Commercial Law Commons^™

Review: Watkins On Shippers And Carriers, Chas. E. Cullen

Michigan Law Review

A Book Review on WATKINS ON SHIPPERS AND CARRIERS Fourth edition by Edgar Watkins assisted by J. Halden Alldredge.

Public Utilities-Power Of Interstate Commerce Commision To Give Certificate Of Convenience And Necessity

Michigan Law Review

Certain coal fields in West Virginia are served by the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Norfolk and Western, and the Virginian railroads. The Chesapeake and the Norfolk compete for the westbound coal traffic coming over the Virginian which has no lines in the western part of these fields. The Interstate Commerce Commission authorized the Virginian to build a short connecting line which made possible much cheaper carriage over the Chesapeake, and authorized the Norfolk to construct a similar line in order to compete on equal terms. The Chesapeake sought a reversal on the ground that the Interstate Commerce Commission is not …

Sales - Warranty - Theory Of Implied Assignment

Michigan Law Review

In the recent case of Wood v. Advance Rumely Thresher Co., the following relevant facts appeared: the plaintiff signed an order for a tractor, knowing that the defendant's agent, who solicited the order, had no power to make a binding contract, and knowing, from the face of the order, that there would be no contract till it was accepted at the defendant's home office. The agent's employment was terminated before he sent the order in, so he turned it over to another dealer. The latter did not forward the order to the defendant, but wrote a new one, signed …

Sales-Implied Warranty Of Fitness Under Uniform Act

Michigan Law Review

Defendants, being in need of a coal stoker that would accomplish a particular purpose, made their desires known to plaintiffs. Plaintiffs sold defendants a certain stoker under its trade name, assuring them that it would accomplish their purpose. Defendants were entire.ly ignorant as to the ability or capacity of the stoker and did not know that it even had a trade name, and plaintiffs made the sale knowing that defendants were unfamiliar with the equipment and its operation. The Uniform Sales Act, in force in the jurisdiction, provides in subd. 1 that where the buyer reveals the purpose for which …

Carriers-Liability For Loss Of Goods-Connecting Carriers In Foreign Commerce

Michigan Law Review

A box of furs, shipped from London, England, to New York City, U. S. A., over the line of the defendant navigation company, was delivered to the defendant trucking company at the order of the United States because the duties had not been paid. The trucking company delivered it to the defendant warehouse where it remained a week before being moved by the same trucking company to the United States Appraisal Stores. Here it was discovered that some of the furs had been stolen from the box. Held, the defendant navigation company was not liable as initial carrier under …

Sales-Rescission For Breach Of Warranty-Use Or Payment After Knowledge Of Defects

Michigan Law Review

In February, plaintiff sold defendant a cement mixer with, as defendant claimed, an express warranty. It did not work properly, and attempts were made by both parties to put it in order. Plaintiff refused to aid further, but defendant claimed that plaintiff earnestly requested him to make a further trial. In June, defendant made a payment. In September, he gave up attempts to make the machine work and notified plaintiff to take it back. Plaintiff sued for the balance of the price. Held, by defendant's version of the facts he had at one time a right to rescind. It …

Intoxicating Liquors-Liability Of Purchaser To Federal Prosecution

Michigan Law Review

Considering the tremendous amount of public interest evinced in all cases arising under the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act, it seems strange, at first glance, that more attention has not been paid by the courts to the purchaser of intoxicating beverages. Since the passage of the National Prohibition Act the dockets have been crowded with cases dealing with the sale, manufacture, and transportation of intoxicants, but it was not until ten years after the passage of the Act that the United States Supreme Court was asked to consider the legality of the purchase of liquor as such. The question …

Sales-Passage Of Title Before Payment Of Purchase Price

Michigan Law Review

In January, S agreed to sell his business to the plaintiff, who went into possession, took over the lease, and operated the business. He did not have sufficient money to pay the purchase price at the time, and no bill of sale was given. A creditor of S took judgment on a promissory note made by S, of the existence of which note the plaintiff first became aware in February, and levied execution on the goods in the store. The plaintiff filed a claim of property. Held, that there was no sale at the time of the transfer of …

