Judges Commons^™

Sane Procedural Reform, Robert E. Bunker

Articles

In these later days much is said about reforming the procedure of our courts, about recalllng our judges, at arbitrarily appointed times, and about reversing their decisions by popular vote. Most of what is said about these matters is said by those who have least reason to say it. It is no exaggeration to assert that those who are most severe in their criticism of the courts and of their procedure and most lavish in their suggestions of reform are they who know little, beyond the most general, about the courts and nothing about their procedure from personal contact with …

Law's Delays, Grant Foreman

Michigan Law Review

A Gentleman of an acquisitive nature was adventuring about a large city seeking what he might turn to quick profit. Contact with the so-called font of justice gave him an idea, following which he opened up a quiet brokerage business. Perceiving a demand for jurors who would decide a case favorably, to the side that was willing to pay a decent price, he set about supplying that demand. The trade mark on his goods was a pin stuck in the lapel of the coat in such" fashion that in the jury box they would Without ostentation be recognized by his …

Dissatisfaction With Our Judges, C A. Kent

Michigan Law Review

Dissatisfaction with our judges is no new thing. It existed with the United States Supreme Court in the time of Chief Justice MARSHALL, the greatest of American jurists, after the Dred Scott decision, after the conflicting decisions on the power of Congress to make the government notes a legal tender, and at other times. Probably there is no one of the older states where dissatisfaction with the state courts has not been sometimes acute.

Recall Of Judges And Of Judical Decisions, Howard Weist

Michigan Law Review

We live in an age when courts are attacked, judges condemned for obeying the constitution, and representative government is ridiculed and sought to be destroyed. The wish of socialists has become the political ethics of near-socialists and many other citizens. It has become popular to rail against the authority 'of courts; to demand that courts shall no longer be conservators of constitutional guarantees; that judges shall serve under the fear of recall; and representative government shall give way to an absolute democracy. Has political wisdom waited for the year 1912, only to offer us socialism and the worn out and …

A Historic Judicial Controversy And Some Reflections Suggested By It., S. S. Gregory

Michigan Law Review

Probably most well informed persons of the present generation associate the notion, once maintained, that a state might secede or nullify an act of Congress, with the South and its earlier statesmen. And it is time that the resolutions drawn substantially by Jefferson and adopted by the Legislature of Kentucky in 1798, and similar resolutions drafted by Madison and adopted by the General Assembly of Virginia in the same year, together with some similar and more explicit declarations by the Legislature of the former state in 1799, seem to furnish some warrant for this impression. Yet it seems to be …

Judicial Criticism Of Legislation By Courts, Charles G. Haines

Michigan Law Review

In the application of the doctrine of judicial review of legislative acts, the federal courts of the United States have not infrequently been criticised for usurping part of the functions of the legislature. The criticisms have increased to such an extent as to raise an issue of national significance. Recently, charges against the judiciary for the usurpation of legislative functions have been made rather frequently by the justices of our federal Supreme Comt. The late Associate Justice Harlan, dissenting in part from the reasoning of the majority of the court in the Standard Oil case, brought such a criticism against …

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Animals--Abuse--Malice Toward the Owner; Assault and Battery--Apparent Ability; Bankruptcy--marshaling Assets of Partnership and of Constituent Firm; Banks and Banking--Checks--Fictitious Payee; Bills and Notes--Bona Fide Holder; Carrier--duty to Protect Passengers; Constitutional law--Division of Powers--Infringement on Executive; Constitutional law--Eminent Domain--Supersedure of Ordinance of 1787; Constitutional law--Special Legislation--Automobiles; Corporations--Issue of Stock--Corporation of Two States; Courts--Jurisdiction--Damage to Real Property Without the State--Negligence; Damage--Personal Injuries Contributing to Disease; Deeds--Assignment o fright of Entry Between Heirs; Deeds--Restrictive Covenant--"building" Defined; Equity--Infringement of Trade Marks--"Clean Hands"--Husband and Wife--Estate by Entirety--Conveyance of Husband's Interest; Judgment--Effect of the Transcript of a Justice's Judgement Filed in the District Court; Judgment--Estoppel--Homestead; Marriage--What …

