Common Law Commons^™

The Application Of The Substitution Of Judgment Doctrine In Planning An Incompetent's Estate, Michael P. Kane

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Statute Of Frauds--The Doctrine Of Equitable Estoppel And The Statute Of Frauds, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In 1677 the English Parliament enacted the first Statute of Frauds to prevent "many fraudulent practices, which are commonly endeavored to be upheld by perjury and subornation of perjury." The trial system then existing in England was forced to depend upon unreliable juries, and relied upon few rules of evidence besides the rule treating parties to an action as incompetent witnesses. Thus, in passing the Statute, Parliament sought to minimize the abuses possible under the trial system by providing that virtually no important contract would be enforceable unless reduced to writing.

Federal Rule 44.1 And The "Fact" Approach To Determining Foreign Law: Death Knell For A Die-Hard Doctrine, Arthur R. Miller

Michigan Law Review

The objective of this article is to analyze Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 44.1, which was developed as part of the reforms of the last decade and became effective on July 1, 1966 and to assess its capacity to rationalize the process of determining foreign law in the federal courts. What follows is an excursion through the past doctrine and into the probable future treatment of foreign law in the federal courts, an exploration of the interrelationship between the new Rule and other phases of federal civil procedure, and an analysis of the prospect that the Rule's effectiveness may be …

Tracing The Concept Of Patentable Invention, Edward B. Gregg

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Courts-State Substantive Law Applies In Non-Diversity Actions When Local Interests Predominate-United States V. Yazell, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Respondent and her husband received an authorization for a Small Business Administration (SBA) disaster loan and were referred by the SBA Disaster Loan Office to a local counsel employed by the SBA to aid them in complying with the terms of the loan. After personal negotiations with the counsel, a promissory note was signed by the couple on SBA forms specifically tailored to conform to the requirements of state law. This contract was then submitted to the SBA along with a signed chattel mortgage on the Yazell's store fixtures and inventory and a certification by the local counsel that all …

Territorial Courts And Law: Unifying Factors In The Development Of American Legal Institutions-Pt.1-Establishment Of A Standardized Judicial System, William Wirt Blume, Elizabeth Gaspar Brown

Michigan Law Review

The United States first became a sovereign nation when individual states of the Confederation ceded to the states collectively their several interests in the lands west of the Appalachians which lay east of the Mississippi, north of Spanish Florida, and south of the Great Lakes. This area had been relinquished by Great Britain by the Treaty of 1783 and, with the exception of Kentucky, now became the property of the United States. It was the first area over which the states as a group had complete sovereignty, subject only to the claims of the various Indian tribes. Colonies fresh from …

Chancery Practice On The American Frontier: A Study Of The Records Of The Supreme Court Of Michigan Territory, 1805-1836, William Wirt Blume

Michigan Law Review

The act of Congress of January 11, 1805, which created Michigan Territory out of Indiana Territory, provided that the new territory should have a government "in all respects similar" to that provided for the Northwest Territory by the Ordinance of 1787. The Ordinance had provided for the appointment of a court to consist of three judges who should have "a common law jurisdiction. "

Constitutional Law - Right To Jury Trial In Indirect Criminal Contempts In Federal Courts, Denis T. Rice S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Should constitutional provisions for jury trial apply to contempts committed outside the physical presence of a federal court? The United States Supreme Court, in the recent case of Green v. United States, reviewed this long disputed question. The case involved two Communist Party leaders who had been convicted of Smith Act violations and then had "jumped bail" when they disappeared in violation of surrender orders requiring their presence in court for sentencing. After four and a half years as fugitives they surrendered in 1956 and were charged with criminal contempt of court. Following a so-called "summary" hearing (without the …

Civil Procedure On The American Frontier, William Wirt Blume

Michigan Law Review

The Treaty of Greenville (1795) by which Indian tribes of the Northwest Territory ceded to the United States the eastern and southern parts of the area which later became the state of Ohio, provided that certain small areas north and west of the treaty line should also be ceded.

Federal Procedure - Availability Of Coram Nobis In Federal Cases Involving Right Of Counsel, John Leddy S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

ln 1939 Robert Morgan pleaded guilty to a charge of mail theft and was sentenced by a federal district court to four years imprisonment. He served the term and was released. In 1950 he was convicted of a crime in New York state and sentenced as a second offender because of his previous federal conviction. In 1952 he made application to the district court of original sentence for a common law writ of coram nobis, seeking an order vacating and setting aside his conviction by that court on the ground that he was not given assistance of counsel and had …

Trade-Marks And The Monopoly Phobia, Beverly W. Pattishall

Michigan Law Review

If it can be said that trade-mark rights are, in fact, monopoly rights, it must be added that they are monopoly rights justified in the same way that one's own particular physiognomy is a monopoly or one's rights enumerated in the first ten amendments to the Constitution are individual monopolies.

