Family Law Commons^™

Alternatives To Absolute Termination Of Parental Rights After Long-Term Foster Caret, Andre P. Derdeyn, Andrew R. Rogoff, Scott W. Williams

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article will explore in detail the variety of child placement arrangements, both within and outside the system, which can be tailored to meet the needs of children and their biological or foster parents. This examination will reveal numerous statutory reforms and recent judicial decisions that promise increasingly flexible approaches to the traditional custodial alternatives following long-term foster care. Particular emphasis will be devoted to the termination of parental rights case that first united the authors and confronted them with the fact that none of the traditional legal alternatives available to those children could adequately meet their emotional needs.

Book Notes, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Child Savers: The Invention of Delinquency By Anthony M. Platt Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969. Pp. ix, 202.$8.50.

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Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas (rev. ed.) By Clifford R.Shaw & Henry D. McKay Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1969. Pp. 394.

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The Positive School of Criminology Edited by Stanley E. Grupp Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1968. Pp. vi, 114. $5.95.

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State and Local Tax Problems Edited by Harry L. Johnson Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1969. Pp. xiii, 190. $7.50.

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Tension in the Cities By James A. Bayton Philadelphia: Chilton Book Co., 1969. Pp. x, …

The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act: A Legislative Remedy For Children Caught In The Conflict Of Laws, Brigitte M. Bodenheimer

Vanderbilt Law Review

The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws has approved and recommended for enactment in all the states a Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act. This Act is designed to alleviate the plight of "interstate children" an apt phrase coined by Professor Ehrenzweig and descriptive of the rootlessness of children shifted from state to state--who are the victims of custody battles often fought in the courts of more than one state or a state and a foreign country. In this article, Mrs. Bodenheimer, Reporter for the Special Committee which drafted the Act, describes the social and legal causes of the …

Book Reviews, T. A. Smedley, E. Blythe Stason

Vanderbilt Law Review

Law of Domestic Relations By Homer H. Clark, Jr. St. Paul,Minn.: West Publishing Co., 1968. Pp. XIX, 754. $12.00.

reviewer: T.A. Smedley

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Law and the Social Role of Science Harry W. Jones, Editor New York: Rockefeller University Press, 1967. Pp. 243. $6.00.

reviewer: E. Blythe Stason

Domestic Relations -- 1964 Tennessee Survey, T. A. Smedley

Vanderbilt Law Review

Though most of the family law decisions of the supreme court and appellate courts of Tennessee reported during 1964 were of the common garden variety, four cases presented issues of notable significance, and in three of them the supreme court seems to have decided questions of first impression in this jurisdiction. As usual, the most common cause of controversy lay in matters of alimony, child support, and property settlements; but there were also decisions regarding grounds for divorce, child custody, the wife's right to damages for loss of the husband's consortium, and the parents' liability for a child's tort. Three …

Domestic Relations -- 1963 Tennessee Survey, T. A. Smedley

Vanderbilt Law Review

During 1963, the Tennessee Supreme and Appellate Courts faced a wide variety of problems in the domestic relations field, but handed down no decisions of outstanding significance. The legislature made several minor revisions in relevant statutes, one of which may prove to be a rather important change in this state's divorce law.

Challenge And Response In Family Law, Max Rheinstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

The invitation to write for this symposium on Stability and Change Through Law a short article about challenges and responses in the field of family law has been a challenge. I accepted it hesitatingly. The time limit allowed was too short to permit investigation or elaboration. However, it has given me an opportunity to express some judgments I have come to form in some thirty years of occupation with family law. With one exception all these judgments are based on general impression rather than systematic incisive research. A topic on which extensive research has been undertaken is that of divorce; …

Recent Case Comments, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Recent Case Comments --

Accounting--Return To Be Allowed Utilities on Deferred Tax Reserves Instituted in Connection with Accelerated Depreciation Methods

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Conflict of Laws--Torts--Repudiation of Place of Injury Rule

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Constitutional Law--Due Process--Juvenile Court Proceeding a Bar to Subsequent Criminal Trial for the Same Act

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Family Law--Divorce--Insanity as a Defense to Action--for Divorce on the Ground of Cruelty

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Labor Law--Unemployment Compensation-Status of Laid-Off Worker Under No--Strike Clause

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Real Property--Future Interests--Valuation of Possibility of Reverter

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Taxation--Federal Income Tax--Deductibility of Contingent Witness Fees

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Torts--Warranty--Relation of Foreseeability of Risk to the Implied Warranty of a Cigarette Manufacturer

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Domestic Relations -- 1962 Tennessee Survey, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

The case of Folk v. Folk' dealt with a long-continued domestic dispute in which the husband sought unsuccessfully to terminate a separate maintenance decree. The litigation had begun in 1954 as a divorce suit by the wife. Although her prayer for divorce had been denied, she had been allowed separate maintenance from her husband because of his mistreatment of her. The chancellor in that action had provided that the separate maintenance payments should continue unless the wife should unreasonably reject a sincere attempt at reconciliation by the husband. The court of appeals had stricken this portion of the decree but …

