Civil Law Commons^™

Common Sense And Other Legal Reforms, Carl Tobias

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Contract with America (the "Contract") was the centerpiece of the Republican Party's strategy in the 1994 congressional campaigns. The Common Sense Legal Reforms Act (CSLRA") was the ninth tenet and a critical constituent of the Contract, which the Republican Party promised that the new Congress would vote upon within one hundred days. Once the Grand Old Party swept into office, capturing the House of Representatives for the first time in four decades, many members of Congress were expressly committed to honoring the Contract with America. Accordingly, nearly one hundred Republican sponsors introduced the Common Sense Legal Reforms Act during …

Hypnotic Memories And Civil Sexual Abuse Trials, Jacqueline Kanovitz

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the next few paragraphs, the reader will eavesdrop on a psycho- therapy session. During this session, the therapist uses hypnosis, a common technique in clinical practice today. In the past, the legal system has paid little attention to the memory retrieval techniques used in psychotherapy because statutes of limitations have prevented patients from using memories of childhood wrongs uncovered in adult psycho-therapies to bring suit. However, recent changes will force the legal system to examine whether the memory restoring techniques used in psychotherapy can produce memory that is trustworthy enough for the legal system to accept. What follows is …

Removal, Remand, And Review In Pendent Claim And Pendent Party Cases, Joan Steinman

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article examines the removability of civil actions that include either pendent claims or pendent parties joined in addition to parties against whom federal questions are alleged. It discusses the remandability of those civil actions or segments of them, and comments on the law governing appellate review of district court remands to state court.' In an effort to reach the wisest resolutions of the various issues posed, it confronts issues of statutory construction, interprets Supreme Court cases, especially Thermtron Products, Inc. v. Hermansdorfer,'and wades in the murky waters of federalism. In the course of this enterprise, the Article analyzes and …

The Place Of Procedural Control In Determining Who May Sue Or Be Sued: Lessons In Statutory Interpretation From Civil Rico And Sedima, Douglas E. Abrams

Vanderbilt Law Review

The dust has begun to settle. After dozens of decisions that split the lower courts into insular camps, a sharply divided Supreme Court has decided Sedima, S.P.R.L. v. Imrex Co. Over four dissents, the Court held that in creating the private civil cause of action under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), Congress did not limit the plaintiff class to persons who allege "racketeering injury." The five Justice majority also held that Congress did not limit the defendant class to persons previously convicted under RICO's criminal provision or the predicate acts that establish the RICO violation. The Court's …

The Insider Trading Sanctions Act Of 1984 And Its Effect On Existing Law, Donald C. Langevoort

Vanderbilt Law Review

The legislative history of the Act shows that its principal drafters regarded those who trade on material confidential information as "thieves," deserving substantial penalties. The adoption of the Act is an expression that the existing laws should be used aggressively to curb the misuse of information. Unfortunately, such a result-oriented direction fits uncomfortably within the confining conceptual structure for rule 10b-5 built in recent years by the Supreme Court. Lower courts therefore must flesh out the law of insider trading based on inconsistent mandates, which will make the future path of the law both unpredictable and interesting.

The Civil Investigative Demand: A Constitutional Analysis And Model Proposal, Anthony J. Mcfarland

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note first traces the initial judicial reaction to administrative demands for information and administrative investigations and delineates the constitutional requirement set forth therein. The Note next examines the development of CIDs and analyzes decisions upholding their constitutionality. This Note contends that most courts either have incorrectly applied current administrative standards to the CID or have failed to apply such standards altogether. The analysis is broken down into six parts,each dealing with a separate constitutional basis for a CID challenge. Because most suits that contest CIDs are based on fourth amendment search and seizure issues, the bulk of this Note …

Liability Of Directors Under The Federal Securities Code, Thomas D. Washburne, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The proposed solution to the controversy surrounding civil liability under the Code and its relationship to indemnification, contribution, and insurance is not a panacea. It is not as neat as one would desire, and it leaves questions unanswered, such as whether the indemnification and contribution changes ought to apply beyond section 1704. Nevertheless, the proposal is internally consistent--an improvement over the Code's liability and indemnification provisions. Furthermore, it has a sound policy basis, and it attempts to meet the arguments of both sides of the American Law Institute debate. In summary, the proposal is as follows:(1) Define inside directors as …