Sales-Purchase In Good Faith-Effect

Michigan Law Review

The defendant put an automobile sales company in possession of several used automobiles, the sales company to exhibit them and obtain offers for them, but to sell only on written order from the defendant. The sales company sold an auto to the plaintiff without such written order. Held, that the plaintiff had good title, the requirement of a written order as a prerequisite to the power to sell being a secret instruction not binding on an innocent purchaser for value. Simons v. Northeastern Finance Corp. (Mass. 1930) 171 N.E. 643.

Sales-Conditional-Resale By Seller

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff bought a truck under a conditional sales contract. Defendant, as assignee of the vendor, retook possession of the truck when plaintiff defaulted in his payments and undertook by sale of the truck to foreclose plaintiff's rights therein. The Uniform Conditional Sales Act, in force in the jurisdiction, provided for a compulsory resale at public auction by the retaking seller. He was required to give notice of the sale by registered letter to the buyer, by newspaper advertisement, and by three notices posted in public places. Defendant failed to post the three notices. Plaintiff then brought suit for conversion and …

Carriers - Liability For Goods Lost By Express Company While Performing Service Contrary To The Filed Tariff

Michigan Law Review

The filed tariff of the defendant express company provided that packages containing money would be received only when delivered at the office of the express company. It was the custom of the defendant. contrary to the tariff provisions, to send a special truck to the office of the shippers when notified that money was to be transported. A shipment oi the plaintiff was thus called for, and the money lost when the truck was held up on the way to the express office. Defendant contended that the service was in violation of the tariff, and that no recovery could be …

Sales-Conditional Sales-Resale By Seller

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff bought fourteen cabs from defendant on a conditional sate contract, and after paying more than fifty per cent of the purchase price defaulted in his payments. Defendant then retook possession of the cabs and undertook to foreclose plaintiff's interest therein by a resale at public auction, as required by the Uniform Conditional Sales Act, in force in the jurisdiction. The specific requirements of the Act relative to notice of the sale were complied with, but the notices did not state where the cabs were being kept, and at the time of the sale they were in a garage miles …

Pleading-Counterclaim-Shipper's Counterclaim In Carrier's Action For Freight No Violation Of Interstate Commerce Act

Michigan Law Review

See note, supra, on Chicago and N. W. Ry. v. Lindell, 281 U. S. 14, 50 Sup. Ct. 2co, 74 L. ed. (Adv, Op. 272), at page 245 of this number.

Carriers-Counterclaim-Shipper's Counterclaim In Carrier's Action For Freight, As Illegal Discrimination

Michigan Law Review

To the railroad's action to recover unpaid freight, the shipper set up as a counterclaim his loss (an amount greater than the freight) from damage to that shipment due to the plaintiff's negligence. The United States district court for the southern district of California held for the defendant, that this might be done. Upon appeal, the circuit court of appeals for the ninth circuit certified the question: Where a carrier brings an action at law to recover freight charges-in a district where state law provides that if a defendant fails to set up a counterclaim arising out of the transaction …

Corporations-Stock Conversion-Obligation Of Interstate Carrier

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, holding preferred stock of the defendant railroad convertible into common stock, sought to exercise his right of conversion, and on the railroad's failure to comply, filed the present suit for damages. The answer set up as an affirmative defense that the defendant, an interstate common carrier, is subject to the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission; by the 1920 amendment to the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U. S. C. A. sec. 20a, it was made unlawful for any carrier to issue stock except by the Commission's sanction; on Feb. 7, 1927, for the first time demand was made for …

The Immunity Of Foreign States When Engaged In Commercial Enterprises: A Proposed Solution, John G. Hervey

Michigan Law Review

Do governments which engage in commercial undertakings assume the civil and criminal liabilities imposed upon private corporations engaged in similar enterprises, or do governments confer sovereign privileges upon their undertakings? Can governments engage in commercial enterprises and thereby escape the liabilities imposed upon private individuals? More particularly, are foreign governments engaged in such undertakings exempt from process in the American courts?

