Privacy Law Commons^™

Torts--Right Of Privacy--Violation By Unauthorized Publication Of Picture For Commercial Use, E. I. E.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Right Of Privacy, Louis Nizer

Michigan Law Review

It is only during the last half-century that the law has recognized the "right to be let alone"-the right under certain circumstances to protect one's name and physiognomy from becoming public property.

No mention of such a right will be found in the works of the great political philosophers and tract-writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries-Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Spencer, Paine. In discoursing on "natural rights," "the state of nature," "social contract," and "the inalienable rights of man," they were concerned only with the power of the state to abridge the liberties of the people. Society had not yet …

Libel And Slander - Implied Representation That Plaintiff Consented To Write Her Love Story As Libel Per Se, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff brought an action for libel against defendant for publishing in its magazine a story, which it represented as being written by plaintiff, purporting to relate indiscreet intimacies between plaintiff and a certain man. Defendant admitted the false representation of authorship, but requested a directed verdict after submitting in evidence testimony given by plaintiff in a prior law suit, in which she was said to have admitted intimacies fully as capable of bringing her into disrepute as were those published by defendant. On refusal by the court to direct a verdict, defendant excepted and appealed on the ground that the …

Torts - Right Of Privacy - Matters Of General Or Public Interest, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff had been a famous child prodigy in 1910. For twenty-five years he had lived a secluded life. Then in a recent article in the "New Yorker" magazine his private life was completely exposed. Plaintiff sued, alleging a violation of his common-law right of privacy. Held, that the complaint should be dismissed on the ground that the public has a legitimate interest in "any person who has achieved, or has had thrust upon him, the questionable and indefinite status of a 'public figure.'" Sidis v. F-R Publishing Corp., (C. C. A. 2d, 1940) 113 F. (2d) 806.

Torts - Right Of Privacy - Radio Broadcasting, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a chauffeur, had been the victim of a hold-up and shooting, suffering serious injury. Defendant sponsored a radio broadcast in which plaintiff's name was used dramatizing the affair. On hearing the broadcast, plaintiff sued in tort alleging that he suffered mental anguish and physical shock which resulted in impairing his ability to drive and caused him to be discharged from his job. Held, defendant's motion to dismiss denied, as plaintiff had stated a cause of action for invasion of a right of privacy. Mau v. Rio Grande Oil, Inc., (D. C. Cal. 1939) 28 F. Supp. 845.

Torts - Unauthorized Publication Of Photograph - Invasion Of Right Of Privacy, James W. Mehaffy

Michigan Law Review

Defendant newspaper published an advertisement containing a picture of plaintiff, a radio artist, in a bathing suit, under the mistaken belief that it was a picture of a member of a vaudeville troupe whose name appeared in the advertisement, and who was described as an "exotic red-haired Venus" who endorsed a certain brand of whole-wheat bread as a means of "keeping that sylph-like figure." Plaintiff alleged that the vaudeville act was a "sensual performance or sex parade" and was composed of the "cheapest class of chorus girls." Held, that the advertisement was an invasion of plaintiff's right of privacy …

Libel - Right Of Privacy -Auction Sale Of Debts, Gerald M. Stevens

Michigan Law Review

A creditor put his claim into the hands of one Power, who held himself out as an advertiser of accounts for sale. Power threatened several times by letter to advertise the debtor's account for sale at auction unless it was paid immediately. No payment was made; and a "flaming orange handbill" was printed and circulated about the debtor's neighborhood. It offered for sale to the highest bidder the debtor's and twenty-three other accounts. It contained, further, the statement that all accounts were guaranteed correct and undisputed and a solicitation for merchants' accounts to be similarly disposed of. Thereupon the debtor …

Torts - Right Of Privacy - Newsreel As Violation Of, Royal E. Thompson

Michigan Law Review

Section 51 of the New York Civil Rights Law provides that: "Any person whose name, portrait or picture is used . . . for advertising purposes or for the purposes of trade without the written consent first obtained . . . may maintain an equitable action . . . to prevent and restrain the use thereof; and may also sue and recover damages for any injuries sustained by reason of such use . . . . " Held, publication by defendant of a newsreel showing plaintiff and other stout women exercising in a gymnasium with the aid of unique …

