Contracts Commons^™

Fiduciary Duties And Exculpatory Clauses: Clash Of The Titans Or Cozy Bedfellows, Louise Lark Hill

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Centuries ago, when land represented the majority of wealth, the trust was used primarily for holding and transferring real property. As the dominant form of wealth moved away from family land, the trust evolved into a device for managing financial assets. With this transformation came the use of exculpatory clauses by both amateur and professional trustees, providing an avenue for these fiduciaries to escape liability for designated acts. With the use of exculpatory provisions, discussion abounded about whether fiduciary duties were mandatory or subject to modification. The latter view eventually prevailed, with the majority of jurisdictions viewing fiduciary duties as …

Who's The Author? A Bright-Line Rule For Specially Commissioned Works Made For Hire, Richard D. Palmieri

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Strategic Default: The Popularization Of A Debate Among Contract Scholars, Meredith R. Miller

Scholarly Works

A June 2010 report estimates that roughly 20% of mortgage defaults in the first half of 2009 were “strategic.” “Strategic default” describes the situation where a home borrower has the financial ability to continue to pay her mortgage but chooses not to pay and walks away. The ubiquity of strategic default has lead to innumerable newspaper articles, blog posts, website comments and editorial musings on the morality of homeowners who can afford to pay but choose, instead, to walk away. This Article centers on the current public discourse concerning strategic default, which mirrors a continuing debate among scholars regarding whether …

In Re The Estate Of Avonne Goss, 2008 P 05, (Blkft. Tr. Ct. App., Nov. 4, 2009), Blackfeet Appellate Court

Court Decisions

In the Blackfeet Tribal Court of Appeals the Court answered the question to whether the “Bill of Sale” of a home from Avonne Goss to Robbin Goss, for the sum of $1, constituted a valid legal document. The Court determined that the home will remain in full ownership of Robbin Goss and the Bill of Sale for $1 was a valid legal document.

Real Estate Law, Richard W. Gregory, Lindsey Dobbs Chase

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Accrual Of Causes Of Action In Virginia, James W. Ellerman

University of Richmond Law Review

This article will examine major issues in Virginia law affecting the accrual of causes of action, specifically in the contexts of contract, tort, and property. In addition to surveying the basic accrual requirements for each area of law, this article will look more deeply into several specific issues that guide an accrual analysis particularly the distinction between causes and rights of action, as well as the continuous treatment, discovery, and economic loss rules.

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Amir V. The Great Rabbinical Court In Jerusalem, Ayala Procaccia, Mishael Cheshin, Salim Joubran

Translated Opinions

[This abstract is not part of the Court's opinion and is provided for the reader's convenience. It has been translated from a Hebrew version prepared by Nevo Press Ltd. and is used with its kind permission.]

This petition puts to the test the question of the Rabbinical Court's authority to adjudicate a property dispute between a couple after the divorce proceeding between them has been completed, and it focuses on an alleged breach of the divorce agreement by one member of the couple. Is the matter within the jurisdiction of the Rabbinical Court or is it within the power of …

Standing In The Shadows: Honoring The Contractual Obligations Of Cohabitants For Support, Tammy L. Lewis

Seattle University Law Review

Initially, this Comment will examine traditional theories of marital support and their relation to post-cohabitant support. Next, this Comment will review express contract, implied-in-fact contract, and quasi-contract theories of support and how these different theories have been effectively applied by various state courts. A brief discussion follows concerning federal courts and the confusion surrounding the federal jurisdiction of cohabitation actions. Finally, the contract theories of relief will be contrasted against proposed legal status solutions.Ultimately, this Comment concludes that post-cohabitation support issues are best resolved through contract theories. Solutions based on legal status are extremely intrusive and impose unbargained-for terms upon …

Chapter 5 - Matrimonial Bonds: Slavery And Divorce In Nineteenth-Century America (Previously Published Article), Elizabeth B. Clark

Manuscript of Women, Church, and State: Religion and the Culture of Individual Rights in Nineteenth-Century America

In the covenant of marriage, woman is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master -- the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement. He has so framed the law of divorce . . . as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of women -- the law, in all cases, going upon a false supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his hands.

