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Full-Text Articles in Contracts

The Constitution, The Legislature, And Unfair Surprise: Toward A Reliance-Based Approach To The Contract Clause, Robert A. Graham Nov 1993

The Constitution, The Legislature, And Unfair Surprise: Toward A Reliance-Based Approach To The Contract Clause, Robert A. Graham

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that the Court should return to a reliance-based approach to Contract Clause challenges, fashioned loosely along the same lines as the HRID. Although it does not advocate that the Court revivify the rules created by the early decisions, the Note proposes that the Court look to the private parties' expectations and, more specifically, to the reasonableness of those expectations in deciding the clause's applicability to a particular case. Part I provides a brief history of the Contract Clause and its development. This Part follows the clause from the Constitutional Convention through the 1980s to illustrate the Court's …


Residential Tenants And Their Leases: An Empirical Study, Warren Mueller Dec 1970

Residential Tenants And Their Leases: An Empirical Study, Warren Mueller

Michigan Law Review

Of particular interest is the application of this theory to residential leases, a classic example of the standard long-form contract. An abundance of traditional legal research and commentary has been devoted to the problem of disparity of bargaining power between the parties to a standard-form residential lease. The commentators have consistently called for reform measures to combat this problem. In order to adopt sensible and effective reform measures, however, it is first necessary to obtain factual data with which to test and clarify the reformers' underlying assumptions. Such data is virtually nonexistent, since, prior to the study described in this …


A Radical Restatement Of The Law Of Seller's Damages: Michigan Results Compared, Robert J. Harris Mar 1963

A Radical Restatement Of The Law Of Seller's Damages: Michigan Results Compared, Robert J. Harris

Michigan Law Review

Conventional doctrine does not address itself directly to the choice among valuation techniques, although the various parochial damage formulae give some clues. Underlying this series of articles is an assumption that the doctrine makes more sense when restated in valuation terms. These articles involve an effort to restate in such terms one sector of expectation damage law-the part that governs cases in which plaintiff is a "seller."


Municipal Corporations - Contracts - Ratification And Estoppel In Contracts Made By Unauthorized Agent, Edward M. Heppenstall Apr 1958

Municipal Corporations - Contracts - Ratification And Estoppel In Contracts Made By Unauthorized Agent, Edward M. Heppenstall

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff's infant daughter, admitted to Newark City Hospital as an emergency case, received hospitalization and medical treatment worth $1,190 during her seventy-day period of confinement. The medical director of the hospital had made an agreement with the Hospital Service Plan of New Jersey which provided that regardless of the amount or quality of the hospitalization required, payment of the flat sum of $100 for any subscriber-patient would constitute payment in full to the city. The city accepted the $100 check paid by the Plan as billed by the hospital for the care of the child. In order to facilitate settlement …


Constitutional Law - State Action - Effect Of State Court Interpretation Of A Contract, Dudley H. Chapman Apr 1957

Constitutional Law - State Action - Effect Of State Court Interpretation Of A Contract, Dudley H. Chapman

Michigan Law Review

Mrs. Doris Walker, president of her local union, was discharged by Cutter Laboratories in 1949 because of membership in the Communist Party and falsification of her employment application. The employer acquired knowledge of these facts in 1947, but did not act at that time to avoid charges of persecuting a union officer. The union, pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement, which authorized discharge for "just cause" only, sought and obtained reinstatement from the arbitration board, which action was affirmed by the district court of appeal, but reversed by the California Supreme Court. On certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, …


Corporations - Stockholders - Effect Of State Constitutional Provisions On Liabilty To Creditors For Unpaid Subscriptions, Douglas Peck S.Ed. Dec 1955

Corporations - Stockholders - Effect Of State Constitutional Provisions On Liabilty To Creditors For Unpaid Subscriptions, Douglas Peck S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Basset and Company, an Oklahoma corporation, issued stock to defendant for which defendant never paid. The sum due was carried on the corporate books as "subscriptions receivable." The corporation became bankrupt and the trustee brought suit in the federal district court to recover the amount due on the subscriptions. Held, judgment for the defendant. Under the Oklahoma Constitution, where stock is issued for consideration which is less than par value, the issue is void. The stock certificate cannot serve as a consideration to support the would-be stockholder's promise to pay for the stock, and no liability attaches to the …