Searches And Seizures - Right Of An Individual To Force The Return Of Goods Seized And Held By Police Officials, David Dow

Michigan Law Review

One of the most vexing problems which confronts a police officer investigating a crime is to determine how far he may go in seizing goods from the possession either of the person accused of the crime or of some other person. To him it is important not only as it may affect law suits against him for invasion of possessory rights, but also to make the goods thus seized admissible in evidence. To the individual this problem is important in securing full protection against unwarranted invasions of his possession. It is elementary in our legal system that the possessory rights …

Unfair Trade-Right Of Privacy-Right Of Manufacturer Who Has Contracted For Use Of Celebrity's Name To Injunction Against Competitor Using Such Name

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a baseball bat manufacturer, had obtained by contract with famous ball players a grant of the exclusive right to use their autographs on the style bats which the plaintiff company had developed for them. Defendant, a competing bat manufacturer, made bats in these same unpatented shapes and to designate the style of the bats placed the respective players' surnames on them in block letters. Plaintiff seeks to enjoin this practice of the defendant on the theory: (1) of unfair competition, and (2) of protection of the property right which the ball players had in the use of their names. …

Torts - Libel - Photographs - Right Of Privacy

Michigan Law Review

Defendant in its newspaper published a photograph of plaintiff and her husband's chauffeur standing in front of an airplane at an airport. The picture was captioned "Principals in Local Divorce Scandal," and the accompanying news story stated that plaintiff had sued her husband for divorce, the husband had filed a cross bill, and he had sued the chauffeur for alienation of affections. Plaintiff's declaration alleged that the picture had been cut from a larger one in which her husband had appeared, that the airplane was her husband's, and that the picture was believed to have been taken under a contract …

The Right Of Privacy, Eugene O'Dunne

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Torts--Right Of Privacy, Rufus Lisle

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Torts-Right Of Privacy

Michigan Law Review

Petition by the plaintiffs alleging an invasion of their right of privacy by an unauthorized publication of a picture of their malformed child, taken without their consent after its death, held, on demurrer, to state a cause of action. Bazemore v. Savannah Hospital et al. (Ga. 1930). 155 S.E. 194.

The Right Of Privacy (A Contra View), Rufus Lisle

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Right Of Privacy To-Day, Roy Mitchell Moreland

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Criminal's Right Of Privacy

Michigan Law Review

The dissent of Mr. Justice Brandeis in the famed wire tapping case has been of especial interest to those who are acquainted with his article in the Harvard Law Review in 1890 on "The Right of Privacy." The law has witnessed few more fascinating developments than the engrafting of this latter concept into the formula of justice, few more conspicuous examples of creative juristic effort. Concerning it Dean Pound has said: "What may almost be called the classical example (of creative activity) is the paper on the Right of Privacy in which Mr. Justice Brandeis, then at the bar, was …

Privileged Communications, Joseph O'Meara

Journal Articles

This article evaluates dicta from Wills v. National Life & Accident Co.regarding an implied waiver for privileged communications between a patient and his physician. It looks at the historical background of privileged communications and the writings of several legal scholars to determine whether for life insurance policies that require one to be "of sound health" there is an implied waiver of privileged communications. The author concluded that based on the rules of construction courts should follow the dicta because it is sound and reasonable policy.

The Right Of Privacy, George Ragland Jr.

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A New Application Of The Right Of Privacy

Michigan Law Review

The right of an individual to privacy in matters personal to him has again been expressly recognized by an interesting application of the doctrine in a recent Kentucky case. The defendant painted a sign on his garage window in large letters to the effect that "Dr. W. R. Morgan owes an account here of $49.67. And if promises would pay an account this account would have been settled long ago. This account will be advertised as long as it remains unpaid." The plaintiff brought suit for damages alleging great mental pain, humiliation, and mortification, and that it tended to expose …