Liability For Proceeding With Unfounded Litigation, John R. Jones, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The important issues for this Note are the meaning of "good ground" and the nature of the sanctions available in a given case.One can conceive of many ways in which a pleading could lack good ground. At one extreme, -the attorney might know that the facts alleged were untrue."' Alternatively, the facts alleged, though not positively known to be untrue, might be based solely on speculation--as when the plaintiff, unsure who assaulted him, picked a name from the telephone directory on a hunch and sued that person." Between these egregious cases and the case in which the allegations have good …

Some Practical Questions Concerning The Effect Of The Proposed Federal Securities Code On Civil Litigation, J. Vernon Patrick, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

A major impetus for the launching of the Federal Securities Code project in 1969 was the view, widely held by businessmen and their lawyers, that it was far too easy for investors to bring class action suits under the federal securities laws, seeking multi-million dollar judgments against business corporations, directors, accountants, and lawyers.' The business community's concern about possible exposure to large judgments in securities litigation was heightened by the news that plaintiffs had obtained a judgment in a class action brought against the issuer and several "outside director"defendants in Escott v. Bar Chris Construction Corp., and by several United …

Remedies Under The Tennessee Commercial Code, John A. Walker, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The scope of this Article is limited to a discussion of the enforcement of consensual' liens under the Uniform Commercial Code as enacted in title 47 of the Tennessee Code. It does not include the panoply of other, nonconsensual remedies such as prejudgment attachment and postjudgment levy. In particular, this Article examines the applicability of the doctrine of election of remedies, the mechanics of repossession, and the rules applicable to the disposition of collateral, primarily as these concepts have been interpreted and applied by the courts of Tennessee.

Introduction: The Federal Securities Code -- Its Purpose, Plan, And Progress, Louis Loss

Vanderbilt Law Review

The first generation of federal securities statutes, vintage 1933-40, has sprouted tentacles in so many areas of the American corpus juris that it is not easy to think of any field in which so much law-and lore-have been built on so flimsy a statutory base. The nineteen-page grandfather statute, the Securities Act of 1933, goes on, with a continually enhanced fertility that belies its years, to yield esoterica like the "140 series" of rules: professed "safe harbors" whose entrances are guarded by Cerberus atop Scylla and a bevy of Sirens cavorting in Charybdis. In the area of "fraud" that peripatetic …

Recent Cases, Richard C. Stark, Gerard T. Nebel, Craig V. Gabbert, Jr., Mary E. Mann

Vanderbilt Law Review

Recent Cases

Administrative Law--Federal Trade Commission Act--Restitution Held Improper in Section Five Cease and Desist Order

Richard C. Stark

Congress enacted section five'° of the Federal Trade Commission Act in 1914 to supplement" the antitrust provisions of the Sherman Act.'" The section declared unfair methods of competition illegal and placed the power to define and prohibit unfair methods in the hands of an independent regulatory commission, the FTC.' In conferring this power, Congress intended this body of experts to educate and guide the business community toward the goal of securing higher standards of business conduct.

Sherman Act, antitrust

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Constitutional …

Indigent Access To Civil Courts: The Tiger Is At The Gates, Wayne H. Scott

Vanderbilt Law Review

The accusation that justice in America has become a luxury has been heard with increasing frequency in recent years. An often criticized aspect of this perceived discrimination is that the poor are systematically deprived of effective access, and frequently of any access at all, to the judicial process by the varied and burdensome expenses of civil litigation.' Although these financial barriers have been subjected to increasingly successful attacks in the courts, the extent to which they have been lowered remains unclear. Nevertheless, an examination of the steps already taken to alleviate the problem of the indigent civil litigant raises hopes …