For Unifying Servitudes And Defeasible Fees: Property Law's Functional Equivalents, Gerald Korngold

Articles & Chapters

While property scholars have argued persuasively for a unified law of servitudes and for a unified law of defeasible fees, Professor Korngold argues that further unification is necessary: the law should integrate servitudes and defeasible fees involving land use controls. Because these interests are functional equivalents, judicial results should not depend on the historical label attached to the interest. Courts should address the tension between freedom of contract and free alienability values that inhere in both interests. Professor Korngold focuses on significant issues that arise in both defeasible fees and servitudes contexts, including the forfeiture remedy, ownership in gross, permissible …

Strict Liability For Chattel Leasing, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Leasing has become an increasingly popular substitute for outright purchases as a means of acquiring products for use. Few courts and commentators, however, have addressed the question of whether the principles of strict products liability which apply to sellers also apply to lessors. In this Article, Professor Ausness reviews the historical basis for imposing strict liability in tort on sellers and applies these rationales to five basic kinds of lease transactions. He concludes that strict liability should not apply when a product defect arises after the leased product is placed in the hands of the lessee (as contrasted with the …

Real Estate Contracts And The Doctrine Of Equitable Conversion In Washington: Dispelling The Ashford Cloud, Linda S. Hume

Seattle University Law Review

The principal thesis of this Article is that property and contract questions should not be solved independently and are most usefully approached in a distinct order. Because the installment contract divides the incidents of property ownership usually associated with legal title between the parties to the contract, it should be treated differently than the earnest money contract in which the incidents of ownership are not divided. In addition, it is important to first answer some remedial questions before proceeding to make decisions about the property interest of each party to the contract. To support this thesis, this Article explains in …

The Art Investment Contract: Application Of Securities Law To Art Purchases, Maureen Holm

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article examines art transactions as investment contracts. It posits that the art investor could benefit from the same preventive and remedial regulations imposed upon conventional investment transactions, describing and analyzing the five principal types of art transactions. It then explores the substantive concerns facing the art investor and existing protections, in comparison to the protections available to the investor in conventional securities investments. The article then analyzes the proposition that art transactions typically constitute investment contracts in light of Supreme Court decisions on the topic. Finally, the article discusses the current position of the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") …

Tax Characterization Of International Leases: The Contours Of Ownership, William W. Park

Faculty Scholarship

Pondering the human tendency to pay dearly for short-lived adornments, Shakespeare asks a question of interest to lawyers as well as poets: "Why so large cost, having so short a lease.. .? The lawyer's analysis of the issue might begin with a scenario set in an imaginary world in which the tax effects of business transactions are determined by their legal form rather than their economic substance. In such a world, each of two companies decides to build a new factory. One acquires the land outright, paying in several installments. The other enters into a shortterm lease at a very …

The Diminishing Difference Between Selling And Leasing Tangible Personal Property, Richard Marshall Abrams

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Contracts - Landlord And Tenant - Applicability Of Right Of First Refusal To Judicial Sale - Cities Service Oil Co. V. Estes, 208 Va. 44 (1967), Jon W. Bruce

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Conflict Of Laws And Joint Bank Accounts - An Autopsy Of A Case, Joseph C. Kelly

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments, Various Editors

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Remedies Of The Vendor And Purchaser Under A Contract For The Sale Of Realty In Pennsylvania, Michael H. Hynes

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Reflections Upon Hegel's Concept Of Property, Contract, Punishment, And Constitutional Law, Morris D. Forkosch

Vanderbilt Law Review

Codification and re-codification in federal and state jurisdictions has proceeded in a geometrical progression these past decades. To what extent is the old law yielding or, au contraire, to what extent is the ancient law reappearing? For example, are Plato's views on crime and punishment being revived, continued, or changed?' Or,to what extent are Hegel's views in a certain few legal areas of present interest and value? As we shall see, an understanding of Hegel's juris-prudential views, as related to specific topics, is a present-day pragmatic necessity. We propose to seek these views, albeit briefly, in the fields of property, …

Licenses, Contracts And Assignments Of Intellectual Property, Frederic B. Schramm

Cleveland State Law Review

Among the significant aspects of property or "ownership" are the rights to determine the use of it and the right to dispose of it. What has been referred to as "intellectual property," if it may truly be referred to as property, must therefore be capable of becoming the subject matter of agreements of various kinds-licenses, contracts and assignments. The lawyer is consequently concerned with applicability of the law of contracts as well as of the law of property to intellectual property.