Contracts - Municipal Corporations - Revocability Of Offer Submitted Under Statutory Competitive Bidding, Richard H. Conn Jun 1949

Contracts - Municipal Corporations - Revocability Of Offer Submitted Under Statutory Competitive Bidding, Richard H. Conn

Michigan Law Review

In accordance with statutory provisions, the city commissioners of Atlantic City advertised for bids for certain public improvements. Plaintiff submitted a sealed bid accompanied by a deposit of $5,000, as required by the advertisement, to guarantee execution of the contract if it were the successful bidder. When the bids were opened, plaintiff was the lowest bidder by a considerable margin. Investigation disclosed that an appreciable error had been made in the calculation of its bid, however, and before any official action had been taken, plaintiff advised the city commission of the mistake and withdrew the bid. Nevertheless, the contract was …


Constitutional Law-Tax Exemption Contract, Grétel Schinnerer Mar 1948

Constitutional Law-Tax Exemption Contract, Grétel Schinnerer

Michigan Law Review

A charter granted in 1863 by the State of Georgia to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company provided as follows: "The stock of said company shall be subject to a tax not exceeding ½ per cent per annum on the net proceeds of its investments." In 1931, the Georgia legislature levied a tax of 5½ per cent on corporate net income. The railroad brought an action seeking to have an assignment under this tax declared invalid, on the theory that the tax as applied to the plaintiff railroad violated the contract clause of the federal Constitution. The Georgia Supreme Court …


Sunday Laws-Illegality Of Sunday Contracts, Robert O. Hancox S.Ed. Mar 1947

Sunday Laws-Illegality Of Sunday Contracts, Robert O. Hancox S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The concept of the Sabbath, the setting apart of one day in seven as a day of rest, was derived from the Mosaic code, the Fourth Commandment directs abstention from labor on the seventh day of the week, and although there is nothing in the New Testament relating to Sunday, the Christian world adopted the first day of the week as a day of rest. Constantine, by an edict in 321 A.D., ordered the suspension on Sunday of all business in the courts of law, except the manumission of slaves, and all other- business except agricultural labor.


Constitutional Law - Due Process Limitations On Statutes Regulating Extrastate Contracts, Michigan Law Review Aug 1943

Constitutional Law - Due Process Limitations On Statutes Regulating Extrastate Contracts, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs, reciprocal insurance associations which insure against fire and related risks, and whose attorneys-in-fact are located in Illinois, brought a declaratory judgment action in New York state courts for a determination of the applicability to them of the New York law requiring that such co-operative insurance associations obtain a license, or be prohibited from doing "any act which effects, aids or promotes the doing of an insurance business" in New York. As a condition of the license, submission to the New York regulations is required. The activities of the associations within the state of New York include investigation by engineers …


Conflict Of Laws Relating To Installment Sales, Robert E. Lee Dec 1942

Conflict Of Laws Relating To Installment Sales, Robert E. Lee

Michigan Law Review

The most perplexing problem in the field of installment contracts probably occurs when property sold by a title-retaining instrument (conditional sale, chattel mortgage, or bailment lease) in one state is removed to another state where rights of creditors of, or purchasers from, the buyer attach. Inasmuch as the possession of the article has been permitted to be in the buyer, so that outwardly, and with nothing more, he is the apparent owner, the important question arises as to whose rights are higher, the secret owner (the conditional seller, the chattel mortgagee, or the bailor) or the creditor of, or purchaser …


Municipal Corporations - Liability For Services Performed Under Invalid Contract, Michigan Law Review Apr 1940

Municipal Corporations - Liability For Services Performed Under Invalid Contract, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff was employed by the board of overseers of defendant city to supervise obtaining employment for recipients of welfare relief, thus relieving the city of the expense of providing for them. The powers of the board were restricted by an ordinance which provided that before any increase should be made in the number of subordinates, a report thereof would be sent to the mayor for his approval. It appeared that the original employment of the plaintiff was in violation of this provision, although the mayor subsequently approved it up to April 5, 1936, when plaintiff's civil service appointment expired. Plaintiff …


