Property Law and Real Estate Commons^™

Taxation-Income Tax-Depletion-Lessor's Share In Net Income As Subject To Depletion, William H. Buchanan S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Taxpayer which owned certain lands leased the same to companies for production of oil and other minerals for a cash bonus, a royalty in the usual form, and an agreement that lessor should receive a percentage of the net money profits realized by the lessees from their operation under the lease. Lessor claimed a right to deduct depletion allowance from the receipts which were a percentage of the net income arising from operating the properties. Held, lessor had a right to depletion deduction in respect to the percentage of net income because it had an "economic interest" in the …

Future Interests-Power Of Termination-Restraint On Alienation- Merger Of The Power Of Termination With The Fee Simple Subject To A Condition Subsequent, Neil Mckay S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A conveyed two tracts of land to B, her daughter, by two deeds, reserving a life estate in each tract and restraining, by condition subsequent, alienation of them in any manner, for five years in one deed, and for twelve years in the second. In less than five years and before the restrictions were violated, A died and B was adjudged her sole and only heir at law. Thereafter B conveyed the land by quit claim deed to the defendant, her husband. B died a month later, leaving a will, by which she devised and bequeathed all her property …

Taxation-Federal Estate Tax-Reversionary Interests Under The Rule Of The Hallock Case-Valuation, Joseph R. Brookshire S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In 1929 the decedent established a trust, reserving a life estate in the income. On the termination of this life estate, the income was payable in equal amounts to the decedent's daughters. If either daughter died, that part of the corpus supporting the share of income of the deceased daughter was to go to her descendants; if none, then to the other daughter or her descendants. If both of the daughters died without issue, the corpus was to be paid to such persons as decedent appointed by will; if no appointment was made, the corpus was to go to certain …

Constitutional Law--Impairment Of Obligation Of Contract--Mortgage Moratorium--Determination Of The Existence Of An Emergency, George Brody

Michigan Law Review

In 1943 the New York State Legislature extended its moratorium legislation for another year, thereby continuing the suspension of mortgage foreclosure proceedings on real property due to default in payments on principal. The legislature declared that an emergency still existed and therefore the continuance of legislative action, first taken in 1933, was justified. The law made payment of interest, taxes, insurance and amortization charges a prerequisite to suspension of foreclosure. Appellant brought an action to foreclose a mortgage on appellee's property for the non-payment of principal, contending that the suspension of foreclosure proceedings resulted in an impairment of the obligation …

Problems In Probate Law: Including A Model Probate Code, Lewis M. Simes, Paul E. Basye

Michigan Legal Studies Series

The publication of the Model Probate Code, together with related monographs and appendix notes, serves a dual purpose. It is the report of a committee of the Probate Division of the American Bar Association. It is also the product of a research project carried on by the University of Michigan Law School. Mr. R. G. Patton, in his "Presentation of the Report of the Committee on Model Probate Code," printed elsewhere in this volume, has provided an appropriate preface for this publication in its first aspect.

Abstracts, Mary Jane Plumer

Michigan Law Review

The abstracts consist merely of summaries of the facts and holdings of recent cases and are distinguished from the notes by the absence of discussion.

The Present Status Of "Illusory" Trusts-The Doctrine On Newman V. Dore Brought Down To Date, Edward A. Smith

Michigan Law Review

It has long been the policy of the law to provide for a widow by setting aside some portion of her deceased husband's estate for her future support. Such a policy, it has been said, dates back to the laws of Hammurabi and later evidences of it may. be found in the Justinian Code of the Roman Law, and in English law from the earliest times; its final manifestation being in the well-known common law dower. It is not with dower, however, that we are here concerned, for that institution is sufficiently well understood to require no discussion in this …

Clearance Of Land Titles-A Statutory Step, Ralph W. Aigler

Michigan Law Review

Public Act of Michigan, No. 200, was approved by the governor on May 17, 1945. Its preparation and enactment are the result of a growing urge for the amelioration of certain conditions in land title transactions.

Contracts-Anticipatory Breach Of A Unilateral Obligation To Pay Money, George Brody

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a real estate broker, was employed by defendant under a contract to negotiate the purchase of tracts of land. By the terms of the contract, plaintiff's commission was not to be paid until defendant accepted title to the land purchased. A sale of land for defendant was consummated by plaintiff but defendant, before accepting title, denied the existence of any contractual obligation to plaintiff for his services. Plaintiff brought suit for his commission. Held, there can be no recovery on a unilateral obligation to pay money before time for payment has arrived. The anticipatory breach doctrine is applicable …

Trusts-Statute Of Frauds-Oral Trust Of Land And Proceeds, Margaret Groefsema S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A conveyance was made of real property impressed with an oral trust unenforceable because of the statute of frauds requiring trusts of interests in land to be in writing. The land was later sold and the plaintiff as beneficiary of the parol trust sought to reach the proceeds of the sale. Held, the statute of frauds does not apply to personal property. Therefore the oral trust may be impressed upon the proceeds even though it could not have been enforced while the trust res remained realty. Simpson v. Clark, (Mass. 1944) 55 N.E. (2d) 10.

