Law Commons^™

Tort Liability For Radiation Injuries, E. Blythe Stason

Vanderbilt Law Review

The discovery that atomic chain reaction will produce substantial quantities of heat together with highly radioactive by-products gives rise to anticipation of an entirely new technology and of many newlines of industrial, medical, and agricultural endeavor. In due course widespread use will be made of the potentialities of this new source of energy.At the same time the likelihood of personal and property injuries resulting from overexposure to radiation brings about a new hazard against which protection must be afforded so far as it is possible to do so. The health and safety codes that are now being formulated at national, …

The Law Of Reactor Safety, Harold P. Green

Vanderbilt Law Review

Nuclear reactors are devices for creating and controlling nuclear chain reactions. Reactors come in many sizes and shapes and have various uses. The most dramatic and probably the most important use of reactors from the economic standpoint is to provide power in the form of electricity or heat. Some such power reactors may be stationary; others may be mobile, e.g., those which exist to provide propulsive force and hence move from place to place with their vehicle. Other reactors may be used for various industrial purposes such as for the testing of materials. Still other reactors are used primarily for …

Workmen's Compensation And Radiation Injury, Gerald L. Hutton

Vanderbilt Law Review

The utilitarian and research value of radioisotopes, x-ray and fluoroscopic devices, cyclotrons and other particle accelerators, nuclear reactors, and other materials or devices emitting ionizing radiation is unquestioned. Ionizing radiation, however, can prove harmful as well as beneficial depending upon the care which is exercised in its use. Numerous cases of x-ray and radium injuries are reported in the literature, such injuries dating from 1896 when Roentgen first announced the discovery of x-rays. The most publicized cases of radiation injury are those occurring in the radium poisoning or "dial painters" cases in the 1920's. Unlike most noxious materials encountered in …

Labor Relations In The Atomic Program, David B. Johnson

Vanderbilt Law Review

As in other areas of the United States program, the most pervasive influence in labor relations in atomic energy has been the federal government. The non-government sector is expanding rapidly in terms of the number of companies launching atomic energy operations, but this expansion is still in the exploratory and research and development stage. During this period of development in the private sector of the industry employers have relatively heavy need for engineering and technical skills and less for manual workers who are more susceptible to union organization. Although some problems for management and labor in the private sector of …

Antitrust Provisions Of The Atomic Energy Act, Richard Cosway

Vanderbilt Law Review

"It is ... declared to be the policy of the United States that... the development, use, and control of atomic energy shall be directed so as to promote world peace, improve the general welfare, increase the standard of living, and strengthen free competition in private enterprise." These are almost the first words of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 which, in stating the policy of the United States, establish the goals to be sought. As stated, the strengthening of free competition is a goal; it is not the device by which the other goals are to be achieved. Apparently of …

Federal Support Of Domestic Atomic Power Development -- The Policy Issues, James L. Morrisson

Vanderbilt Law Review

The possibility that controlled nuclear fission could produce useful energy was recognized early in 1939. During World War II developmental effort was focused on production of the bomb. Since the war, the U. S. atomic power program has grown to substantial proportions.By June 30, 1958, there were in operation in the United States one full scale civilian power reactor and seven civilian power reactor experiments, with a total rated electrical capacity of over 77,000 kw, as well as a number of military propulsion reactors and reactor experiments. There are currently planned fourteen power reactors in addition to the one now …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

In a hearing before the Commissioner of Investigation of the City of New York, appellant refused to state whether he was then a member of the Communist Party and based his refusal to answer on the fifth amendment to the United States Constitution. He was thereafter discharged as an employee of the New York Transit Authority pursuant to provisions of the New York Security Risk Law' which allows dismissal of employees of security agencies who are found to be of "doubtful trust and reliability." Without seeking administrative remedies, appellant brought a proceeding in the state court for reinstatement contending that …

Book Reviews, William J. Curran, Edward R. Hayes (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

Forensic Medicine By Douglas J. A. Kerr New York: MacMillan Co.,1957. Pp. v, 363. $6.50.