The Lawyer And The Private Legal Process, L. Ray Patterson, Elliott E. Cheatham

Vanderbilt Law Review

Private law--particular rules created for and applied to particular individuals to govern their relationships with each other--is a marked characteristic of society. People in a nation of free enterprise with a developing, malleable economy must have the freedom and the power to shape their legal relations with one another through the use of rules of law suited to their goals. Most of this law--contracts, wills, and trusts--has only temporary effect. The terms are limited, and all of it is for a private, rather than a public purpose. The limited scope of private law, however, is not a good measure of …

Civil Liability For Causing Suicide: A Synthesis Of Law And Psychiatry, Victor E. Schwartz

Vanderbilt Law Review

If suicide is a deliberate, intentional act by an individual, how can one person be "civilly liable for causing the suicide of another"? The paradox suggested by this question has caused many courts to shy away from imposing civil liability for causing suicide.' In certain situations,however, a growing number of courts are permitting recovery. Since suicide is on the increase both in numerical terms and in rank as a cause of death in the United States it can be expected that even more tort claims will be brought by parties attempting to fix civil responsibility on someone other than their …

Judicial Creation Of Direct Actions Against Automobile Liability Insurers: Shingleton V. Bussey, Jason G. Reynolds

Vanderbilt Law Review

Elizabeth R. Bussey commenced a negligence action in a Florida state trial court against Frances R.B. Shingleton for damages sustained in an automobile mishap. The accident itself was a rather ordinary rear-end collision. Out of the ordinary, however, was the fact that the plaintiff joined as a party defendant Shingleton's liability insurer, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. The trial judge, following the insurance policy's non-joinder provisions' and the weight of authority in Florida and elsewhere, granted Nationwide's motion that it be dismissed as a party defendant. Plaintiff appealed this order to the Florida District Court of Appeal on the theory that, …

Forward: A Symposium On Restitution, John P. Dawson

Vanderbilt Law Review

The editors of the Vanderbilt Law Review deserve praise for arranging this symposium on the neglected subject of Restitution, a great and growing area of our private law whose literature is extra-ordinarily meager. Partly because of this neglect by legal scholars,the practicing profession as a whole remains unaware of the range and variety of restitutionary remedies and the possibilities they offer for solving problems that are otherwise intractable. The volume of restitution cases reported in current advance sheets shows that courts and lawyers are learning to make use of restitution remedies, but the subject still inspires hesitation and diffidence, for …

The English Constructive Trust:A Look Into The Future, D. W.M. Waters

Vanderbilt Law Review

In view of the history of the common law and of equity, a history shared by all common law jurisdictions, it would be nonsense to say that English law does not offer the deprived plaintiff relief. Of course, it does. What we have not been willing to do, however, is to rationalise the miscellany of remedies that exist. And, since we have not been prepared to rationalise, there are inconsistencies be-tween and within remedies, and a marked lack of development, particularly on the equity side. This has long been the complaint of the English lawyers who, since Lord Wright's first …

Summary Proceedings In Direct Contempt Cases, Thomas R. Allen

Vanderbilt Law Review

That the "power and majesty" of the law, personified by the court and its decrees, could not be lightly brushed aside even by a prince was a settled fact by the time of Shakespeare; it remains so today. But the proceedings by which such an offense may be punished is another matter. At the present time a large number of contempts are disposed of by summary proceedings. It was not always so, and recently a number of highly respected judges and writers have begun to argue that the practice should be discontinued. This revival of interest is the raison d'etre …

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.

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. …

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.

Restitution -- 1958 Tennessee Survey, William Wicker

Vanderbilt Law Review

Civil remedies may be grouped under three classifications: torts, contracts, and restitution. The plaintiff's objective in a tort action is a recovery for his loss which resulted from the defendant's wrongful act, the measure of recovery being the amount of that loss expressed in dollars. The plaintiff's objective in a contract action is a recovery for a breach of the defendant's promise, the measure of recovery being the net addition to the plaintiff's estate which would have resulted had defendant performed his promise. Restitution is a giving back of what has been taken away unjustly. The plaintiff's objective in a …

Procedure And Evidence -- 1954 Tennessee Survey, Edmund M. Morgan

Vanderbilt Law Review

Generally: The strict rules of pleading are not applicable in a will contest,' which is a proceeding sui generis and regulated by statute. Demurrer. A demurrer to a cross-bill in chancery on the ground that it "states no cause of action upon which relief can be granted" is a nullity, and should be stricken on motion.