The Recall And The Political Responsibility Of Judges, W. F. Dodd

Michigan Law Review

The movement for the recall of State officers is one which has became important only within the past three or four years. The first application of the recall as a modem institution in the United States appears to have been in Los Angeles in 19o3, where the institution was adopted in the amendment of the charter framed by that city. From Los Angeles the recall as applicable only to municipal officers spread to other California cities, and has now been rather widely adopted in other States. The first State constitutional amendment with respect to the recall, that of California in …

The Gibbons V. Ogden Fetish, Fred'k H. Cooke

Michigan Law Review

It was, we believe, Huxley who once said something to the effect that, as soon as one becomes an authority in science, he becomes a nuisance. In many a field of human activity, we find illustrations of the influence of a great name in retarding the progress of thought. Cuvier and Agassiz furnish notable instances in the realm of natural science. For centuries the great authority of Galen operated to paralyze progress in medicine. Still better known are instances of supposedly infallible individuals, or organizations, or writings, in retarding progress in theology. The same influence has notoriously operated in jurisprudence. …

The Establishment Of Judicial Review Ii, Edwin S. Corwin

Michigan Law Review

In tracing the establishment of judicial review subsequently to the inauguration of the national government it will be important to bear in mind that there are two distinct kinds of judicial review, namely, federal judicial review, or the power of the federal courts to review acts of the State legislatures under the United States Constitution, and Judicial review proper; or the power of the courts to pass upon the constitutionality of acts of the coordinate legislatures. That the Judiciary Act of 1789 contemplated, in the mind of its author, Ellsworth, the exercise of the power of review by the national …

The Establishment Of Judicial Review (I), Edwin S. Corwin

Michigan Law Review

When Gladstone described the Constitution of the United States as "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man," his amiable intention to flatter was forgotten, while what was considered his gross historical error became at once a theme of adverse criticism. Their contemporaries and immediate posterity regarded the work of the Constitutional Fathers as the inspired product of political genius and essentially as a creation out of hand. Subsequently, due partly to the influence of the disciples of Savigny in the field of legal history, partly to the sway of …

James Valentine Campbell, Victor H. Lane

Articles

Judge James Valentine Campbell was born in Buffalo in the State of New York on the 25th day of February, 1823, and his sixty-seventh year had just closed when he died in the City of Detroit on the 26th day of March, 1890.

Historical Lights From Judicial Decisions, Edward Cahill

Michigan Law Review

The history of a nation is to be looked for in a great variety of places. Its traditions, its public and private records, its religious and social orders, its literature and its laws, each yield copious results to the researches of the historian. The social, religious and economic conditions of a nation at any period of its history, the state of the· domestic relations, the rights of property and of succession, the growth of personal liberty, all these and many more find their accurate expression sooner or later, in the written or unwritten laws of the land. And the movement …

Benjamin Franklin Graves, Hoyt Post

Michigan Law Review

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN GRAVES, the oldest and last surviving of the four noted judges-Cooley, Campbell, Christiancy and Graves-who composed the Supreme Court of Michigan in 1868 and succeeding years, died in Detroit, Michigan, on the third day of March, 1906, at the age of eighty-eight years and five months.