Promissory Estoppel: Principle From Precedents: I, Benjamin F. Boyer

Michigan Law Review

The doctrine of promissory estoppel is an outstanding modem example of the way in which the Anglo-American legal system develops significant rules and principles out of the day-to-day decisions of our courts.

Progress in the law comes about through the formulation and acceptance of generalizations. However, merely stating the results of a number of different instances does not result in clarification and simplification. That comes only when the precedents are studied with a view to discovering the ''binding thread of principle that runs through them all." Such a principle, if discovered in the course of the appraisal of a series …

The Common Law: An Account Of Its Reception In The United States, Ford W. Hall

Vanderbilt Law Review

The story of the extent to which the common law of England has been received and applied in the United States, is one of the most interesting and important chapters in American legal history. However, many courts and writers have shown a tendency simply to say that our colonial forefathers brought the common law of England with them, and there has often been little or no inclination to look further into the question. Nevertheless, the problem of the reception of the common law in America has at various times occupied the attention of many of our most eminent jurists and …

Federal Courts-Granting Of New Trial On Initiative Of The Court, William F. Snyder S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Following conviction for violation of a federal statute, petitioner was granted his release on a writ of habeas corpus by a federal district court, on the basis of uncontroverted testimony that his counsel had not been present when the jury returned its verdict. Within ten days of this release, a motion for rehearing was filed, supported by affidavits that his counsel actually had been present. On subsequent hearing, the court set aside its former order and remanded petitioner to custody, on the theory that his release was obtained by means of a fraud on the Court. The present action was …

And This, Too, O King, Shall Change And Pass Away, C. T. Graydon

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Jury-Determination Of Damages By Appellate Court As Denial Of Right To Trial By Jury Given By Federal Law, William B. Harvey

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff's cause of action arose under the federal Merchant Marine Act, which grants a right to trial by jury. Plaintiff recovered judgment and on appeal defendant asked the court to determine the damages pursuant to provision in the Oregon Constitution vesting in the supreme court the power to determine from the evidence the extent of a plaintiff's damages and to direct the entry of a final judgment for the amount thereof, on appeal from a jury's verdict awarding damages claimed by the defendant to be excessive. Held, the provision is inapplicable in cases arising under the federal Merchant Marine …

Abatement And Revival-Federal Courts-Abatement Of Action By Federal Official Unless Successor Substituted As Party Plaintiff Within Six Months, John M. Veale S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The administrator of the Office of Price Administration began an action on behalf of the United States against the defendant to enforce certain penalties for the violation of the Emergency Price Control Act. While the action was pending the administrator was succeeded in office. Counsel for the government, however, failed to move to substitute his successor as a party plaintiff until more than six months thereafter. The defendant then moved to dismiss the action on the grounds that unless such substitution was made within the six months specified by section 780 of the Judicial Code and Rule 25(d), Federal Rules …

Jury -- Determination Of Damages By Appellate Court As Denial Of Right To Trial By Jury Given By Federal Law, William Burnett Harvey

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Balance Sheet Of Law And Religion, Frank E. Horack Jr.

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Scope Of A Civil Action, William Wirt Blume

Michigan Law Review

In the last fifty years the rules which deal with what Professor Millar happily has called "The Compass of the Cause" have shown "conspicuous advance." This advance is clearly reflected in the Rules of Civil Procedure of the District Courts of the United States, effective in 1938. It is the purpose of this paper, first, to present a complete analysis of the concept: scope of a civil action; second, to show the weaknesses of the codes in dealing with this concept; and, third, to indicate to what extent these, weaknesses have been remedied by the new …

Appeal And Error - Order Granting A New Trial As An Appealable Order, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

By an Ohio statute a final order might be reversed, vacated, or modified on appeal. After verdict was returned plaintiff filed a motion for a new trial claiming misconduct on the part of the jury. The trial court granted the motion and the defendant appealed. Held, the granting of a motion for a new trial is not a final order and, therefore, not subject to review, except in cases where it clearly appears from the record that the trial court has abused its discretion in granting the motion. Petro v. Donner, 137 Ohio St. 168, 28 N. E. …

Appeal And Error - Reviewability Of An Order Granting A New Trial, Robert M. Warren

Michigan Law Review

When a trial court sets aside a verdict and grants a new trial, the order may or may not be reviewable depending on the jurisdiction. In some jurisdictions which permit a review, the aggrieved party must save an exception to the order and assign this ruling as error when an appeal is ultimately taken from a subsequent appealable decision. In other jurisdictions, he may take an appeal directly from the order.

