Courts Commons^™

Compulsory Joinder Of Parties In Civil Actions, John W. Reed

Articles

The plaintiff in a civil cause ordinarily is permitted to select the persons with whom he will litigate. The initial designation of parties to an action is made by the plaintiff, and if he chooses to sue B and not A,' that is ordinarily of no concern to B or to A or to the court. So also where the plaintiff without A as co-plaintiff sues B. Not always, however, is the plaintiff permitted unfettered choice in naming the parties to his lawsuit. On the one hand there are persons whose relationship to the situation in litigation is outside the …

The Courts And Early Bar Of Washington Territory, Arthur S. Beardsley, Donald A. Mcdonald

Articles

Territorial justice in Washington had its roots in the judicial system of Oregon Territory, where the need for the administration of law and order was the motivating force which initiated the formation of civil authority The administration of justice, like the civil authority, must expand as the population grows and as the territorial area becomes larger and better organized. Strong men are always needed in the administration of justice; but in the frontier settlement where law and order are often flouted with impunity, even stronger men are needed if the courts are to command the respect which is their due. …

International Law--Witholding Of Political Recognition--Suit By Russian Corporation In Court Of Equity, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

"The plaintiff corporation was incorporated in Russia under the Imperial government. Prior to the Russian Revolution it had deposited certain securities and moneys with the defendant, as trustee, as required by the New York statutes, for the protection of policy-holders and creditors. In this suit to compel the return of the funds the defendant claimed that the plaintiff corporation was no longer in existence because of the Russian Soviet decrees.... Held, that although the court cannot recognize the legal validity of the decrees of the Soviet government, the facts of the situation are such that justice and reason require …

The Russian Reinsurance Case, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

Professor Dickinson's second commentary on Russian Reinsurance Company v. Stoddard and Bankers Trust Company: "The facts in the Russian Reinsurance Company case were without precedent. The Reinsurance Company had been incorporated in Russia in 1899 under a special statute constituting its charter and by-laws.... In 1917 the revolutionary Soviet Government was established in Russia and seven of the eight persons constituting the company's board of directors was driven into exile. In 1918 Soviet decrees nationalized the company, confiscated its property, and apparently terminated its corporate existence. Nevertheless, the exiled directors held meetings in Paris and continued to direct the …

Cooperation Between The Bar And The Public In Improving The Administration Of Justice, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

Professor Sunderland compares public participation in the legal systems of the United States and Great Britain. "There must be a partnership between the profession and the laity for improving the administration of justice. Law must become a matter of public concern, and not treated as a mere perquisite of a professional class."

The Meaning Of Nationality In The Recent Immigration Acts, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

Professor Dickinson's commentary on the quotas involved in the Immigration Act of 1921 and of 1924. "Until the more recent enactment the meaning of nationality was obscured in a curious ambiguity ... the Act of 1921 made nationality the basis of the quote plan....

"Whether nationality was used in the scientific sense, however, meaning the character created by allegiance to a recognized nation or state, or whether its significance was arbitrary, referring only to such groupings as might be arranged by census makers or other such administrative officials, remained to be determined by judicial construction."

Professor Dickinson then narrates how …

International Political Questions In The National Courts, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

"Much has been made of the principle, in England and America, that international law is part of the national law to be applied by national courts in appropriate circumstances. As Mr. Justice Gray has expressed it, in the Paquete Habana: 'International law is part of our law, and must be ascertained and administered by the courts of justice of appropriate jurisdiction, as often as question of right depending upon it are duly presented for their determination...'

This principle is useful, where it is applicable, but it is subject to limitations which are sometimes inadequately appreciated ..."

Legislation In Vague Or General Terms, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

FOR some reason, probably in part the increasing complexity of our life and relationships, but more largely, perhaps, the growing tendency to regulate everybody and everything by positive law, the courts have been called upon with increasing frequency to pass upon the effectiveness of statutes and ordinances phrased in indefinite terms. In a very interesting and valuable paper, Professor Freund has pointed out the weakness and strength, on the one hand, of legislation in general terms, and on the other hand, legislation in which the rule of conduct is attempted to be laid down with precision. His interest apparently lay …

International Recognition And The National Courts, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

The extending of international recognition to a new government or a new state is a political function which belongs exclusively to the political departments of government. It follows that whenever the question of recognition or not is really involved in litigation the court should inform itself, as to the course pursued by the appropriate political department and decide accordingly. This much, if it ever needed to be settled, may now be regarded as settled beyond peradventure.

