Contracts Commons^™

De Minimis Non Curat Lex, Max L. Veech, Charles R. Moon

Michigan Law Review

An age-old maxim often applied but infrequently rationalized is that of de minimus non curat lex. In the recent case of Steve Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Company, the United States Supreme Court focused attention upon the doctrine by ruling that it should be applied in determining whether "walking time" and other "preliminary activities" constitute "work" for which employees are entitled to compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The so-called "portal-to-portal" problems which have arisen as a result of the last mentioned ruling make timely a discussion of the origin, meaning, function and application of …

Patents - Validity Of Contracts To Assign Employee's Future Inventions To Employer, Lloyd M. Forster

Michigan Law Review

The relative rights of employer and employee to the fruits of the employee's inventive genius have become increasingly important. In deciding these rights the courts have shown a marked tendency to favor the employee, possibly to compensate for the superior bargaining power of the employer. They have been anxious to limit the rights in the employer implied by the relationship of the parties. Contractual ambiguities have been construed in favor of the employee to a far greater extent than is called for by the rule of construction against the party drawing the contract. Unusual rights in the employer must be …

Labor Law - Right Of Employee To Sue On Collective Bargaining Contract Between Employer And Union, David Davidoff

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, a theatre owner, in March, 1939, entered into a collective bargaining contract with a local union by the terms of which he agreed to hire only union operators, to pay them a specified wage, and to give them two weeks' notice of their discharge, or two weeks' salary in lieu thereof, should he decide to go out of business. Plaintiff, a union member, was employed by the defendant from March, 1939, until he was discharged in December, 1939. It appeared that this discharge was occasioned by defendant's sale of his theatre and retirement from the business. Plaintiff sued for …

Labor Law - Jurisdictional Dispute - Validity Of Disposition By The A. F. Of L., Reed T. Phalan

Michigan Law Review

Both the Brewery Workers Union and the Teamsters Union, members of the American Federation of Labor, demanded jurisdiction over drivers of brewery wagons and trucks. In 1933, the Federation decided the controversy in favor of the Teamsters Union. The Brewery Workers Union refused to abide by this decision and filed suit for an injunction to restrain the Teamsters Union and the Federation from carrying out the decision. The lower court granted the injunction, construing the certificate of participation granted the Brewery Workers Union by the Federation as giving a contract right of prior and exclusive jurisdiction over the disputed group …

The Present Status Of Collective Contracts In The American Legal System, Arthur Lenhoff

Michigan Law Review

Can it be that less than a score of years has elapsed since Schlesinger v. Quinto pointed out the difference between employment contracts and collective contracts? And yet in that short period the various objections recurrently raised regarding the enforceability of these contracts, such as lack of consideration and of mutuality as well as the dictate of the "personal service" rule, came to be disregarded. At a time when employers are not only obliged to bargain collectively but also, after reaching an agreement, to reduce it to writing, reminiscences of the "custom" doctrine must, indeed, resemble the frozen sounds in …

Labor Law - National Labor Relations Act - Necessity Of A Written Contract To Meet Requirement Of Good Faith Collective Bargaining, Rex B. Martin

Michigan Law Review

Having found that the petitioner, by refusing to sign an agreement reached with the union, was refusing to bargain collectively, the National Labor Relations Board ordered it to bargain by signing a written agreement. The Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit directed enforcement of the board's order. On certiorari to that court, held that the board's order should be enforced. H.J. Heinz Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, (U. S. 1941) 61 S. Ct. 320, affirming (C. C. A. 6th, 1940) 110 F. (2d) 843.

Contracts-Attempts Of Employers To Contract Against Future Competition Of Employees [A. J. Canfield Co. V. Mcgee, Ill. 1940].

