Family Law Commons^™

A Study Of Domestic Relations, Juvenile And Family Courts In Tennessee, George E. Barrett, Thomas A. Higgins

Vanderbilt Law Review

The rapid growth of industry in Tennessee, with the concomitant increase in urban population, has emphasized the gravity of certain social problems confronting the state. Not the least among these is the present state of the domestic relations and juvenile courts. The seriousness and complexity of this problem was pointed up in the last session of the General Assembly (79th Session) at which time the Senate passed a resolution authorizing the legislative council tounder take a study of the present system and to report their findings and recommendations to the next session of the General Assembly.'Pursuant to this resolution the …

Domestic Relations -- 1956 Tennessee Survey, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

Only one reported opinion dealt with the subject of adoption during the survey period.' In this case the petitioners had contracted with the Department of Public Welfare to keep the subject child on a foster-home-care basis. When the Department sought custody of the child from them, however, they had become very attached to her and refused to surrender custody. Pursuant to the statute then in effect, they filed a petition to the county court to adopt the child. The petition was denied, and on appeal the decision was affirmed. Immediately thereafter, petitioners filed the present suite in chancery, seeking to …

The Law Of Infants' Marriages, Robert Kingsley

Vanderbilt Law Review

Just as the law requires, for ordinary contracts, that a party thereto must have reached an age sufficient to give him reasonable discretion, so, in connection with the contract of marriage, the law has required that the parties be not too immature. It must be remembered, however, that the word "infant" is not one of fixed meaning: when used with reference to ordinary contracts, and without further qualification, it usually means a person under twenty-one years of age; but in the field of criminal law the dividing line between "infancy" and "adult" responsibility is fixed at a lesser age (14 …

Divorce Litigation And The Welfare Of The Family, John B. Bradway

Vanderbilt Law Review

In a recent article Chief Justice Warren, writing on the topic "The Law and The Future," reminds us that "Some of the defects in our system are inherited; others keep creeping in. Justice, like freedom, needs constant viligance." There are some who believe that an inspection of the modern orthodox adversary divorce procedure will reveal one or more of those defects. It is the purpose of this article to attempt such an inspection.

There is nothing novel in the suggestion that divorce is a controversial subject. Its repercussions impinge on many of the social and physical sciences; but its contact …

The Law Of Adoption: Ancient And Modern, Leo A. Huard

Vanderbilt Law Review

Sir Henry Maine tells us that adoption is one of the oldest and most widely employed of legal fictions. Without it, he asserts, society would scarcely have escaped its swaddling clothes. It commanded the approval of the greater number of archaic societies and has proven to be the most perdurable of all artificial relationships designed to prolong the continuity of family existence.

The family is the basic group of most primitive societies. Those who were related by blood naturally gravitated to each other to form this first ring of society's organization. In the same way successively higher organizational units were …

Family Responsibility In Tort, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

At common law an unmarried woman occupied no special status as far as tort liability was concerned, and the same rules and standards of responsibility applied to her as to society generally. Since marriage imposed upon a woman a very extensive disability, however, there developed a number of special rules concerning tort responsibility of the married woman.

Marriage did not impose upon the wife any special or peculiar liability for wrongful acts committed by her husband at common law, and, except in certain instances hereafter noted, she is not thus liable today. It is true that since the enactment of …

Marriage In The Conflict Of Laws, Charles W. Taintor, Ii

Vanderbilt Law Review

It must first be recognized that three different types of problems are raised in this field by what purport to be marriages: problems concerning the creation of the relationship of man and wife; those concerning the method whereby the parties signify their consents to the assumption of the relationship; and those concerning the legal protection accorded to claims arising therefrom. These involve, respectively, the status, the ceremony, and the incidents' of marriage.