Practical Forensic Medicine By Francis E. Camps & W. B. Purchase New York: MacMillan Co., Pp. vii, 541. $13.50.

reviewer: William J. Curran

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Close Corporations: Law and Practice By F. Hodge O'Neal. Chicago: Callaghan & Co. 2v. Pp xx, 369; vii, 437. $30.00.

reviewer: Edward R. Hayes

The Lawyer's Duties And Responsibilities In The Nuclear Age, Leo A. Huard

Vanderbilt Law Review

This nation is now well into the formative years of an industrial revolution founded upon the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.' What we do as a nation in the next several years with this versatile tool which science has presented to us will literally determine the "shape of things to come" for ourselves and for the world. Among other things, this industrial revolution, like its predecessor, will force us to reassess and revise legal doctrines which have become fixed and familiar through time and widespread use. In simple terms, the coming changes in trade and industry are bound to affect …

Creditors' Rights And Security Transactions -- 1958 Tennessee Survey, Forrest W. Lacey

Vanderbilt Law Review

Fraudulent Conveyances: In Nashville Milk Producers, Inc. v. Alston' a bill to set aside transfers of a herd of dairy cattle alleged that the debtor in 1953 purported to transfer the herd to his wife, and that in 1955 the wife purported to transfer the herd to their son.Both transfers were alleged to have been made for no consideration,or a consideration that was not fair and adequate. The bill also charged that the conveyances rendered the grantor insolvent, and were part of a general scheme participated in by all three defendants to hinder, delay and defraud existing and subsequent creditors. …

Domestic Relations -- 1958 Tennessee Survey, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

Three cases during the survey period dealt directly or indirectly with the subject of adoptions.

In two cases which were discussed in the 1957 survey,' petitions for the adoption of two children were denied because of domestic difficulties in the home of the petitioning parents. The children were ordered to be placed in custody of the State Welfare Department. The foster mother, however, did not comply with this order promptly and was adjudged in contempt by the trial court where her petitions had been filed. The supreme court affirmed the contempt decree in a recently reported case.

Motor Carrier Taxation, Hal H. Hale

Vanderbilt Law Review

Provisions of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 vastly expanded the federal role in highway improvement on a long range basis, especially with respect to the so-called Interstate System. Authorizations of highway aid were further increased substantially by Congress in legislation enacted in 1958. The 1956 act for the first time also provided that the funds to pay for federal aid highway programs should come from specified levies upon highway users and a highway trust fund was established for this purpose. Owing principally to cost increases exceeding the original estimates, it has become apparent since the 1956 act was …

Regulation Of Motor Carrier Securities, Eugene T. Liipfert, John L. Mechem

Vanderbilt Law Review

The origins of the intercity trucking industry were humble. The development of the motor truck and of an intercity highway system which made its use in the transportation of freight practicable led many enterprising individuals to set themselves up as intercity truckers during the decade between 1925 and 1935. Capital requirements were minimal. The initial investment was frequently no more than the down payment on the motor vehicles employed. In the early stages of development, the typical motor carrier was a sole proprietorship, partnership or family-held corporation which relied for its financing on retained earnings of the business and hand-to-mouth …

Variable Verbalistics -- The Measure Of Persuasion In Tennessee, Kenneth L. Roberts, William M. Sinrich

Vanderbilt Law Review

In a trial one party always has the affirmative burden of persuading the finder of fact to adopt his allegations as true. This burden is met by inducing a particular degree of belief in the mind of the fact finder.'Manifestly, absolute truth is not attainable in a lawsuit. Rather certain facts are found to exist from all the evidence presented and these findings labeled true for the purposes of the case. Since different factual situations require different measures of persuasion, it is necessary that the fact finder, whether judge or jury, know and understand the particular measure applicable in order …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Recent Cases

Conflict of Laws--Jurisdiction--Assumption of Personal Jurisdiction over Non-Resident Insurer on the basis of a Single Insurance Contract

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Constitutional Law--Taxation--Tax Immunity of Federal Government not Infringed by Local Taxes upon Possession of Government Property

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Evidence--Hearsay--Utterance of Employee under Emotional Stress Admissible to Establish Scope of Employment and Render Employer Vicariously Liable

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Insurance--Automobile--Duplicating Recoveries allowed under Liability and Medical Payment Clauses of Automobile Liability Insurance Policy