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Labor Law - Collective Agreements- Validity After Change Of Union Affiliation By Employees, William F. Andersen

Michigan Law Review

Among the problems raised in magnified form by the AFL-CIO schism is the determination of rights and duties under a collective agreement when there is a change in affiliation of the members of the union which negotiated the agreement. Suppose that union A, as sole bargaining representative for the employees in the particular unit, has negotiated an agreement with the employer, that thereafter a majority of union A shift their allegiance to union B. Does the agreement continue to canter rights upon employees who have changed their affiliation? Upon the employees who have not changed their affiliation? This …

The Legal Significance Of Labor Contracts Under The National Labor Relations Act, William Gorham Rice Jr.

Michigan Law Review

The National Labor Relations Act was passed, as it declares in its first section, to encourage "the practice and procedure of collective bargaining'' and to give workers freedom to designate "representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment"; and the last of the unfair labor practices named in section 8 is for an employer "to refuse to bargain collectively." Bargaining and negotiating, the National Labor Relations Board has repeatedly declared, must be done in good faith. Discussion is not true negotiation or bargaining. For the employer to bargain in good faith …

Legislación Obrera : Legislación Cubana Del Trabajo, Miguel M. Calella Sanz

Mario Diaz Cruz Pamphlets

Primera Edición.

Cuadernos de Legislación Obrera No. 3

Contracts--Consideration For Pension Agreement, Paul Leo Oberst

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Contracts - Illegality - Enforcement Of Contract Declared "Invalid" By Statute, Amos J. Coffman

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff was injured while in the employ of defendant. Thereupon the defendant agreed to give the plaintiff employment for life if he would not prosecute the claim before the State Industrial Commission. After thirteen years plaintiff was summarily discharged. The time having elapsed for filing a claim with the Industrial Commission, he brought this action for breach of contract. Statutes of Oklahoma provide that no agreement to waive the right to compensation shall be valid and that claims shall not be released. The lower court awarded plaintiff $3,000 damages. Defendant appealed. Held, the rule that invalid contracts will not …

Contracts - Definiteness - Effect Of Provision In Employment Contract For Termination Only By Mutual Consent, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff entered into a written contract with defendant whereby defendant was to employ plaintiff as a salesman and plaintiff was to receive a salary of seven per cent of the annual profits of defendant's business with a guaranteed drawing account of forty-five dollars per week. The agreement provided that it should be terminable only by the mutual consent of both parties and contained no other stipulation for duration. Plaintiff was employed under the agreement from August 1912 until April 1933, when he was discharged because of a decrease in defendant's business. Held, that the contract was too indefinite to …

Gulf, M. & N. R. Co. V. Illinois Cent. R. Co.--Specific Performance--Denial Upon The Ground Of Public Interest In Preventing A Railroad Strike, Jo M. Ferguson

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Repeal Of The Teacher's Act As Impairment Of The Obligation Of Contract

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Contracts - Interpretation - "Permanent Employment'', Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a consulting engineer, had developed a clientele affording him a weekly income of $200, and was considering Purdue University's attractive offer of an associate professorship. Knowing these facts, defendant corporation proposed by telephone that if plaintiff would reject the Purdue offer and agree to purchase the home of defendant's power superintendent, it would give plaintiff permanent employment at a salary of $600 per month. Relying thereon, plaintiff immediately accepted, rejecting the Purdue offer, contracting to purchase the home, and performing his duties under the employment contract for about twenty-two months, after which defendant discharged him without cause. In affirming …

Corporations - Identity As Basis For Enforcing Contract Of Predecessor Against Successor - Fraud

Michigan Law Review

The stockholders and officers of the Old South Engraving Company, wishing to escape a contract whereby that corporation was bound to hire only union labor, organized the Old South Photoengraving Corporation which purchased the business of the Engraving Company, giving therefor 9,000 of the issue of 12,000 no-par shares and issuing the rest to the stockholders of the Engraving Company in proportion to their holdings therein. It was announced that the Engraving Company would cease operating Saturday, June 4, and employees were given due notice. On Monday, June 6, the new company began operating at the same location with non-union …

National Industrial Recovery Act - President's Re-Employment Agreement - Injunction By Labor Union

