Courts Commons^™

The Problem Of Jury Instructions, Haymond Maxwell

West Virginia Law Review

The question of instructions to juries is a perennial problem with practitioners and judges. Having in mind the seriousness of this subject, the Judicial Council of West Virginia, some months ago, formulated a program for thorough investigation and consideration of the instructions enigma. In response to the council's request that it render assistance in the matter, the faculty of the College of Law of West Virginia University caused to be made a synopsis of all the state statutes dealing with instructions. Only a few of the states have no such statutes. Virginia is among that small number. Though I am …

Jury-Voir Dire-Actions For Negligence-Asking As To Interest In An Insurance Company, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

During the trial for injuries received in an automobile collision the plaintiff's attorney asked each prospective juror as to whether or not he owned stock in a named insurance company, or held a policy with it, or was an agent for it, and other questions as to whether or not the interest of an insurance company in the action would affect his decisions in the case. The company was not in fact a party to the action. The defendant assigned as error that such questions caused the jury to believe that the defendant carried insurance against loss from damages such …

Rules Of Practice In The Trial Courts Of Record Of West Virginia

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federal Practice-Counterclaim By Lntervenors

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued Freeman Company for infringing a patent by selling a certain patented device. The manufacturer of the device, and vendor of Freeman Company, obtained leave to intervene as a defendant under federal equity rule 37, and thereupon filed a counterclaim against the plaintiff for alleged infringement of other patents, claiming the right to do so as a "defendant" under federal equity rule 30. The plaintiff moved to dismiss the counterclaim. The motion was granted by the district court and affirmed on appeal by the circuit court. On certiorari the United States Supreme Court held that "defendant" under equity rule …

Constitutional Law - Power Of State Legislature To Provide For Jury Trial In Proceedings For Contempt Of Court

Michigan Law Review

The defendants, an independent union, and members thereof, were cited for contempt before a court of common pleas for the violation of an in junction restraining them from interfering with the operation of the plaintiff's mines. The alleged contumacious acts took place some ten miles from the court house and consisted of gathering about automobiles containing employees of the plaintiff company, throwing stones at them, breaking windows of the cars, and injuring some of the occupants. The contempt proceedings arose on petition of the company and were before the same judge who granted the injunction. The defendants claimed that under …

Practice And Procedure-Seventh Amendment-Power Of Federal Court To Increase Inadequate Verdict

Michigan Law Review

A jury in a federal court awarded the plaintiff $500 in a personal injury action; he moved for a new trial on the ground of inadequate damages. Having obtained consent of defendant to entry of judgment for $1500, the trial judge denied the motion. Plaintiff appealed. Held, this procedure was a violation of the Seventh Amendment of the Constitution; a new trial must be granted. Dimick v. Schiedt, (U. S. 1935) 55 Sup. Ct. 296.

Verdict--Juror's Assent--What Constitutes, Paul D. Farr

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Practice And Procedure - Power Of The Court To Increase Inadequate Verdict

Michigan Law Review

With the development of the remittitur in the case of excessive verdicts, one would naturally expect the development of an analogous device for cases wherein the verdicts are inadequate. When the plaintiff moves for a new trial because of an inadequate verdict, a denial of the motion on the condition that the defendant agree to a certain increase in the verdict is perfectly analogous to the remittitur in form. But this device has not received the same wide acceptance as its counterpart. In cases in which the plaintiff has appealed this device has been condemned, while it has been approved …

New Rules Of The Supreme Court, Bernard C. Gavit

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Federal Practice -Appeal And Error - Review Of Denial Of Motion For New Trial

Michigan Law Review

The federal appellate courts have, in a great many decisions, refused to review the denial of a motion for a new trial made in a lower federal court. The very recent case of Fairmount Glass Works v. Cub Fork Coal Co. once again presents the problem, and Justice Brandeis, writing the majority opinion, follows the prior holdings. In this very excellent opinion the learned Justice presents the reasons for the result generally reached, and enumerates some of the exceptions in a manner which should tend to clarify much of the doubt which has existed in this field of appellate jurisdiction.