Thomas Mcintyre Cooley, Jerome C. Knowlton

Michigan Law Review

In the early fifties, there were four young men practicing at the bar of the State of Michigan who became so influential during the formative period in the jurisprudence of the state that we cannot name one of them without thinking of the others. James V. Campbell, Isaac P. Christiancy, Thomas M. Cooley arid Benjamin F. Graves came from New York parentage and from New England stock. The three last name received their education in the primary schools and academies of New York. As young men seeking their future they came west and settled in different parts of this state. …

Isaac Peckham Christiancy, Joseph B. Moore

Michigan Law Review

Isaac P. Christiancy was born on the 12th of March, 1812, at Johnstown, New York. His life is another of, the many illustrations that great as are the advantages of the possession of wealth, when properly used, and the opportunity of attending the higher institutions of learning, they are not essentials to the attaining of great influence and a position of well deserved eminence. His education was obtained by attending the district schools, supplemented by a short term in the academy at Dow, New York. He was an omnivorous reader of such books, magazines and newspapers as were obtainable by …

Thomas Mcintyre Cooley, Jerome C. Knowlton

Articles

In the early fifties, there were four young men practicing at the bar of the State of Michigan who became so influential during the formative period in the jurisprudence of the state that we cannot name one of them without thinking of the others. James V. Campbell, Isaac P. Christiancy, Thomas M. Cooley and Benjamin F. Graves came from New York parentage and from New England stock. The three last named received their education in the primary schools and academies of New York. As young men seeking their future they came west and settled in different parts of this state. …

James Valentine Campbell, Charles A. Kent

Michigan Law Review

The Campbell ancestors of Judge Campbell were, as the name shows, Scotch. The earliest one in this country, his grandfather, was Thomas Campbell, an officer in an Highland Regiment, who settled on the Hudson. His son, Henry M. Campbell, was born in Ulster County, New York, September 10th, 1783. In early manhood he removed to Buffalo. When the War of 1812 broke out, he joined the American army, and was made Captain of an artillery company. In October, 1812, he married Lois Bushnell, a member of a New England family. Her nephew, the Reverend Horace Bushnell, became a very distinguished …

Thomas Mcintyre Cooley, Harry B. Hutchins

Articles

The Department of Law of the University was opened in the fall of 1859. The wisdom of the step was doubted by many, and it cannot be said to have had the hearty support of the profession of the State. Systematic legal education through the instrumentality of formal instruction was in its infancy. It was practically unknown in the west, for outside of New England and New York there was at the time no law school of standing and influence. The profession generally, the country over, had little sympathy with any method of training for the bar excepting the historic …

Mandamus Against A Governor, Edward J. Myers

Michigan Law Review

The question whether the courts have the power to issue he writ of mandamus against the chief executive of a state to compel the performance of a duty imposed upon him by law, has been answered in two irreconcilable lines of decision-the one being that the Governor is not answerable to the writ to compel the performance of his duty, be it either discretionary or ministerial in its character, the other, that he is liable to the writ to compel the performance of duties purely ministerial in nature. Mr. High, in his work on Extraordinary Legal Remedies, says: "The jurisdiction …

A Treatise On The Powers And Duties Of The Justices Of The Peace In The State Of Michigan, Under Chapter Ninety-Three Of The Revised Statutes Of 1846, Being Chapter Thirty-Four Of The Compiled Laws Of 1897; With Practical Forms And An Appendix Containing The Justice Court Acts Of Those Cities Having Provisions Differing Materially From The General Justice Court Act., Alexander R. Tiffany, Victor H. Lane

Books

“Judge Alexander R. Tiffany, its author, put out the first edition of this work in 1849. In the years 1851, 1858 and 1866, he put out the second, third and fourth editions, respectively. The fifth edition was published in 1873 with Judge Andrew Howell as its editor and he edited the succeeding editions to the ninth inclusive ….