Telegraph, Telephone And Wireless-Tapping

Michigan Law Review

A recent Federal case, Olmstead v. United States, suggests an interesting problem. Evidence obtained by Federal authorities, who tapped private telephone wires, was admitted in a criminal prosecution. It seems to be the general rule that fraudulently, wrongfully, or illegally procured evidence is admissible, if otherwise admissible. And certainly the courts have required telegraph companies to disclose messages to aid criminal prosecutions. Telegraph operators have been compelled to testify. And even where a state statute forbade disclosure of the message by the company, a subpoena duces tecum has compelled the production of a telegram to aid the courts. Testimony …

Search Of Automobile Without Warrant--When Reasonable

Michigan Law Review

The enforcement of the National Prohibition Act has been responsible for raising the search and seizure question to a new height of importance. By Section 26 of that act, any officer discovering any person in the transportation of intoxicating liquors is to seize all such liquors being transported contrary to law. Obviously to secure a search warrant is impossible in the very nature of things the automobile, adapted to speed, is gone long before a warrant could be secured. And the employment of the automobile in the transportation of liquor is carried to such an extent that search and seizure …

The Right Against False Attribution Of Belief Or Utterance, John H. Wigmore

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Right Of Privacy, L. Meriwether Smith

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

Bankruptcy - Jurisdiction of the District Court Exclusive Within Its District - A trustee in bankruptcy appointed, by the District 'Court for the District of Illinois filed a petition in the District Court for the Western District of Michigan for a summary order to require the respondent to surrender to the trustee certain moneys claimed as the property of the bankrupt. The respondent was a resident of the Eastern District of Michigan, and denied the jurisdiction of the court to issue an order to be enforced in another district. Held that the jurisdiction of the District Courts, in all bankruptcy …

Note And Comment, Henry M. Bates, Edson R. Sunderland, Harry W. Isenberg, James H. Brewster

Michigan Law Review

The Right of Privacy at Common Law; Limitation of a Carrier's Liability for Negligence; Validity of Corporate By-Law Vesting in Directors the Discretionary Power of Denying Stockholders the Right to Examine the Corporate Books; A Single Action of Successive Actions for a Nuisance; Status of One Holding Office Under an Unconstitutional Statute; Two Recent Decisions Preventing the Presbyterian Re-Union

The Right Of Privacy At Common Law, Henry M. Bates

Articles

It is quite evident that the question as to whether there is a right of privacy at common law must be met by the courts in most of our states in the not distant future, unless indeed the right is created or declared by the legislatures.

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Bankruptcy--Jurisdiction--Appointment of Referee; Carriers--Liability for Baggage--Proximate Cause; Constitutional Law--Impairing Obligation of Contract; Constitutional Law--Police Power--Regulation of Liquor Traffic; Contract of Sale--Written Contract--Alteration by Parol; Corporations--Existence Apart from Stockholders--Corporation Composed of Negroes Not a "Colored" Person; Corporations--Transfer of Shares--Bona Fide Purchasers--Estoppel; Damages--Measure for Wrongful Levy and Detention; Deeds--Distinguished from Wills--Power of Disposition Reserved; Deeds--Reservation of Right of Action for Damages--Liability of Subsequent Vendee; Descent and Distribution--Murderer's Right to Take His Statutory Share of His Victim's Estate; Divorce--Abandonment--Insanity of Deserting Spouse; Easements--Construction--Automobiles as Carriages; Elections--Irregularities in Ballots; Evidence--Admissions of a Trustee Against the Cestui Que Trust; Evidence--Judicial Notice of Foreign Law; Homestead--Mortgage …

Note And Comment, Edson R. Sunderland, Henry M. Bates, Harry B. Hutchins, John R. Rood, James H. Brewster, James H. Brewster

Michigan Law Review

Constitutional Privileges in the Philippine Islands; A Laudatory Publication as a Cause of Action; The Cy-Pres Doctrine; Duty of Vendee to See to Investment of Funds; the Power to Declare a forfeiture and Sell Property Used in Violation of a Statute; Dying Declarations; "Juvenile Courts" and Jury Trials for Neglected, Delinquent, Children;

Note And Comment, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Lesson in Patriotism from Pennsylvania; The Effect of a Motion by Each Party for a Directed Verdict; The Right of Privacy; Mutual Mistake as to the Quantity of Land Conveyed; The Privilege; Riparian Owner's Title to Contiguous Islands;