Federal Practice - Appeal And Error - Necessity For Findings Of Fact And Conclusions Of Law In Interlocutory Proceedings

Michigan Law Review

The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin issued a temporary order reducing telephone rates, setting forth its reasons and the facts in an elaborate opinion. A temporary restraining order was issued by a federal district court, which was followed by an application for an interlocutory injunction. A hearing on this application was held before three judges who granted an injunction on the same day upon the giving of a bond. Meanwhile the temporary restraining order continued in force. No opinion was rendered other than a general statement in the decree that the Commission's order "would result in the confiscation of the …

Federal Practice - Appeal And Error - Single Appeal From State Court Involving Consolidated Suits

Michigan Law Review

Three national banks brought separate suits in a state court against the same defendants to annul a tax assessment, claiming that the act authorizing such assessment violated a federal statute. The suits were consolidated for the trial of this main issue but a separate judgment was rendered in favor of each bank. The defendants took three separate appeals to the state supreme court, but only one transcript was sent up and the appeals were docketed and argued as one case. In a single opinion the court annulled the judgments appealed from. The plaintiffs took a single appeal to the Supreme …

Equity- Contempts - Purgation By Sworn Answer - Doctrine Of Variance

Michigan Law Review

At the suit of X Traction Company defendants had been enjoined from operating busses along streets upon which plaintiff operated its cars. The latter .filed an information in the name of the State charging the defendants with wilful violation of the restraining order, and moved for an attachment for contempt, and for the infliction of "such penalties as are or may be necessary to compel observance." Defendants filed motions to discharge, and also answers for the purpose of purging themselves of the alleged contempt. Upon trial, at which evidence was received, the court found defendants guilty, and levied fines. Defendants …

Federal Practice - Appeal And Error - Dismissal Of Counterclaim Because Of Improper Venue Appealable As Interlocutory Order Denying Injunction

Michigan Law Review

To plaintiffs' suit for patent infringement defendants counterclaimed upon an unrelated patent asking for an injunction and an accounting. Plaintiffs' motion to dismiss on the ground of improper venue was sustained by the district court. Defendants appealed and plaintiffs moved to dismiss on the ground that dismissal of a counterclaim was not a refusal of an injunction and therefore not appealable under Sec. 129, Judicial Code. The circuit court of appeals allowed the appeal and this decision was affirmed by the Supreme Court. General Electric Co. et al. v. Marvel Rare Metals Co. et al., 287 U.S. 430, 53 …

Procedure Under The Uniform Declaratory Judgment Act, Bernard C. Gavit

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Equity-Intervention

Michigan Law Review

A Kansas statute forbids the operation of theatres on Sunday. Appellee obtained an interlocutory injunction restraining "the Attorney General of the State of Kansas, and his subordinates . . . and every other person acting or attempting to act for said defendants" from enforcing the statute. Following this temporary injunction the appellee continued to operate his theatres on Sunday, and when the municipal authorities of Winfield and Eldorado threatened to enforce municipal ordinances prohibiting Sunday shows, the appellee served them with copies of the preliminary order against the attorney general, and warned them that contempt proceedings would be instituted if …

Practice And Procedure - Declaratory Judgments In The Federal Courts

Michigan Law Review

The declaratory judgment by that name is comparatively new in legal procedure in this country. But it is in reality simply an extension of an old process. The power to declare the rights of the parties is inherent in courts of equity and has been exercised since ancient times in action to quiet title, to declare marriages valid or void, to annul divorces, to declare legitimacy or illegitimacy or determine heirship, to construe wills and trusts, and in other actions. A suit for a declaratory judgment in no wise differs from other suits save in the single respect of the …

Practice And Procedure - Conditional Judgments At Law - Validity And Advantages

Michigan Law Review

Some modern courts have asserted and many lawyers have assumed that in common law actions a court can not render a judgment conditional in form. It is argued that the court is without jurisdiction so to decide a case, and that in any event the common law has never recognized such a form of judgment as valid. The first point is not so difficult to disprove, and the second, so far as actual decision is concerned, is clearly incorrect." In several early cases common law courts were willing not only to stay execution of judgments until conditions were performed, but …

Writ Of Error Coram Nobis, Lester B. Orfield

Indiana Law Journal

This comment is reprinted from the Nebraska Law Bulletin with the permission of the editors of that periodical.