It has often been said or assumed in the past that the laws of the domicile or domiciles of the parties at the time of the ceremony govern …

Support Rights And Duties Between Husband And Wife, Monrad G. Paulsen

Vanderbilt Law Review

According to the common law a husband was entitled to his wife's earnings and most of her personal property in addition to the pleasure of her company and services in the home. These advantages have been considered the quid pro quo for the man's duty of support. Today, because of legislation, most of a husband's legal control over the income and means of his wife is gone. If a husband's duty to support is to be grounded in a reciprocal benefit to him, that benefit is derived almost wholly from the wife's obligation to be a wife and to live …

Bankruptcy From A Family Law Perspective, G. Stanley Joslin

Vanderbilt Law Review

The points at which family interests are involved in the usual bankruptcy proceeding are many. Some are quite obvious, as dower rights of the wife, alimony claims, or intra-family concealments. Others are less conspicuous but no less potent, as exclusion of relatives and spouses from certain rights, post-bankruptcy inheritances, cryptic exemption rights or evidentiary obligations. The scope here will not be limited to the traditional academic "Family Law" concept but will include that wider sphere where husbands, wives, and children are actually and vitally concerned in a bankruptcy involving one of them. Not only are the advantageous rights to be …

The Law Of Divorce And The Problem Of Marriage Stability, Max Rheinstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the mind of the American public, the topic of divorce has come to play a conspicuous role. The present symposium constitutes a part of an extensive debate which is carried on not only among experts but in which the general public also has shown a lively interest. The matter touches upon the lives of large numbers of people and it excites widespread curiosity and emotional reactions. The common attitude is one of uneasiness. The feeling is widespread that there are too many divorces, that the stability of family life has seriously declined, and that something ought to be done …

Full Faith And Credit For Divorce Decrees -- Present Doctrine And Possible Changes, James D. Sumner Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The recognition of divorce decrees has perhaps created more concern in the United States than any other legal issue. At least this is a matter that has frequently been the subject of public discussions and articles in national magazines in the last decade and a half. The "laymen" who have participated in these events probably have not realized the technical legal problems involved. However, they have at least by their discussions and writings demonstrated that migratory divorces and respect for them raise problems of national significance. Moreover, there is an abundance of legal articles by judges, lawyers, law teachers and …

Domestic Relations -- 1955 Tennessee Survey, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

A case of some significance concerning rights of inheritance by adopted children was decided by the Supreme Court.' The adoptive parent died in 1950, survived by the adopted child. In 1953, the mother of the adoptive parent died, survived by blood relatives and the grandchild by adoption. The latter claimed a share in the grandparent's estate, claiming by representation through its adoptive parent. The Supreme Court decided the case under the former adoption statutes, which had been repealed in 1951. The former statute provided that "unless restrained by the decree," an adoption conferred upon the person adopted "all of the …

Domestic Relations -- 1954 Tennessee Survey, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

An important case dealing with testamentary restraint upon adoptions was decided by the Tennessee Supreme Court during the survey period.' The case was one of first impression in this jurisdiction and appears to be one of the few decisions upon the subject in the United States. In his will testator created a trust for his granddaughter, the child of his deceased son. He imposed a condition that if the child were adopted before her eighteenth birthday by someone outside testator's immediate family, and if her name were changed, then the trust should terminate and the corpus be distributed to other …

Heir Hunting -- A Profession Or A Racket?, Frank C. Ingraham

Vanderbilt Law Review

Although the cases clearly define the law and public policy applicable to the genealogist's contract, the important variable is the individual factual situation and its implications. The courts have upheld the heir-hunter's contract when the following factors were predominant in the suit: where the services of the genealogist amounted to valuable consideration; where the parties were competent and on equal footing; where there was no implied or express agreement to participate in existing or contemplated litigation; where the beneficiary accepted the evidence which established his claim and received the benefit of the claim; where there was no duty on the …

Domestic Relations, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

There have been several important appellate decisions by the Tennessee courts in the field of domestic relations during the past year, and several significant statutes on the subject were enacted by the 1953 General Assembly. These decisions and statutes are discussed briefly herein according to subject matter.

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Contracts--Ceiling Price Legislation--Effect upon Performance

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Evidence--Declarations against Interest--Third-Party Confessions

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Family Law--Loss of Consortium of the Parent--Right of Child to Recover Against a Negligent Defendant

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Federal Procedure--Statutory Construction--Meaning of "Mentally Incompetent"

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Income Taxation--Surrender of Lease--Capital Gain to Lessee

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Income Taxation--Taxable Stock Dividend--Treasury Stock Held for Investment

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Judgment--Suit to Vacate--Insufficient Allegations of Cruelty Void Divorce Decree

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Labor Law--Filing Requirements--Noncompliance at Time Charges Filed

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Municipal Corporations--Liability for Negligence--Operation of Swimming Pool for Profit

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Process--Constructive Service--Tort Action Arising Without State

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Torts--Res Ipsa Loquitur--Application To Disappearing Airplane