Eminent Domain - Covenants - Violation Of Building Restrictions By Exercise Of Public Authority - Necessity For Compensation, Edmund R. Blaske Jan 1940

Eminent Domain - Covenants - Violation Of Building Restrictions By Exercise Of Public Authority - Necessity For Compensation, Edmund R. Blaske

Michigan Law Review

It is the purpose of this comment to examine the contract and the property theories of restrictive covenants; and to suggest other possible grounds upon which to decide whether or not a public agency should compensate owners in the subdivision for interference with their restrictive covenants.


Constitutional Law - Act Changing Pensions - Impairing Obligation Of Contracts - Due Process, Bertram H. Lebeis May 1938

Constitutional Law - Act Changing Pensions - Impairing Obligation Of Contracts - Due Process, Bertram H. Lebeis

Michigan Law Review

An Illinois statute provided for the compulsory retirement of teachers at the age of seventy with an annuity of $1500 a year for life, and an amendment thereto granted annuities on a sliding scale from $1000 to $1500 a year to teachers voluntarily retiring between the ages of sixty-five and seventy. These provisions were changed by an act of 1935 which abolished the provisions for voluntary retirement and .fixed compulsory retirement at the age of sixty-five, with annuities reduced to a flat rate of $500 annually. Plaintiffs, who either had retired or were eligible for retirement at the time the …


Municipal Corporations - Quasi-Contractual Liability - Distinction Between Quasi-Contract And Ratification, Edward J. Wendrow Mar 1938

Municipal Corporations - Quasi-Contractual Liability - Distinction Between Quasi-Contract And Ratification, Edward J. Wendrow

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued to recover for services rendered as foreman on a city "Works Project," the services having been rendered at the request of the mayor and with full knowledge on the part of the city council. Because of the foregoing fact the plaintiff claimed the contract had been ratified even though no formal corporate action had been taken authorizing the contract. Defendant's demurrer was overruled in the circuit court. On appeal, held, although plaintiff could not recover in an action based on the alleged contract because no formal contract was ever entered into, and because plaintiff's compensation had not …


Vendor And Purchaser - Equitable Conversion - Application To Obligation To Extinguish Forest Fires, Michigan Law Review Feb 1938

Vendor And Purchaser - Equitable Conversion - Application To Obligation To Extinguish Forest Fires, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Montana statute placed the burden of extinguishing forest fires on the person on whose "property" the fire occurred, and, on failure of such person to extinguish it, made him liable to reimburse any authorized unit that should do so. Fire broke out on property owned by D, and a Government unit extinguished it. Previous to such fire, D had contracted to sell the land to X under a contract giving X the right of possession. Held, by the doctrine of equitable conversion, X was the beneficial owner, and the land was not D's "property" so as …


The Effect Of The Contract Clause And The Fourteenth Amendment Upon The Power Of The States To Control Municipal Corporations, E. B. Schulz Jan 1938

The Effect Of The Contract Clause And The Fourteenth Amendment Upon The Power Of The States To Control Municipal Corporations, E. B. Schulz

Michigan Law Review

Although the power to establish systems of local government is reserved to the states under the Federal Constitution, they are obliged to exercise it in conformity with the limitations, direct or indirect, by which their powers in general are circumscribed. Since a state lacks authority to delegate powers which it does not possess, it may not confer upon municipal corporations, to cite but a few examples, the power to pass ex post facto laws and bills of attainder, to coin money, to emit bills of credit, to regulate foreign and interstate commerce, or to levy taxes for strictly private purposes. …


Municipal Corporations - Effect Upon Collection Of Tort Judgments Of Constitutional And Statutory Limitations On Indebtedness And Taxing Powers, Michigan Law Review Nov 1936

Municipal Corporations - Effect Upon Collection Of Tort Judgments Of Constitutional And Statutory Limitations On Indebtedness And Taxing Powers, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In an effort to protect the taxpayer from the extravagance of municipal officials, two types of restrictions, in the main, have been imposed: those limiting the power to contract debts, and those restricting the power to levy taxes. Frequently in an effort to recover and collect a judgment against the city, one or the other of these restrictions is met. Courts seem to hold unanimously that debt limitations apply to the city's obligations in contract and not in tort, but they are divided as to the effect of tax limitations upon collection of a tort judgment. As an example of …