Jeremy Bentham, The Contract Clause And Justice John Archibald Campbell, John R. Schmidhauser

Vanderbilt Law Review

Conflicts between the desire to meet the felt needs of society and the desire to maintain existing property rights have long perplexed modern governments. The methods adopted for the resolution of such conflicts quite naturally reflect the prevailing social and political ideology in each nation. In the United States in the period of the Philadelphia Convention, the prevailing temper, at least among the influential, was one of insistence upon the preservation of the sanctity of private property. This insistence and the widespread public reverence for law and judicial institutions determined that state interference with or modification of private contracts be …

Contracts -- 1954 Tennessee Survey, Merton L. Ferson

Vanderbilt Law Review

Mutual Assents: In the case of Jones v. Horner it appeared that Jones was a tenant of Mrs. Homer. The lease gave Jones an option to purchase the property for a stated price and provided that Jones might exercise his option "by payment or tender of the agreed purchase price." Jones, within the life of the option, without tendering the purchase price, gave notice that he would exercise the option. He said he would pay the purchase price upon receipt of a deed to the property. Mrs. Homer refused to treat this notice as a valid exercise of the option. …

Contracts-Rights Of Third Party Beneficiary-Effect Of Michigan Beneficiary Contract Statute, Gordon W. Hueschen S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

On agreement to make mutual wills, Stephen and his two sisters entered into an agreement whereby the sisters agreed to will to Stephen, or in event Stephen predeceased them, to his wife, all property which they should receive from their father. Stephen did predecease the sisters, whereupon they executed new wills with no provision for Stephen's widow. Upon death of the last sister, the widow's bill for specific performance of the agreement was dismissed by the circuit court. In affirming on appeal, the Michigan Supreme Court held that the agreement as to Stephen and all other persons except the sisters …

John Howard Moore, Robert W. Sturdivant

Vanderbilt Law Review

This issue of the Vanderbilt Law Review is dedicated to Mr. John Howard Moore. At the end of this current school year Mr. Moore will have served a quarter of a century as a Professor of Law at the Vanderbilt University School of Law and will retire from active teaching.

Mr. Moore has been and remains an idealist and perfectionist in the law. This has been the theme of his teaching. We that had him as a teacher know that it is his belief that neither he nor anyone else is qualified to answer a nice legal question until the …

Book Reviews, Harold Shepherd, Rollin M. Perkins, Stanley D. Rose

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Rational Basis of Contracts and Related Problems in Legal Analysis By Merton L. Ferson Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc.,1949. Pp. i-ix, 1-330. $4.00

reviewer: Harold Shepherd

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Beutel's Brannan, Negotiable Instruments Law By Frederick K.Beutel Cincinnati: The W. H. Anderson Company Seventh Edition,1948. Pp. xiii, 1628. $15.00

reviewer: Rollin M. Perkins

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Social Meaning of Legal Concepts--No. 1, Inheritance of Property and the Power of Testamentary Disposition Edited by Edward N. Cahn New York: New York University School of Law, 1948.Pp. vi, 90. $1.50

reviewer: Stanley D. Rose

Equity--Removal Of Cloud On Title--Right To Bring Suit When Defendant Has Possession, K. K. H.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Assignability Of An Option Contract, M. T. Van Hecke

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Public Policy Of Contracts To Will Future Acquired Property, Joseph H. Drake

Articles

The general subject of wills upon consideration seems to have given courts and jurists a good deal of trouble, not only in England and America, but also in the continental countries. The Code Napoleon appears in terms actually to prohibit the making of reciprocal or mutual wills in the same instrument.