Torts - Malicious Prosecution - Termination Of Previous Proceeding In Favor Of Plaintiff

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff gave a note with power of attorney to confess judgment, to X who assigned to defendant. Plaintiff paid the note before maturity. On maturity, defendant got a judgment by confession and levied on plaintiff's property. Thereupon plaintiff asked the court to set aside the judgment, and a hearing was granted for the purpose, but the evidence showed that instead of proceeding to a hearing the parties agreed that defendant should mark the judgment satisfied. This was done. Plaintiff later sued for malicious prosecution. Held, that since the prior suit did not terminate in his favor plaintiff could not …

The Right To Comment On The Failure Of The Defendant To Testify, Andrew A. Bruce

Michigan Law Review

In 1931 the American Law Institute adopted a resolution to the effect that "The judge, the prosecuting attorney and counsel for the defense may comment upon the fact that the defendant did not testify."

In the same year the American Bar Association resolved: "That by law it should be permitted to the prosecution to comment to the jury on the fact that a defendant did not take the stand as a witness; and to the jury to draw the reasonable inferences."

Pleading-How To Raise The Issue Of Payment

Michigan Law Review

On rehearing in an action on contract for money two questions were presented to the court, to wit: first, is an allegation of non-payment essential in order that this complaint might state a cause of action; and second, can the issue of payment be raised by the defendant's general denial? Held, in Hughes v. Wachter an allegation of non-payment is necessary in the complaint, and the defendant may prove payment under a general denial.

Federal Injunction Against Proceedings In State Courts: The Life History Of A Statute, Edgar Noble Durfee, Robert L. Sloss

Michigan Law Review

The Judicial Code provides, in section 265, that "the writ of injunction shall not be granted by any court of the United States to stay proceedings in any court of a State," except where authorized by the Bankruptcy Act. This provision, minus the bankruptcy exception, first appeared in an act of 1793, amending the Judiciary Act of 1789. We know next to nothing of the parliamentary history of this statute. We do, however, know that the basic political issue in the framing of the Constitution was that of states' rights, the question how far the new government should be a …

Trial Practice - Questioning On Voir Dire As To Relation To Insurance Company

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff's counsel was permitted, over the objection of defendant's counsel, to ask on voir dire examination whether the jurors or the members of their families were stockholders in any insurance company. Held, proper under the circumstances, there being no showing of want of good faith, or persistent course or effort to impress on the jury that the defendant's liability was insured. Raines v. Wilson (Iowa, 1931) 239 N. W. 36.

Civil Pleading In Scotland, Robert Wyness Millar

Michigan Law Review

Said Lord Chancellor Loreburn, in his answers to the questions addressed to him by Mr. Justice Lurton, preparatory to the drafting of the Federal Equity Rules of 1912: "It may be worth while for Mr. Justice Lurton and his coadjutors to consider the Scottish method of pleading which, in my opinion, is the best." This can only mean that the Lord Chancellor regarded the method in question as superior to that obtaining under the English Rules - certainly a high testimonial coming from such a quarter. Whether the opinion is justified or not is a question which may be left …

What Price Jury Trials, Jeff B. Fordham

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Courts-Power To Direct Verdicts Where Forbidden By State Constitution

Michigan Law Review

ln a suit for personal injuries the district court of the United States for the district of Arizona directed a verdict for the defendant on the ground that the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence. The constitution of Arizona, sec. 5, art. 18 provides: "The defense of contributory negligence or of assumption of risk shall, in all cases whatsoever, be a question of fact and shall, at all times, be left to the jury." Held, that this section is not binding on a federal court sitting in Arizona, and does not prevent such court from directing a verdict when …

Reform Of Legal Procedure: Rulemaking Power For Courts, Sveinbjorn Johnson

Indiana Law Journal

An address delivered to the Indiana State Bar Association at Indianapolis, Thursday, December 18, 1930.

The New Michigan Court Rules, Edson R. Sunderland

Michigan Law Review

There are two features of general interest connected with the revised system of practice which went into operation in Michigan on January 1, 1931. The first is the manner of employing the rule-making power, and the second is the content of the new rules.

Cases On Pleadings And Procedure, Mason Ladd

Michigan Law Review

A review of CASES ON PLEADINGS AND PROCEDURE By Charles E. Clark.