Public Utility Valuation, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

It has been so often remarked that the "valuation" of public utilities is determined by no rule of thumb, that there are no fixed rules or formulas to guide courts or commissions, that determination of value as a rate base is matter of judgment and discretion in each case, Minnesota Rate Cares, 230 U. S. 352, 434, that the statement has come to be believed by reason in part of its much repetition. It is usually accepted as axiomatic. The glorious uncertainty resulting from such an admission will continue so long as judgments of one man or set of men …

Perpetuity Statutes, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

THE common law of perpetuities is one of the most interesting examples of almost pure judicial legislation. De Donis, The Statutes of Uses and of Wills, but gave wider scope to the development by the courts of rules of law to thwart the attempt of the great landowners to tie up their landed estates in their families in perpetuity. One body of rules to this end limited restraints upon alienation, another the creation of future interests vesting at too remote a period. Restriction of restraints upon alienation, and the rule against perpetuities, these two were developed for the same end, …

Unrecognized Government Or State In English And American Law (Part 2), Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

PROBABLY no one in the British Empire or the United States would question the doctrine that it belongs exclusively to the political departments to recognize new governments or states. The difficulties involved are those which arise in the application of a doctrine so broadly stated. Not every situation involving an unrecognized government or state requires the decision of a question of recognition. If the decision of a political question is not involved, then it is entirely proper for the courts to take cognizance of a mere de facto government or state. In what situations may the courts appropriately take account …

Unrecognized Government Or State In English And American Law (Part 1), Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

From the decision of this novel case, reported as Pelzer v. United Dredging Co., we may infer that the New York courts regard unrecognized Mexico as a sort of legal vacuum. In granting the corporation's motion for judgment on the pleadings, the Supreme Court said: "The administratrix plaintiff is an officer of a foreign court. It is syllogistically true that if the foreign court has no recognized power here she may not assert a right derived through her appointment therefrom. The Mexican government is not de facto here, since recognition alone can make it so. It may have all the …

Divorce Problems In The Conflict Of Laws, Herbert F. Goodrich

Articles

Divorce may be considered as the termination of the legal relationship between husband and wife by an act of the law. With the purely local aspect of legal questions regarding divorce, Conflict of Laws is not concerned. If a husband and wife are married and have their home in one state, legal questions concerning their divorce are local matters only. These will include the grounds for divorce, the particular court in which the action is brought, the procedure to be followed from commencement to termination of the action. In such a case it is only when some question concerning the …

Challenges To The Array, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

Trial by jury demands impartial jurors as the indispensable basis for public confidence. And the first requisite for obtaining impartiality is indifference on the part of those who select the jury. This was fully recognized at the common law, and ever since the days when jurors ceased to be witnesses and became triers of facts, it was a good objection to the entire panel that the sheriff was not indifferent between the parties in the selection and summoning of the jury. Prejudice on the part of individual jurors could be met by challenges to the polls, but when favor lurked …

Methods For Relieving Courts Of Last Resort From The Growing Burden Of Appeals, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

"At the last meeting of the Michigan State Bar Association, held in Detroit in June, 1920, the question of employing an intermediate appellate court in this state, as a means for relieving the Supreme Court and expediting the disposal of appeals, was discussed at some length, and it was thereupon moved and carried that the whole subject be referred to the Committee on Legislation and Law Reform to be investigated, and that the Committee report upon the matter at the next meeting of the Association."

The Newberry Case, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

Senator Newberry of Michigan and sixteen others were convicted in the United States District Court on the charge that they "unlawfully and feloniously did conspire, combine, confederate, and agree together to commit the offense [in the Newberry indictment] on his part of wilfully violating the act of Congress approved June 25, 1910, as amended, by giving, contributing, expending, and using and by causing to be given, contributed, expended and used in procuring his nomination and election at said primary and general elections, a greater sum than the laws of Michigan permitted and above ten thousand dollars," etc. The Act of …

Public Policy And Personal Opinion, John B. Waite

Articles

THE real relation of economics to law, only recently acquiring positive recognition, is illuminated by the varying decisions in regard to attempted restrictions on the enjoyment of personal property.

The Permanent International Court Of Justice, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

For the first time in history leading powers both great and small have been able to agree upon a plan for an international court of justice. The plan was formulated last summer by an advisory committee of jurists sitting at The Hague. Since then it has been submitted to the Council and the Assembly of the League of Nations and has been approved. It will come into operation as soon as the project has been ratified by a majority of the nations belonging to the League.