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

The Radio And Interstate Commerce

Michigan Law Review

As each newly discovered scientific principle is taken advantage of in the practical world, new legal problems arise around it. One way or another it is eventually taken care of by the expansion of the legal system to embrace the new situation. The discovery of radio transmission is an example made striking by the extraordinary speed with which it has become a part of the people's daily life and the conflicts of interest that are peculiar to it. The law found itself relieved of many of the embarrassments in dealing with the problem by the fact that Congress early undertook …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Interstate Ferries And The Commerce Clause, C. M. Kneier

Michigan Law Review

The Constitution of the United States confers upon Congress the power to regulate commerce among the several states; the transportation of passengers and freight across a navigable river from one state to another by ferryboat, however short the distance traversed, or frequent the trips made, is interstate commerce. It is the purpose of this study to point out what action Congress has taken under the power thus conferred upon it relative to interstate ferries and to determine the relative spheres of authority of the states and of the National Government over this subject.

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 …

Activity Subsequent To Interstate Commerce, Elcanon Isaacs

Michigan Law Review

With the commerce clause as the basis of distinction, courts have divided business into two classes, that which is interstate and that which is not. The first is considered to involve transportation across state boundary lines; the second is referred to business in which the crossing of state lines is not a factor. It must appear, however, in a consideration of the second class, that activity which is local because it has never involved movement requires a different approach from activity which is local because transportation has ended. The former must be analyzed for its intrinsic nature; it may even …

Passenger Tickets As Contracts, Edwin C. Goddard

Michigan Law Review

The most important right of the common carrier of passengers is his right to compensation. He carries for hire. This compensation he ordinarily collects by selling to the prospective passenger a ticket. Of these tickets there are many varieties, from the simple rectangular bit of cardboard, with the printed statement that it is good for one ride from X to Y, to the long coupon ticket, with elaborate provisions in fine print, providing for the passenger knows not what. What is the legal character of this ticket?

Carriers-Can Carrier Who Delivers To Improper Person Replevy From The Vendee Of That Person?

Michigan Law Review

When a carrier delivers goods to an improper person, a nice question arises as to whether the carrier may recover the goods from a bona fide purchaser who bought from the one to whom the carrier delivered. Let us consider first a comparatively simple case.

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Carriers-Limit Of Liability In Bill Of Lading Where Carrier Converts Shipment

Michigan Law Review

The Carmack and Cummins Amendments to the act of 1887 have wrought some startling changes in the law applicable to interstate shipments. But the end is not yet. The provision in those amendments which makes the initial carrier liable on a bona fide contract, to the amount fixed in the published tariff, "for loss, damage or injury to such property, caused by it or by any common carrier * * * to which such property may be delivered or over whose line or lines such property may pass", provokes the question as to how broadly that provision is going to …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Recognition Of New Types Of Negotiable Instruments, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

“The expression ‘negotiable instrument’ is one of variable meaning, and what is meant thereby often can be determined only by the context… Primarily ‘negotiable’ indicates transferability with a certain facility…..

“It may be not without interest to consider how instruments gain the negotiable quality and to trace, sketchily perhaps, the process of recognition.”

Constitutional Law-Interstate Commerce-The Transportation Act Of 1920

Michigan Law Review

Contemporaneous comments on Supreme Court decisions involving the "due process" clause too often resolve themselves into mere "debates" as to the wisdom of the particular legislation in question, either from the standpoint of the ultimate object to be accomplished or the methods adopted for its accomplishment. Strongest adherents of our unique system of judicial review must admit that, after all, the duty of the Supreme Court consists primarily in determining whether or not the legislation before it is valid, not whether it is, or is not, a politic enactment.