“The editorship of the present edition has been undertaken at the request of the family of Judge Tiffany, and while the editor is persuaded that better can be done, yet it is hoped that the present edition may share the favor so …

Doctrine Of Stare Decisis, Edward B. Whitney

Michigan Law Review

I am requested to present a paper whose theme is suggested by the Present Problems of Private Law, as distinguished from law that has a constitutional or international aspect. I doubt whether there is any other section of the Congress whose themes are so difficult to select. We cover, indeed, those branches that mainly concern the ordinary, plain, steady-going, stay-at-home, law-abiding citizen,-that multitude of questions among which most legal practitioners everywhere are wearing out their lives; working every day and all day upon Present Problems of Private Law. Each of those problems interests the parties to the particular litigation or …

Note And Comment, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The Law School; The New Schools of Healing; When the Exercise of Judicial Discretion is not Due Process of Law; Mandamus to Compel the Installation of a Telephone in a Bawdy House Denied; The Division in the Republican Party in Wisconsin; A Novel Extension of Federal Jurisdiction; The Session Laws of Porto Rico

Justice William Rufus Day, Harry B. Hutchins

Articles

The University of Michigan , when measured by the standard of public services rendered by its graduates, must certainly be accorded an honorable rank. For a quarter of a century the number of its alumni occupying high official station has been large. The list includes state executives, judges of state courts of last resort, senators and representatives in the national congress, cabinet officers, and members of important commissions raised by the general government for international and executive purposes. The character of the services has in some cases been conspicuous for its excellence and in all cases such as to bring …

The Relation Of The Federal And The State Judiciary To Each Other, Horace R. Lurton

Michigan Law Review

In the very cordial invitation extended to me by the distinguished President of your Bar Association to participate in the observance of this occasion it was urged that I should make a short address upon the relations of the Federal and State Judiciary to each other. As a reason for my taking this particular subject it was suggested by him that I had had the advantage of a considerable service under both systems.

The Judicial System Of The German Empire, Richard Hudson

Michigan Law Review

In the German Empire the administration of justice is for the most part left to the states, all the courts being state courts with the exception of the Imperial Court at Leipzig. The Empire has however established unity of tlie law, has given a uniform organization and procedure to the courts of the states, and has by the creation of the Reichsgericht as the highest court of appeal ensured a uniform interpretation of the law. These three methods of securing a uniform administration of justice will be studid in the order named.

Preferences Arising From Trust Relations, Harry B. Hutchins

Articles

Where property has once been impressed with a trust, the quality inheres therein and in the proceeds thereof so long as the trust relation continues, provided the rights of a bonafide purchaser for value and without notice do not intervene and identification remain possible. The trust impress, in the absence of a superior equity, at once places property in the preferred class. In equity, trust property belongs to the cesiui que trust, and his claim to it cannot be defeated by the insolvency or dishonesty of the trustee, if it constitutes, in an identifiable form, a part of the trustee's …

Authority Of Allen V. Flood, Horace Lafayette Wilgus

Articles

In the case of Allen v. Flood, one of the Lords asked this interesting question, "If the cook says to her master, 'Discharge the butler or I leave you,' and the master discharges the butler, does the butler have an action against the cook?"' This, Lord Shand said, was the simplest form in which the very question in Allen v. Flood could be raised.

Reports Of Cases Determined In The Court Of Chancery Of The State Of Michigan, E. Burke Harrington, Thomas M. Cooley

Books

Originally published in 1845, covers cases from 1836-1842. Cited as: Harr. Ch. (2ed) and commonly known as Harrington's chancery reports.

From the Preface to the Second Edition: "Harrington's Reports having been for some time out of print, the undersigned ... has taken charge of a new edition....

"Some improvement ... has been introduced, particularly in the head notes... The original paging has been preserved, for the convenience in tracing former references." Thomas M. Cooley, Ann Arbor, October 1872.

Some Hints On Defects In The Jury System, James V. Campbell

Articles

The occasional freaks of juries have now and then led some members of the bar to speculate on the policy of doing without them entirely, and some persons no doubt think that they have strong convictions that the jury system has become useless. It is safe to say that these extreme views are altogether speculative, and not based on any careful comparison of results. Most persons who have looked into their own experience with courts and juries are ready to agree that where there is no dispute about main facts, so that the chief dispute is one of law, there …