Contracts Commons^™

Conflict Of Laws - Contracts - Public Policy

Michigan Law Review

The decedent, in Florida, became the grantee of Florida land by a deed which recited that it was made subject to a mortgage held by one Key, in the sum of $9,000, securing a note for that amount. The deed stipulated that "the grantee herein assumes and agrees to pay the above mortgage and notes." By Florida law the grantee was effectually bound by such a clause. Upon the death of the grantee, Key entered a claim against the estate in Pennsylvania. The lower court disallowed the claim on the basis of a Pennsylvania statute which held a grantee of …

Review: A Textbook On Law And Business, J. Wayne Ley

Michigan Law Review

A Book Review on A TEXTBOOK ON LAW AND BUSINESS By William H. Spencer

Contracts-Breach Of Independent Promise As Ground For Recscission

Michigan Law Review

Having interested plaintiff in certain debentures, defendant, in return for a promise of one-fourth of any profit which plaintiff might receive, agreed to indemnify him against loss. By profit was meant any bonuses paid, and the difference between purchase and redemption price. When the call date was extended beyond the original period plaintiff gave notice that he would sell and hold defendant on his guaranty, to which defendant protested that no liability arose before the redemption date and that he would no longer consider himself bound. Plaintiff sold, but subsequently repurchased. The corporation having been wound up, plaintiff sued on …

Landlord And Tenant-Covenant Not To Assign Without Lessor's Consent

Michigan Law Review

The growing practice of leasing important business property, especially for long terms, rather than of conveying the entire fee simple, has made increasingly important the devices inserted in such leases for the protection of the respective parties. One of the oldest and most common of these, for the protection of the lessor, is the covenant by the lessee that he will not assign the term without the consent of the lessor.

Book Review. Cases On Suretyship By Stephen I. Langmaid, William E. Treanor

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

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.

Fraudulent Bills Of Lading, Merton L. Ferson

Michigan Law Review

Station agents, without receiving goods, have frequently signed bills of lading purporting to bind their company. When a bill of lading thus issued has been transferred to an innocent purchaser for value, the question arises whether such person may recover against the carrier company. The question is obviously one of the .agent's ability to bind his employer.

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Admiralty - Workmen's Compensation - Is a Hydroplane a Vessel? - Claimant was employed in the care and management of a hydroplane which was moored in navigable waters. The hydroplane began to drag anchor and drift toward the beach, where it was in danger of being wrecked. Claimant waded into the water and was struck by the propeller. Held, claimant is not entitled to compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Law, since a hydroplane while on navigable waters is a vessel, and therefore the jurisdiction of the admiralty excludes that of the State Industrial Commission. Reinhardt v. Newport Flying Service Corp. …

Privity Of Contract And Tort Liability, Herbert F. Goodrich

Articles

Two parties, A and B, make a contract whereby B undertakes to perform certain services for A. He performs his task in a negligent manner, and as a consequence C, a third party, suffers injury. Has C rights against B?

Is The Assignee Of A Contract Liable For The Non-Performance Of Delegated Duties?, Grover C. Grismore

Articles

IT is an oft recurring statement that "rights arising out of a contract cannot be transferred if they are coupled with liabilities." It is such obscure statements as this which give rise to and perpetuate error, and an examination of the cases will show that this one has been responsible for no little confusion in regard to the matter of assignment in the law of Contract. Our courts, under the pressure of a well filled docket, are prone to seize upon a broad generalization of this kind without examining its true meaning or defining its proper limitations. It is high …

Extension Of Liability Of Abstracters, Harry R. Trusler

Michigan Law Review

The General Rule.- In 1900 a standard encyclopedia said: "By the weight of authority an abstracter is liable only to the person ordering and paying for the abstract; and where this view obtains, the fact that an abstracter has knowledge that his abstract is to be used in a sale or loan to advise a purchaser or person about to lend money does not affect the rule as to his liability. In some jurisdictions, however, the abstracter's liability has been extended to protect those who, relying on the correctness of the abstract, are injured."

The Seller's Action For The Price, John B. Waite

Articles

WHEN a contract of sale has been broken by the buyer, before title has passed according to the usual rules of presumption, there arises the very practical question whether the seller can sue him for the purchase price, as such, or is limited to a suit for damages only. In the latter case his damage may happen to equal the purchase price, but it is usually considerably less than that amount. If the seller can recover the purchase price, as such, it must be because that price is legally due him as a consequence of the contract. The ultimate inquiry …

Quasi-Contractual Obligations Of Municipal Corporations, Jerome C. Knowlton

Articles

We have constructive fraud, constructive trusts, constructive notice, and why not constructive contract, a contractual obligation existing in contemplation of law, in the absence of any agreement express or implied from facts? With this apology we shall use the term quasi contract as covering an obligation created by law and enforceable by an action ex contractu. We are not for the present interested in the circumstances which may give rise to this obligation as between individuals; nor as between an individual and a private corporation, or quasi public corporation, so-called, as a railroad or other public utility. In these cases …

Contract Limitations Of The Common Carrier's Liability, Edwin C. Goddard

Michigan Law Review

When Mr. Justice Nelson, in the New Jersey Steam Navigation Company v. Merchants' Bank, speaking of the power of a common carrier by special agreement to restrict his obligation, said for the court: "We are unable to perceive any well founded objection to the restriction," he opened the way for an amount of litigation which, in volume and expense, both to carriers and shippers, scarcely finds its equal on any other question. The Supreme Court of North Carolina was well within the limit when it said: "The right of a common carrier to limit or diminish his general liability by …

The Right Of Bailees To Contract Against Liability For Negligence, Hugh Evander Willis

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Cases On The Law Of Partnership, Floyd R. Mechem, Frank L. Sage

Books

Note to First Edition [1896]: "The following collection of cases has been made primarily for use in connection with the writer's lectures on Partnership in the Law School of this University and to accompany his 'Elements of Partnership' recently published."

Note to Third Edition: "In this edition the number of cases has again [from Second Edition] been considerably increased." F.R.M. ... October 1, 1905

Outlines Of The Law Of Bailments And Carriers, Edwin C. Goddard

Books

The Outlines of Bailments and Carriers form part of a complete work on that subject intended for the use of classes in law schools. The other part, which is nearly ready for publication, consists of select cases illustrating and amplifying principles stated in the Outlines. It is the purpose of the Outlines not only to state the foundation principles of the subject, but to put these in orderly and consecutive form in order that the student may have an opportunity to see the subject as a whole. It is believed that any study of the cases without some such connected …

Covenants As Quasi Contracts, Louis L. Hammon

Michigan Law Review

It is the scope of this article to discuss briefly certain forms of covenant with a view to determining whether in their nature they are contractual or quasi contractual. "Quasi contract may be defined as an obligation whereby one person becomes bound to another, without regard to his consent, by a legal tie similar to that arising from contract. It may exist either by statute or by common law, and, if by the latter, it may be enforced either on principle or by reason of custom. As to the cause of the obligation, it may be imposed upon a man …

The Liability Of The Custodian Of Public Funds Lost Without His Fault, Gustav Stein

Michigan Law Review

In a work on Public Offices and Officers, the writer characterizes the question of the liability of an officer and his sureties for loss of public funds by the officer without default on his part, as ''of great interest and importance, but one upon which the authorities are in conflict." Since the publication of that work in 1890, a con­ siderable number of cases has arisen continuing the conflict, and llustrating its importance. It is proposed in this article, to state the views entertained by the courts, the extent to which they have been applied, the reasons advanced to support …