-blown utility rate case, with its myriad problems in valuation, economics, accounting, law and engineering. Particularly during inflationary periods, such as the present, mounting expenses of operation confront utilities and commissions with the dismal prospect of repeated applications for rate adjustment and formal hearings thereon. It is not surprising that techniques have been sought to simplify the rate making process, consistent with the …

Promissory Estoppel, James O. Bass Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The general nature and application of the doctrine of promissory estoppel' has been thoroughly discussed in the past by very able commentators. It is not the purpose of this note to enlarge upon these analyses. However, as a basis for a summary of the present status of the doctrine, perhaps a brief review is in order. No proposition of law is more familiar to the legal profession in general than the rule that consideration consists of any legal detriment incurred by the promisee, which was "bargained for and given in exchange for the promise.' There are numerous situations in which …

Book Note, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

James Boswell, whose Life of Johnson is generally recognized to be "the most skillfully written biography in the English language, was an eighteenth-century Scottish lawyer, as well as a prominent literary figure. Boswell's private papers, including his now-famous Journal in which he recorded the day-to-day events of his life during most of his adult years, are owned by Yale University; Boswell for the Defense is the seventh volume in the series of Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell and covers a five-year period of his life (from ages 29 to 34), a period of "sustained application to …

Public Speech And Public Order In Britain And The United States, Richard E. Stewart

Vanderbilt Law Review

This paper will not attempt a general comparison of free speech in Britain and the United States. It concentrates on one aspect of the free speech problem. That aspect is speech that does or may lead to a breach of the peace by the audience.'

Non-Tax Aspects Of Thin Incorporation, Thomas H. Rainey Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The coveted privilege of conducting business in the corporate form is not an unconditional grant.' As consideration for granting the corporate privilege of doing business with limited liability, the law requires that the shareholders "put at the risk of the business some stake which shall appear reasonably adequate for its prospective needs." This "stake," characterized as equity capital, represents that portion of the shareholders' capital investment which is required by law as the basis of financial responsibility for the protection of corporate creditors. This special fund is substituted for the personal liability which the participants would otherwise have for the …

Book Reviews, Lee S. Greene, Earl F. Murphy (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

Index Digest of State Constitutions:

This is a revision of the first edition of Index Digest of State Constitution prepared in 1915 for the use of the New York State Constitutional Convention of that year. Both the first and the present second edition were prepared by the Legislative Drafting Research Fund of Columbia University. The editor of the present volume was Richard A. Edwards, who worked with the aid of associate editors James L. Blawie and Marilyn B. Blawie. Over forty years have passed since the first Index Digest appeared.This has been a period of some rewriting of state constitutions,considerable …