Priority Paradoxes In Patent Law, Richard H. Stern

Vanderbilt Law Review

The constitutional provision governing patents gives Congress the power to promote the progress of useful arts "by securing for limited Times to... Inventors the exclusive Right to their... Discoveries. "'Because an "exclusive right" suggests an exclusive grant, the Patent Office interference proceeding has been created for the purpose of determining administratively the question of priority of rights between two or more parties claiming substantially the same invention. This article attempts to state in terms of an informal axiomatic system the rules of law for determining priority of invention, and then examine that system to explore its possible paradoxes Finally, an …

Domestic Relations -- 1961 Tennessee Survey (Ii), William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

The definition of "abandonment" within the meaning of the Tennessee adoption statutes was clarified in the case of Ex parte Wolfenden. The stepmother of the subject child filed a petition for adoption, joined in and consented to by the natural father. A cross-petition was filed by the child's uncle and his wife, seeking to adopt the child and alleging that the natural father had abandoned the child and had delivered her to the home of the uncle for permanent rearing. The circuit judge granted the cross-petition upon the ground that adoption by the uncle was for the best interest of …

Contracts -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, Paul J. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

I. Offer and Acceptance--Notification of Acceptance Before Notification of Revocation--Duration of Offer with Fixed Expiration Date

II. Implied and Quasi Contract--Claim for Services Where Family Relationship Involved

III. Parol Evidence Rule--Application of Rule to Third Party Not a Party to the Written Instrument--Pre-existing Duty as Consideration

IV. Exculpatory Contracts--Contracting Against Liability for Consequences of Own Negligent Conduct

V. Agreement in Restraint of Trade-Agreement of Seller of Business Not to Compete--Enforcement of Restraint in Area Greater than Required to Protect Purchaser

Domestic Relations -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the case of In re Van Huss' Petition' the Tennessee Supreme Court denied an adoption under a literal interpretation of the residence requirements inserted into the adoption statutes in 1959. Under the 1959 statutes, although the petitioners in adoption proceedings were not required to make Tennessee their legal residence, they were required to "have lived, maintained a home and been physically present in Tennessee, or on federal territory within the boundaries of Tennessee for one (1) year next preceding the filing of the petition .... -

In the Van Huss case the petitioning husband met all of the other …

Domestic Relations -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

Domestic Relations--1960 Tennessee Survey

I. Adoption of Children

II. Persons in Loco Parentis

III. Divorce, Alimony and Counsel Fees

1. Venue

2. Jurisdiction

3. Cancellation of Decree

4. Alimony and Counsel Fees

(a) Discretion To Deny Alimony

(b) In Solido--In Futuro

(c) Duty To Pay Counsel Fees

(d) Court Alteration of Support Agreement

(e) Attachment of Property-Non-Residents

5. Jointly-owned Property

IV. Family Immunity in Tort

V. Tenancy by Tenancy by the Entireties

Domestic Relations--1959 Tennessee Survey, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the case of In re Matthews, the supreme court once more was called upon to construe the adoption statutes and to determine the relationship between the juvenile court and a court in which adoption proceedings are pending. In this same case, the court had earlier held that jurisdiction of juvenile courts to declare children abandoned is not exclusive and that in adoption proceedings a chancery court may determine whether there has been an abandonment of the child proposed to be adopted. The supreme court had remanded the case to the chancery court. In that court, the Department of Public …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

In a hearing before the Commissioner of Investigation of the City of New York, appellant refused to state whether he was then a member of the Communist Party and based his refusal to answer on the fifth amendment to the United States Constitution. He was thereafter discharged as an employee of the New York Transit Authority pursuant to provisions of the New York Security Risk Law' which allows dismissal of employees of security agencies who are found to be of "doubtful trust and reliability." Without seeking administrative remedies, appellant brought a proceeding in the state court for reinstatement contending that …

Domestic Relations -- 1958 Tennessee Survey, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

Three cases during the survey period dealt directly or indirectly with the subject of adoptions.

In two cases which were discussed in the 1957 survey,' petitions for the adoption of two children were denied because of domestic difficulties in the home of the petitioning parents. The children were ordered to be placed in custody of the State Welfare Department. The foster mother, however, did not comply with this order promptly and was adjudged in contempt by the trial court where her petitions had been filed. The supreme court affirmed the contempt decree in a recently reported case.

Domestic Relations -- 1957 Tennessee Survey, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

A large number of significant cases were reported during the survey period dealing with various phases of domestic relations. The 1957 General Assembly enacted several statutes in the field which should also be noted.

An Analysis Of Marriage Trends And Divorce Policies, Robert S. Redmount

Vanderbilt Law Review

Divorce law, theoretically, is the embodiment of policies governing the dissolution of marriage. It is the legal expression of the values attached to marriage and implicitly states the law's understanding of the marital relationship, at least that part of it that reflects conflict and disturbance.

The analytic discourse which follows briefly assesses the roles and meanings of marriage, the sources and consequences of marital disharmony and the complications of marriage dissolution. The history and composition of divorce policies and laws is carefully savored and sharply scrutinized for fidelity to the reason and experience of marriage. The outcome of this analysis …

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 …