Plea in Abatement: Where the chancellor upon hearing a plea inabatement of another action pending for the same cause, found that the cause was substantially the same, and granted plaintiff permission to file the bill in the later suit as an amended or supplemental …

Current Trends In The Business Of The Federal District Courts, Will Shafroth

Vanderbilt Law Review

Congestion in the dockets of many United States district courts in metropolitan centers has called attention to the effects on the judicial business of the great economic development of the past few years, a growth which far exceeds in extent that in any period of equal duration in our history. In the short space of thirteen years from 1940 to 1952 the market value of the output of goods and services produced by the nation's economy increased from 101 billions to 346 billions. Part of this phenomenal rise was due to a 90 percent increase in the cost of living, …

Federal Income Taxes And The Civil Fraud Penalty, Raymond Whiteaker

Vanderbilt Law Review

The drive against tax evaders is now in full swing after a complete reorganization of the Internal Revenue Service, and the new Commissioner has promised an efficient enforcement of all revenue laws. Although the effective administration of the federal income tax rests primarily upon the willingness of the taxpayer voluntarily to disclose his correct income, Congress has provided certain civil and criminal penalties to punish those who have not fulfilled their obligations to the United States Treasury. This article will deal only with the administration and operation of the civil fraud penalty.

The most severe civil penalty that may be …

Subrogation, Indemnity, Contribution And Election Of Remedies Aspects Of The Tort Claims Act, Fred Blanton

Vanderbilt Law Review

Dramatically altering the concept of sovereign responsibility in the field of injuries to person and property, the Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946 in action has progressed steadily by application and interpretation to emerge as one of the most, if not the most, important pieces of domestic legislation enacted during the past decade. This ascendency has transpired primarily because the overwhelming majority of courts have boldly taken a dynamic approach to the inevitable problems occurring and recurring in a day-to-day consideration of the multitude of factual permutations and combinations presented to them for analysis and decision under the Act. Generally …

Falsification As Contempt, Stephen D. Potts

Vanderbilt Law Review

The last twenty years have been witness first to an expansion and then to a retrenchment of constitutionally protected civil liberties. The exercise of the contempt power is an area in which constitutional limitations on modes of procedure are inapplicable so long as the power is used to preserve the judiciary.'

Contempts are either direct or constructive. Direct contempts are committed in the presence of the court whereas constructive contempts are committed outside the presence of the court. This distinction is significant in that direct contempts are punishable without a formulated charge, hearing or formal judgment of guilt. Constructive contempts …

A Study Of Interpretation In The Civil Law, Mitchell Franklin

Vanderbilt Law Review

Pound has indicated that comprehensively law connotes legal precepts, received legal ideals or ideological aims, and professional legal method or process.' Historically the interpretation of law in the main has been professional, such power being exercised by means of juristic ideas pertaining to legal method.

Hence Coke referred to the "artificial reason" of the English common law; and Windscheid said that the legal method of the Roman law was not a science, but an "art" (Kunst), which had to be learned through experience as well as through theory.

Past attempts to defeat such esoteric control of law have not been …

The Violation Of A Municipal Ordinance As A Crime, Stanley D. Rose

Vanderbilt Law Review

The county of Winnebago passed such an ordinance and McDonald was charged with a violation of it. McDonald demanded a jury, and Judge Schniege of the municipal court ordered it. Because no provision for a jury trial was in the ordinance, Keefe, the county district attorney, petitioned the circuit court for a writ of prohibition to prevent the enforcement of the municipal court's order for a jury trial. The circuit court denied the petition. On appeal, the supreme court reversed this denial. Judge Fairchild based his decision on the following chain of reasoning:

1. The power to define crimes is …