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a Wisconsin labor union, was granted a temporary injunction restraining defendant shoe company, a party to the President's Re-employment Agreement, from "further interference with the right of its employes to organize into unions of their own free will and choice" and from "interfering with . . . the freedom of its employes in the designation of representatives of their own choice for the purpose of bargaining collectively" with the company. The court decided that defendant had violated its agreement with the President to comply with section 7 (a) of the National Industrial Recovery Act. This last was based on …

Contracts - Duration Of Employment When No Time Is Specified

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff, claiming a contract from year to year, sued to recover for the unexpired portion of the second year of his employment which defendant had terminated. The offer, made and accepted by mail, was for "the position of General Sales Manager at a salary of $15,000 per year to begin with . . . . " It further appeared that plaintiff had moved from New York to Milwaukee, that he had been making more money per year prior to this employment, and that payment by defendant had been made monthly. Held, that the hiring was indefinite and terminable …

Municipal Corporations - Effect Of The Lowest Responsible Bidder Statutes On "Local Labor" Provisions

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff, a taxpayer, brought a bill to prevent the defendant from carrying out a contract with a certain construction company. The plaintiff alleged that the requirement in the proposal for bids that all laborers should have been residents of Delaware for at least six months prior to the awarding of the contract violated the lowest responsible bidder statute. Held, it not having been shown that the requirement would, as a matter pf fact, increase the cost, it therefore did not violate the statute, Ebbeson v. The Board of Public Education in Wilmington, (Del. 1931) 156 Atl. 286.

Contracts-Beneficiaries-Right Of Employee To Sue On A Contract Made Between Employer And Union

Michigan Law Review

Defendant agreed with an employees' union that its employees would not be discharged without cause or without a hearing. The plaintiff, who entered into an employment contract with the defendant for an indefinite term, was discharged by the latter without a hearing, and sued as a third party beneficiary for breach of the defendant's agreement with the union. Held, in Johnson v. Am. Ry Express Co., that this agreement was a valid third party beneficiary contract, and so enforcible by the plaintiff who was one of the parties intended to be benefited by it.

Equitable Relief In Contracts Involving Personal Services, James Lewis Parks

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Recent Important Decisions; Book Reviews, Edwin C. Goddard, John R. Rood

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions and book reviews.

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Note And Comment, John B. Waite, Werner W. Schroeder, Russell H. Neilson, Harry L. Bell, Walter F. Whitman, C E. Eldridge

Michigan Law Review

Recovery of the Purchase Price Before Title Has Passed - In an action recently instituted' by The General Electric Co. to recover on a contract to manufacture certain machinery for the defendant, which machinery the defendant had refused to accept, the trial court adopted the contract price as the measure of damages. The upper court approved this measure of damages, rejecting the argument that the measure should have been the difference between the market value and the contract price, and dismissed, as no longer appropriate to modern conditions, the decisions in Bement v. Smith, 15 Wend. (N. Y.) 493, and …

Note And Comment, John B. Waite, Henry Rottschaefer, Roswell B. O'Harra, Leslie C. Mcclelland, Russell B. James, Hollis Harshman

Michigan Law Review

The Completion of a Contract by Posting of Acceptance - In the recent case of Kennedy Mcrcantile Co. v. Western Union Telegraph Co., the court says, "It is well settled law in this state that,where an offer is submitted by letter, an acceptance is conclusive and binding when a letter is deposited in the post-office accepting the same. The delivery to the one making the offer is not the test; for when the offer is submitted in that way it is equivalent to an invitation to accept by the same means, and when the acceptance is delivered to the agency …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Note And Comment, Harry W. Lippincott, John S. Kelley Jr, George E. Kennedy, Louis R. Lackey

Michigan Law Review

Mutuality in Automobile Agency Contracts - Within the past few years several courts have had to pass upon and construe argreements between the manufacturers and the selling-agents of automoobiles, which have necessitated a thorough discussion of the principles of mutuality of obligation of contracts. The attempt to reach a correct solution has developed a vigorous difference of opinion on the subject in some recent cases which it may be of interest to discuss and compare.

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.