This comment will discuss (1) the common-law practice which permitted no review of an order granting a new trial; (2) the practice allowing the aggrieved party to save an …

Supreme Court Opinion Contradicting The Scintilla Rule, Joseph O'Meara

Journal Articles

The opinion of the supreme court in Cleveland Railway Co. v. Kukucz' cannot logically co-exist with the scintilla rule and, therefore, imperatively requires a re-examination of that trouble- some doctrine and a deliberate choice between it and the case referred to. The scintilla rule should be abandoned.

The Scintilla Rule, Joseph O'Meara

Journal Articles

The language quoted from Jacob Laub Baking Company v. Middleton, in which all concurred, will undoubtedly tend to increase the number of directed verdicts and appears to be, in effect, a repudiation of the scintilla rule. The problem, therefore, is to devise a formula which, while meeting the objections to the scintilla rule, will put the judge on notice that a greater degree of assurance is required to direct a verdict than to set one aside. Holding that the conclusion is against.the plaintiff beyond a reasonable doubt is not inconsistent with recognizing that there is "some evidence, however slight". The …

The Uniformity Of The Maritime Law, George L. Canfield

Michigan Law Review

In 1871, Richard Henry Dana commenced a masterly article on the "History of Admiralty Jurisdiction in the Supreme Court of the United States,'' by writing, "After seventy yea.rs of baffling winds and cross currents in the region of admiralty jurisdiction, the Supreme Court of the United States has sailed out into deep water." In 1924, Charles Merrill Hough concludes his delightful "Admiralty Jurisdiction-of Late Years," with the statement, "The years since 1906 have not increased the certainty of maritime law, and they have impaired the tradition of enforceable customs of the sea." And others writing in current legal periodicals have …

Coke-Parliamentary Sovereignty Or The Supremacy Of The Law?, R. A. Mackay

Michigan Law Review

Few legal authorities have received such conflicting interpretations as Sir Edward Coke. American jurists have turned to him as the legal father of judicial review, English jurists have found in him the authority for Parliamentary Supremacy, The cause of these conflicting interpretations is partly Coke's obscure style. Coke was an encyclopedist rather than a philosopher of the law: his ideas must be dug out and fused together from an heterogeneous mass of apparently unrelated statements. Even his Reports are legal and literary puzzles, a mixture of advocates' pleas, judicial decisions, and probably Sir Edward Coke's personal opinions as well. Hence …

Departure From Precedent, H W. Humble

Michigan Law Review

With the death of the reason for it, every legal doctrine dies.' * * * The fact that the reason for a given rule perished long ago is no just excuse for refusing now to declare the rule itself abrogated, but rather the greater justification for so declaring; and if no, reason ever existed, that fact furnishes additional justification. The doctrine of stare decisis does not preclude a departure from precedent established by a series of decisions clearly erroneous, unless property complications have resulted and a reversal would work a greater injury and injustice than would ensue by following the …

Damage Liability Of Charitable Institutions, Carl Zollman

Michigan Law Review

The question of the liability of charitable institutions to actions for damages presents great difficulties. This is not due how- -ever to a lack of cases. The question has peculiarly "engaged the attention of the bench and bar of the country. The problem has been scrutinized from every conceivable viewpoint. The arguments for and against have well nigh been exhausted, and little, if anything, new remains to be advanced".' In their opinions the courts have frequently gone back to certain English cases disregarding the points decided but stressing certain dicta which have been uttered by the judges which decided them. …

Note And Comment, Ralph W. Aigler, Charles L. Kaufman, Edwin D. Dickinson, Lester S. Hecht, Leon L. Greenbaum

Michigan Law Review

Judicial Reform in Michigan - The legislature which has been in regular session this year has enacted a measure enlarging the scope of judicial action in a way likely to add very greatly to the iusefulness of the courts. This law authorizes courts of record to make binding declarations of the rights of parties prior to the commission of a wrongful act

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Arrest - Right of Officer to Kill when Serving Warrant for Misdimeanor- Defendant-had a warrant for the arrest of one White, charging him with being drunk and disorderly. When the defendant served the warrant, White advanced upon him with an open knife. Although the defendant had a chance to escape through an open door, he shot and wounded White. In the prosecution of defendant for shooting and wounding White, it was held that the defendant was justified in shooting him. State v. Dunning (N. C., igig), 98 S. E. 530