Delinquent Parents And The Criminal Law, Frederick J. Ludwig

Vanderbilt Law Review

"There are no delinquent children; there are only delinquent parents." This tautological truism has long been the speaker's mainstay at Rotary luncheons, parent-teacher meetings, and assorted roundtables and institutes on juvenile delinquency. When a New York Children's Court judge undertook to put the principle into practice five years ago, a storm of controversy was unleashed which has not yet subsided. The case, tragic enough, involved 14-year-old Frankie, who scored hits on three passers-by with a stolen gun. The boy, who had been sleeping in hallways and on buses, was committed as a juvenile delinquent to a state training school. His …

Book Notes, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Book Notes

Selected Essays on Family Law Compiled and Edited by a Committee of the Association of American Law Schools

Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1950. Pp. 1122. $9.50

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The Law of Cadavers and of Burial and Burial Places

By Percival E.Jackson

New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1950. Pp. lxxxvii, 734. $12.50

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Manual of Preventive Law

By Louis M. Brown

New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1950. Pp. 346. $5.00

Informal Marriages In Tennessee--Marriage By Estoppel, By Prescription And By Ratification, Robert E. Kendrick

Vanderbilt Law Review

Tennessee courts have the means for upholding informal marriages whenever the social reasons are sufficiently strong to impel them to do so. This is a very desirable result, and one which is not open to the criticism that the courts are inviting or encouraging informal marriages as against the ceremonial, statutory marriage. These devices are not alternative means of attaining the marriage status ab initio, but are merely remedial devices looking backwards, which the courts may use on occasion when satisfied that it is for the good of the state and society, as well as for the parties and their …

The Tennessee Law Of Adoption, William Merlin

Vanderbilt Law Review

On April 6, 1949, the Tennessee Legislature passed the most comprehensive adoption act in the state's history.' The purpose of this Note is to evaluate that statute, bringing up to date the status of the adoption law in the state. Primarily, it is hoped that this Note will be of help to the practicing lawyer; and for this reason, the text has been divided to show separately the procedural and substantive aspects of the law. Of course, the distinctions made are sometimes arbitrary and unnatural. At times natural sequence has been altered for the sake of clarity. But it is …

Admissibility In Tennessee Of Spouses' Testimony Concerning Their Private Affairs, Barrett B. Sutton

Vanderbilt Law Review

In Tennessee neither husband nor wife may testify to matters occurring between them by reason of the marital relation.' The purpose of this rule is to insure "a free exchange of confidences" between husband and wife upon the theory that mutual confidence is a necessary element of successful marriage. The other states agree in principle; every state places some restriction upon the testimony of husband and wife. Although this Note is primarily concerned with Tennessee law, there are differences in the restrictions imposed by various states which make some comparison desirable. The common law is the starting point.

The Present Status Of Connivance As A Defense To Divorce, Robert B. Deen Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The four usual defenses raised to bar actions for divorce are connivance, collusion, condonation, and recrimination. Connivance is ordinarily defined as consent to the misconduct alleged as grounds for divorce.' It differs from collusion in that there are present actual grounds for divorce, rather than fictitious causes or concealed defenses; from condonation in that consent is given before the misconduct occurs, not forgiveness afterwards; from recrimination in that it has to do with the very grounds on which the plaintiff sues, not some other act of misconduct.

Foreword, Mayo A. Shattuck

Vanderbilt Law Review

In order to get a proper measure of modern Estate Planning I think it may be useful to consider, very briefly, some aspects of its history. The family trust was born into our jurisprudence in an environment which had been moulded in that solid and immovable pyramid called feudalism. In that social order there was nothing of imaginative elasticity. Lateral allegiances or entanglements were as little known as lateral movements. All lines of authority moved from the top; all discharges of duties were rendered vertically to the liege lord next above. As with human relationships so also with property. The …

Family Partnership V. Corporation -- Income Tax Aspects, Bruce Mcclain

Vanderbilt Law Review

At the outset, it must be emphasized that a decision as to the more desirable mode of doing business should never be based solely upon tax considerations. In every instance, the following legal and practical advantages of transacting business as a corporation must always be borne in mind: (1) Limited Liability. The liability of a stockholder for the debts of the corporation is limited to his investment in its stock, while all of the property bf a general partner is subject to the claims of the firm's creditors, if its assets are insufficient to satisfy such claims in full. (2) …