Special Assessments - Constitutionality Of Legislation Modifying Means Of Enforcement Of Special Assessment Liens May 1935

Special Assessments - Constitutionality Of Legislation Modifying Means Of Enforcement Of Special Assessment Liens

Michigan Law Review

An Arkansas statute, affecting the mortgage securing certain special assessment bonds, provided, inter alia, for the extension of the interval between default in payment and sale under foreclosure from sixty-five days to at least two and a half years, reduced the penalty for non-payment from twenty per cent to three per cent, and provided that the possession of the delinquent property owner be undisturbed for four years after sale on foreclosure, thus modifying the law existing at the time the bonds were issued. The United States Supreme Court held the statute to be invalid as violating the constitutional prohibition …


Municipal Corporations - Effect Of The Lowest Responsible Bidder Statutes On "Local Labor" Provisions Apr 1933

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.


Assignment Of Money Claims (Particularly Wage Claims) - Restraint On Alienation Dec 1932

Assignment Of Money Claims (Particularly Wage Claims) - Restraint On Alienation

Michigan Law Review

If a contract has been performed on one side so that all that remains is an obligation to pay and a right to receive money, can the parties by agreement effectively prevent the assignment of the claim? The Illinois Supreme Court had this question before it for consideration in the case of State Street Furniture Co. v. Armour & Co., where the plaintiff was the assignee of wages due to an employee of the defendant, the employee having agreed not to assign his wages without the written consent of his employer. The court decided that the restrictive agreement had …


Equity-Power To Reform-Effect Of Statute Of Frauds Jun 1931

Equity-Power To Reform-Effect Of Statute Of Frauds

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff made an oral contract to sell certain shares of stock to the defendant at a price of $1,160 a share, as a result of a telephone conversation. On the same day the plaintiff sent the defendant a written confirmation of the sale, in which the price of $1,060 a share was inserted by mistake. The New York Statute of Frauds makes such a contract unenforceable unless a note or memorandum thereof be in writing. Held, that although the parties intended to make a memorandum of the oral contract which they had made, the memorandum was of a …


Sales--Distinction Between Conditional Sale And Chattel Mortgage-Michigan Rule Jun 1931

Sales--Distinction Between Conditional Sale And Chattel Mortgage-Michigan Rule

Michigan Law Review

The petitioner sold a truck under an unrecorded contract which provided that title was to remain in him until the buyer made full payment, and that in event of default the whole sum was to become due immediately with the right of reclamation. The buyer subsequently went into bankruptcy and the seller petitioned for reclamation of the truck from the trustee. Held, that since the contract under the Michigan rule constituted a chattel mortgage so that failure to record it made it ineffective against creditors, the petition should be denied. In re Central States Freight Corporation (E. D. Mich. …


Joinder And Splitting Of Causes Of Action, Charles E. Clark Feb 1927

Joinder And Splitting Of Causes Of Action, Charles E. Clark

Michigan Law Review

The pleading rules concerning joinder and splitting of causes of action are complements of each other, though designed to achieve different objectives. The joinder rule is that separate causes cannot be "joined" or pleaded in the same suit unless they fall within one of the classes of permissible joinder specified in the codes. The purpose of the rule is to prevent too wide a field of litigation and too diverse issues in a single suit and thus to avoid a case of undue confusion and complexity. The rule against splitting is that a single cause shall not be "split" or …


Note And Comment, Gordon Stoner, Edgar N. Durfee, Werner W. Schroeder, Albert J. Mickelson, Maurice Weinberger Dec 1915

Note And Comment, Gordon Stoner, Edgar N. Durfee, Werner W. Schroeder, Albert J. Mickelson, Maurice Weinberger

Michigan Law Review

The Form of the Summons Under the Recent Michigan Judicature Act - It would be rather remarkable if in revising such a large portion of the statutes as was undertaken by the Commission on Revision and Consolidation of Statutes of the State of Michigan, appointed in 1913, which reported to the legislature the recently enacted Judicature Act (Public Acts of Michigan, 915, § 314), some ambiguity or uncertainty were not to appear in the revision. The Judicature Act is no exception to the general rule, as the lawyer who attempts to begin suit by summons under it will discover at …


Recent Important Decisions Nov 1913

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.


Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review Mar 1912

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Adverse Possession--Prior Holding; Appeal and Error--Harmless Error--Admission of Evidence--Mortality Tables; Bankruptcy--Effect of Composition of Liability of Surety on Bankrupt's Note; Bank and Bank--Collections--Insolvency of Collecting Bank; Bills and Notes--instruments Constituting Negotiable Notes; Contracts--Arbitration Clause; Contracts--Indefiniteness of Promise; Contributory Negligence--Acts in Emergency; Corporations--Liability of Corporation in Action for Deceit; Estoppel--School Lands--Title of State; False Pretenses--Defenses--Illegality; Husband and Wife--Support of Self and infant Children--Action by Wife Against Husband; Intoxicating Liquors--Regulation--Prohibition--Police Power; Mortgages Upon Property of Constituent Companies Become a Lien Upon the Property of a Consolidated Company; Municipal Corporations--Liability for Injuries Resulting from Civic Beautification; Municipal Corporations--Partial Vacation of Streets--Title to Land …


Note And Comment, Gordon W. Stoner, Newton K. Fox, Walle W. Merritt, Albert E. Meder Feb 1912

Note And Comment, Gordon W. Stoner, Newton K. Fox, Walle W. Merritt, Albert E. Meder

Michigan Law Review

The Power of a Court to Compel a jury to Render its Verdict in Accordance with a Peremptory Instruction; The Liability of Municipal Corporations in the Discharge of Public or Governmental Duties and of Private or Corporate Duties; Some views of the Nature and Effect of Corporateness; Mitigation of Damages or Substituted Contract; Limitation of the Amount of a Carrier's Liability


Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review Dec 1911

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Attachment--Jurisdiction Over Non-Resident; Bankruptcy--Debts Entitled to Priority--Workman, Clerk, Etc.; Bankruptcy--Title of Trustee Under Unrecorded Conditional Sale--Effect of Amendment of 1910; Bills and Notes--Actions--Real Party in Interest; Carriers--Limiting Liability for Loss of Baggage--Interstate Commerce; Commerce--Constitutionality of State Regulation of Rates; Commerce--Natural Gas as Subject of Interstate Commerce; Covenants Running with the Land--Establishment of Railroad Station; Damages--Penalty or Liquidated Damages--Construction of Stipulation in Contract; Deeds--Covenant to Stand Seised to Uses; Divorce--Recrimination--Dismissal of Bill-When Both Parties Guilty; Equity--Jurisdiction--Adequate Remedy at Law; Evidence--Admissibility of Admissions and Confessions of Accused to Prove the Corpus Delicti; Insurance--Suicide--Waiver of Statutory Provisions; Judgment--Collateral Attack on Judgment of Probate …


Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review Nov 1910

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Attorney and Client--Authority of Attorney--Compromise; Attorney and Client--Disbarment--Reasonable Doubt; Bankruptcy--Corporations Subject to Involuntary Bankruptcy--Amendment of 1910; Bankruptcy--Following Trust Funds into Hands of Trustee in Bankruptcy; Bills and Notes--Notice by Mail--Proof of Mailing; Bills and Notes--Right of Drawee of Forged Check or Draft to Recover Money Paid Thereon; Boundaries--Line Between Riparian Owners; Boundaries--Monuments Give Way to Courses and Distances; Carriers--Limitation of Amount of Recovery in Case of loss of Baggage; Charities--Testamentary Trusts--Gift for Masses; Constitutional Law--Religious Liberty--Religious Exercises in Schools--Bible; Contracts--In Restraint of Trade--When Valid; Courts--Doctrine of Stare Decisis; Evidence--Admissibility of Confessions; Evidence--Admissibility of Market Quotations; Executors and Administrators--Denial of Application …