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Insurance--Business Indemnity--Radiation Decontamination Expenses not Recoverable under a Business Interruption Clause

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Insurance--Life--Variable Annuity Contracts not Subject to Regulation by Securities and Exchange Commission

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Physicians--Unprofessional Conduct--Willful Evasion of Federal …

Book Review, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

The National Probation and Parole Association has been working for over 35 years to improve the administration of justice and in the publication of "Guides for Sentencing" it has provided one of its most important services to judges who are charged with the administration of criminal justice and to juvenile and domestic relations courts. The book is the first of a series of practical manuals for all of the above named courts and it is the result of the combined labors of 37 specially selected United States, state and juvenile judges for a period of about five years. Bolitha J. …

Motor Carrier Regulation--An Adventure In Federalism, Val Sanford

Vanderbilt Law Review

By virtue of the nature of our federal system every attempt to regulate extensive economic activity involves constantly recurring problems as to the proper allocation of governmental power between the state and national governments, and thus problems as to the proper balancing of local or state and national interests. The development of motor carrier regulation in the United States has been controlled by the general concepts of federalism and exemplifies the nature of the basic problems inherent in those concepts. The purpose of this article is to examine the regulation of motor carriers from the standpoint of the allocation of …

Some Aspects Of The Problem Of Intercarrier Competition, Ernest W. Williams Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The past decade has been marked by numerous examinations of the transportation scene, and particularly of government policy toward transportation, which have borne partial fruit in the Transportation Act of 1958. More than anything else, the rapid weakening of the railroad system after World War II and the conviction of railroad managements that the worsening state of their industry was the result of "unfair" govenmental policies led to the almost continuous attention which has been devoted to the subject by agencies of the Congress and of the executive branch alike. And all such studies demonstrate, before they are done, that …

Licensing Interstate Vehicles: State Cooperation Or Federal Intervention?, Jess N. Rosenberg

Vanderbilt Law Review

Roads have been an essential part of transportation since man began to travel and to take his goods with him. This fact is sometimes obscured by the intense current preoccupation with motor vehicles which are often regarded as the cause of roads rather than instruments for utilization of roads. In any event, it is true that, with the advent of the motor vehicle, highways have become an increasingly important part of the nation's transportation system. That this tendency and importance will continue and even be accelerated is portended by the creation of the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways' …

Bills And Notes--1958 Tennessee Survey, S. B. Gilreath

Vanderbilt Law Review

Express Provision Concerning Negotiability. Phelan v. Phelan is the only case which has been found on the subject of bills and notes decided during the survey period. It was a suit in equity on a note in the sum of $4,000 made on April 10, 1954, by R. E. Phelan and payable to W. 0. Phelan on September 15, 1954. The note provided that it was "non-negotiable and non-transferable."

The payee, W. 0. Phelan, filed a bill to recover a decree on this note against R. E. Phelan, the maker, who, in turn, filed an answer pleading as a set-off …

Business Associations--1958 Tennessee Survey, F. Hodge O'Neal

Vanderbilt Law Review

Only a handful of cases were decided in Tennessee during the survey period which raised questions in the field of business associations.Some of the issues raised in these cases, however, were of considerable interest and importance. ...

Disregarding Corporate Entity in Close Corporation: The close corporation, just as the public issue corporation, is generally viewed as a "legal entity" having in law an existence separate and apart from its shareholders. This means that rights, duties and other legal relations arising out of an incorporated enterprise, irrespective of whether it is widely held or closely held, are usually adjusted as though …

Criminal Law And Procedure -- 1958 Tennessee Survey, Charles H. Miller

Vanderbilt Law Review

In surveying the field of criminal law and procedure the cases presented to the supreme court during the year were little more than normal or typical. Several of the criminal cases are not presented in detail in this article, as they are dealt with in other survey sections.

Equity -- 1958 Tennessee Survey, Theodore A. Smedley

Vanderbilt Law Review

Since Equity is a field of indefinite boundaries, it is to be expected that the cases discussed in this section of the survey involve a wide variety of issues. Of the thirteen decisions to be mentioned, four were suits for injunctions to restrain as many different types of alleged wrongs, three were suits to cancel or reform written instruments executed by mistake or fraud, two were suits to declare trusts, one was a suit for specific performance of a contract to sell land, one was a suit to enforce a promissory note, and two were suits turning on procedural factors.

