Contracts Commons^™

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 …

Restitution--1959 Tennessee Survey, William Wicker

Vanderbilt Law Review

A defrauded party to a contract may ask for the alternative right of cancellation of the contract and restitution of the consideration, rather than a right to damages for being led into the fraudulent transaction. This restitutionary remedy is the right of the defrauded party to be restored to the situation which he occupied prior to the fraudulent transaction.

In Bluff City Company v. Davis, seller falsely represented that an automobile was new, and buyer relied on that representation. Within a reasonable time after buyer learned that he had bought a used automobile, he offered to return it. It was …

Restitution - Availabilty As An Alternative Remedy Where Plaintiff Has Fully Performed A Contract To Provide Goods Or Services, Jerome K. Walsh Jr.

Michigan Law Review

It is hornbook law that restitution is sometimes available as an alternative remedy to a party who has suffered a breach of contract after having conferred a benefit on the defaulting party. It is equally clear, however, that in many cases where a benefit has been conferred, the plaintiff may not elect to sue for the value of his performance but is left to his action for damages on the contract. The cases which are concerned with one or the other of the above rules constitute a large portion of the area of the law called Restitution, and no attempt …

Sales - Contributory Negligence - Use As A Defense In Action For Breach Of Implied Warranty, Thomas S. Erickson

Michigan Law Review

Defendant installed an oil burner in plaintiff's apartment building. The burner failed to function properly and exploded two months after installation. There was no evidence that the furnace was repaired subsequent to the explosion. Plaintiff continued to use the furnace for four years until a second explosion caused considerable damage to the building. Upon inspection, the cause of the explosions was found to be a defective system of heating and piping the oil. Plaintiff brought this action for breach of implied warranty to install the furnace in a good and workmanlike manner and recovered consequential damages. On appeal, held, …

Taxation - Federal Income Tax - Damages For Injury To Business As Return Of Capital Or Income, Eric Bergsten S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The taxpayers, owners of two movie theatres, recovered $36,000 in a compromise settlement of a Clayton Act suit against the major distributors and exhibitors. The taxpayers claimed that the amount received was a return of capital. The Commissioner claimed the amount received represented the recovery of lost profits. Held, Commissioner upheld. The evidence presented did not warrant a finding that any part of the sum recovered represented a return of capital. Chalmers Cullins, 24 T.C. 322 (1955).

Insurance - Recovery - Land Contract Purchaser Allowed Recovery On Both Vendee's And Vendor's Policies In Excess Of Loss, Jerome K. Walsh, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

An owner of realty entered into a contract to sell the land to the plaintiff. The vendor then took out fire insurance on his interest in the amount of $6,000 and the plaintiff obtained a policy covering his interest in the sum of $12,000, with a "three-fourths value" clause. Before performance of the contract and transfer of title, a fire occurred which caused $12,000 damage to the property. After the plaintiff paid the full contract price and took title to the property, he demanded and received an assignment of the claim under the vendor's policy. Plaintiff then brought suit on …

Right Of A Defaulting Building Contractor To Recover In Maryland Upon The Contract Or In Quasi Contract - Evergreen Amusement Corp. V. Milstead, Herbert A. Seidman

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

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 …

Quasi-Contracts-Assumpsit For Use And Occupation Of Land, R. O. Hancox S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant had a right of way over plaintiff's land limited to the transportation of coal mined on that land. Plaintiff seeks to recover for use and occupation of his land by defendant when he exceeded his right by transporting coal mined on adjacent property. Held, the plaintiff is entitled to quasi-contractual recovery of the value of the benefit to defendant based on the prevailing rate of purchase of right of way for transportation of coal over another's land. Raven Red Ash Coal Co., Inc. v. Ball, (Va. 1946) 39 S.E. (2d) 231.

Evidence -Witnesses - Privileged Communications Between Physician And Patient--Statutory Effect Of Asserting Privilege In Actions On Insurance Contracts, William H. Buchanan S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, beneficiary of an insurance policy (but not the personal representative of the deceased insured), sued to recover the amount of the policy from the insurance company. As a defense the defendant claimed that the policy never became effective because the insured had made material misrepresentations in the application as to his state of health. To show that there had been such misrepresentations, the defendant proved that the insured had been treated by physicians during the five years preceding the issuance of the policy. Upon objectionμ by plaintiff the court excluded the testimony of the doctors as to the nature …

Contracts - Illegality - Collateral Agreements Under Home Owners' Loan Act, Roy L. Steinheimer

Michigan Law Review

In transactions under the Home Owners' Loan Act it is customary for the holder of the mortgage on the property on which a new loan is sought to agree with the H. O. L. C. to accept in full settlement of his claim bonds of the H. O. L. C. of a face value often times less than the amount of the obligation secured by the old mortgage. However, not infrequently the mortgagee also exacts from the home owner a collateral agreement under which the home owner gives him a new second mortgage on the property as security for an …

Quasi-Contracts -- Unsolicited Performance Of A Statutory Duty, Edward S. Biggar

Michigan Law Review

An Indiana statute required county officers to publish reports of public business in two newspapers, representing the leading political parties of the county. Plaintiff, one of the two newspapers in Decatur county, printed the required notices without first obtaining official authorization. After defendant had disallowed the claim for this service, plaintiff appealed to the circuit court, there obtaining a verdict. Defendant appealed from the denial of its motion for a new trial. Held, that plaintiff had performed an obligation created by law and was entitled to recover on quasi-contract principles. On motion for rehearing, defendant urged the statute prohibiting recovery …

Contracts - Illegality - Effect Of Partial Illegality

Michigan Law Review

It has long been accepted that the illegality of part of a contract does not necessarily make the entire contract unenforceable. However, it is difficult to predict in a given case whether or not the court will hold that recovery may be had upon the lawful part of the contract. It is often said that such recovery will be allowed when the illegal portion of the contract can be clearly separated from the lawful part, but .even when stated in such broad terms - so broad in fact that it is of little help in solving the problem - the …

Rationale Of Past Consideration And Moral Consideration, Hugh Evander Willis

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Contracts-Recovery Under Void Agreement

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Detroit Savings Bank V. Zeigler, Henry W. Rogers

Articles

"Such interchanges of assistance between officers of a bank, as temporary need may require, is fairly within the contemplation of the appointment of such an officer, and the sureties on his bond are liable for a default made while he was temporarily filling the place of another officer.

"The receiving teller of the savings department of a bank, while filling the place of the general teller, during the latter's temporary absences, embezzled moneys of the bank: Held, that the sureties on a bond, given by him for so taken."