The Right Of A Jury In A Criminal Case To Render A Verdict Against The Law And The Evidence, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

One George D. Horning was convicted of the criminal offense of doing business as a pawnbroker in the District of Columbia without a license. The jury, which rendered the verdict of guilty, were told by the court, in the course of the charge, that there really was no issue of fact for them to decide; that the evidence showed a course of dealing constituting a breach of the law, and that they were not warranted in capriciously saying that the witnesses for the government and for the defendant were not telling the truth; that it was their duty to accept …

Due Process Of Law In Procedure, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

There are two classes of cases which may arise under the "due process" provisions of the 5th and 14th Amendments of the United States Constitution, so far as rules of procedure are concerned. One embraces cases of new remedial processes which may be criticized as too radical. The other consists of cases of old processes which may be criticized as obsolete and out of harmony with prevailing conceptions of justice. Due process may thus be said to fill the wide space between those innovations which carry us so far away from established methods as to remove the safeguards which are …

The Courts As Authorized Legal Advisors Of The People, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

It is doubtful whether American legal institutions have witnessed a more far-reaching procedural reform since New York adopted its Code of Civil Procedure in 1848, than the movement toward the authorization of judicial declarations of rights which has received its chief impetus from legislation enacted in three American States during the past year. A somewhat timid step in this direction was taken by the New Jersey Chancery Practice Act of 1915, but it disclosed a want of confidence in the broad effectiveness of the remedy. Now for the first time American legislation has definitely committed itself to the principle that …

International Recognition And The National Courts, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

In the law of nations everything depends upon recognition. A newly organized state may possess all the requisites of de facto existence, but it can gain admission to the community of international law only as it is recognized by other states. Even after it has been admitted to the international community it may be virtually outlawed by the refusal of other states to recognize a change in its government. It is through recognition and recognition alone that a de facto state becomes and continues an international person and a subject of international law.

Recovery Of Life Insurance When Insured Died In Military Service, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

A group of very recent cases, representative no doubt of many others pending, involve an interesting and important question as to the construction of military and naval service clauses in life insurance policies. These clauses which have been common in policies, at least in those issued in the last few years, while varying in wording-and these variations may be vitally important,-provide in general that if the insured meets death while engaged in military or naval service the liability of the insurer shall be limited to the premiums paid, unless permission to engage in such service shall have been obtained from …

Nebulous Injunctions, Edgar N. Durfee

Articles

Injunctive relief is sought against alleged wrongdoing which is merely incidental to the conduct of a legitimate business. The wrong is established and the court is satisfied that an injunction should issue. Yet some nice questions remain as to the scope and terms of the decree.

Determinable Fee - Possibility Of Reverter, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

Professor Gray, in the first edition of his great work, "The Rule Against Perpetuities," Section 31 and following, contended that the Statute Quia Emptores by putting an end to tenure between feoffor and feoffee of an estate in fee simple, incidentally put an end to possibility of reverter to the feoffer on failure of the condition in a determihable fee. Specifically he says that upon dissolution of an eleemosynary corporation a terminable gift to such corporation does not revert to the donor, as is said by Lord Coke, Co. LITT. 13b, but escheats. For reversion depends on tenure, and the …

Stare Decisis - Liability Of Municipal Corporations For Tort, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

Courts are charged with the duty of declaring the law. They are also required to decide cases. Either one of those functions might be performed with comparative ease if it were divorced from the other, but when the court is simultaneously obliged to do both, the difficulties are very apparent. To decide a case and at the same time to declare the law means that the court is required to generalize every legal proposition upon which it acts in making its decision. But judges are not omniscient. Who can so fully understand the logical implications and the latent possibilities of …

Pre-Legal Education, John B. Waite

Articles

It was once thought that a lawyer's vocation was chiefly to serve his clients, so that he might bring fame and fortune to himself. The profession of law was considered only a means of livelihood, merely more difficult than clerking and more remunerative, sometimes, than carpentry. To require study for the law was thought an unfair preclusion of embryo breadwinners from an adventure with that particular occupation. Fortunately, the public mind has changed; the practice of law is no longer only a means of livelihood, but has become an important agency in promoting civilization. Some one has likened law to …

Verdicts, General And Special, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

The most remarkable thing about this case of Georgia v. Brailsford is that a matter of such elementary importance in the daily administration of the law, after being announced in so dramatic a way by the Supreme Court of the United States at the very threshold of its career, could have dropped into oblivion for a hundred years only to be repudiated in a way hardly less dramatic by a sharply divided court. The controversy here disclosed goes to the very heart of the jury system as it has been developed by the common law and is still almost universally …

Juvenile Courts And Privileged Communications, Evans Holbrook

Articles

In the case of Lindsey v. People, (Colo., 1919) 181 Pac. 531, the Supreme Court of Colorado has held that Judge Lindsey of the Juvenile Court of Denver could not refuse to testify as to a communication made to him by a child who was at the time of the communication suspected of crime and against whom proceedings were later taken in the Juvenile Court. The decision was by a vote of four to three, and a vigorous dissenting opinion was written by Justice Bailey and concurred in by Justices Scott and Allen.