Motor Carrier Operating Authorities, Drew L. Carraway

Vanderbilt Law Review

The enactment by Congress of the Motor Carrier Act of 1935 vested in the Interstate Commerce Commission the power, among others, to grant or deny applications for motor carrier operating authority. The exercise of this power embraces the grave responsibility to regulate motor carriers in accordance with the national transportation policy of Congress as enunciated in the Transportation Act of 1940.

Motor carrier operating authority is a valuable intangible property right carrying with it both privileges and obligations. The holder of such authority is given the privilege of performing operations which may be developed into a profitable business but, at …

Evidence In Motor Carrier Application Cases, Everett Hutchinson, George M. Chandler

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Motor Carrier Act of 19351 brought under regulation by the Interstate Commerce Commission the operation of for-hire motor carriers. The act, which is now part II of the Interstate Commerce Act, requires all such motor carriers, with certain exceptions, to obtain operating authority from the Commission. Carriers operating prior to the passage of the act were granted authority under "grand-father" provisions by a mere showing of past operations, but carriers entering the field since that date or desiring to extend their operations are required to prove that there is a public need for the service which they propose. A …

The Influence Of Proprietary Trucking Upon Minimum Rate Policy In California, William H. Dodge, Richard R. Carll

Vanderbilt Law Review

Our analysis of the California cases has shown that public policy must not only balance the interests of one class of shipper, which can save money by private trucking, against those of another class, which must bear the brunt of higher freight rates. When the low-cost shipper and the high-cost shipper are both the same shipper, the objective of low-cost transportation in the public interest is less well defined. From the shipper's position, of course, it is entirely sensible to achieve the economies of his cream traffic with proprietary trans-port while, at the same time, appearing before public authority to …

Judicial Review Of Orders Of The Interstate Commerce Commission Relating To Motor Carriers, Robert W. Ginnane, James A. Murray

Vanderbilt Law Review

When, in 1935, Congress provided for federal regulation of inter-state motor transportation by the Interstate Commerce Commission,it made applicable to the Commission's regulatory orders with respect to motor carriers the same system of judicial review which it had devised for orders relating to railroads in the Urgent Deficiencies Act of 1913.' This invoked not only the naked statutory review provisions but also, at least by analogy, the mass of judicial decisions applying the 1913 legislation to Commission orders involving railroads. The statutory provisions for review of orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission have been codified into Title 28 of the …

Annual Survey Of Tennessee Law, Harold Seligman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Of particular significance in this field during the survey year has been the decision of the Supreme Court of Tennessee in Southern Bell Tel. and Tel. Co. v. Tennessee Pub. Serv. Comm'n. Several aspects of administrative law are involved in this holding, including scope of review, evidence to be considered by the court on review, and the rate-making function...

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In Flowers v. Benton County Beer Board, the license of a beer permit holder was revoked by a county beer board due to the holder's plea of guilty to driving an automobile while under the influence of an intoxicant in …

Agency--1958 Tennessee Survey, Edward R. Hayes

Vanderbilt Law Review

Establishing that Tortfeasor is a Servant of Defendant: Negligent operation of motor vehicles probably is the most prolific source of tort liability today. Within this area an important cause of litigation has been negligent operation by someone other than the owner of the vehicle. The initial common law approach to such cases was to hold the owner responsible if he himself were negligent, as by entrusting his car to a known incompetent driver, or if the negligent driver were the owner's servant acting within the course and scope of his employment.'

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In Smith v. Phillips a pick-up truck, registered …

Conflict Of Laws -- 1958 Tennessee Survey, John W. Wade

Vanderbilt Law Review

The requirement of residence in the Tennessee divorce statutes'has been construed to mean domicile. Two cases during the Survey period raise the issue of domicile in this connection. In Bernardi v.Bernard is the question was whether a member of the armed services had acquired a domicile in the state...

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Torts.-In Schenk v. Gwaltney the court followed the usual rule of choice of law in torts cases. An automobile accident having happened in Indiana, the Indiana automobile guest statute was held to apply, though the court intimated that if the accident had occurred in Tennessee where there was no such …