The Conflict Of Laws: A Comparative Study. Volume One. Introduction: Family Law, Ernst Rabel

Michigan Legal Studies Series

Full application of comparative methods to the law of conflicts requires a working plan of some magnitude. We ought to take stock of the conflicts rules existing in the different countries of the world, state their similarities or dissimilarities, and investigate their purposes and effects. The solutions thus ascertained should moreover be subjected to an estimation of their usefulness, by the standards appropriate to their natural objective. Conflicts rules have to place private life and business relations upon the legal background suitable to satisfactory intercourse among states and nations. They are valuable to the extent that their practical functioning, rather …

Contracts-Doctrine Of "Commercial Frustration" As Applied To Leases Of Real Property, Margaret Groefsema S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A mushroom crop of litigation has sprung up as a result of wartime governmental restrictions on production and consumption of civilian goods, particularly with respect to regulations of the sale of gasoline, tires, automobiles, and automobile accessories. Numerous problems have confronted the courts involving leases of property for the purpose of selling or servicing motor vehicles, where the lessee has sought to be released from his covenant to pay rent by invoking the so-called doctrine of "commercial frustration."

Landlord And Tenant-Leases-Option In Tenant To Cancel In Case Of Governmental Interference With Use Of Premises, Margaret Groefsema S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A lease of real property for an automobile service station contained a provision for termination of the leasehold at the option of the tenant in case "the use of the said premises for an oil and gasoline filling station be prevented, suspended or limited by any zoning statute or ordinance, or any other municipal or governmental action." Held, this clause applied to release the tenant when wartime rationing of gasoline and tires made it unprofitable for him to operate the filling station. Mid-Continent Petroleum Corporation v. Barrett, (Ky. Ct. App. 1944) 181 S.W. (2d) 60.

Covenants-Restrictions Upon The Use Of Land-Negroes

Michigan Law Review

Many years ago a subdivision in Detroit was platted, with recorded building restrictions. When ready for the sale of lots, the intended high character of the subdivision and its desirability for expensive residences was much advertised. An association, an informal organization of some of the owners of houses in the subdivision, assumed the right to pass upon the desirability of prospective lot purchasers, and there was some indication that the person who advertised and marketed most of the lots verbally agreed to submit to the association the names of prospective purchasers and assured some intending purchasers that colored persons would …

Exclusive And Nonexclusive Powers And The Illusory Appointment, John E. Howe

Michigan Law Review

Powers of appointment may be classified as either general or special. Under this classification a power is said to be a special power when the donee has the right to exercise it only in favor of a limited group of persons of which he himself is not a member.

In considering special powers it is helpful to subdivide them into two separate groups, one being termed exclusive and the other nonexclusive powers. In a factual situation where the intent of the donor is such that the donee of the power has the right to exclude any of the objects, it …

The Development Of The Massachusetts Probate System, Thomas E. Atkinson

Michigan Law Review

American lawyers and laymen alike take for granted a system of probate of wills and administration of decedents' estates under the supervision of a single tribunal usually called a probate court. We are familiar with the setting up of the will, appointment of the personal representative, filing of bond and inventory by the latter, granting of allowances for support of the family, notice to creditors to present their claims, and settlement of accounts of the administration, all accomplished by this court's orders or under its scrutiny. While real property is deemed to pass directly to the heirs or devisees, it …

Secured Obligations, Benjamin M. Quigg, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

The scope of this discussion probably is best defined in the words of the act itself as appear in section 302 (1): "obligations secured by mortgage, trust deed, or other security in the nature of a mortgage · upon real or personal property, owned by a person in military service at the commencement of the period of military service"; and the problems herein discussed are those which arise under the act in connection with the sale, foreclosure, seizure, or repossession of property which is security for such obligations.

A Legal Approach To Equitable Servitudes, Ralph A. Newman

Michigan Law Review

The variety of conceptions of the nature of equitable servitudes is only one indication of the complexity of this particular branch of the law; the difficulty of classifying the topic as a branch of equity rather than of real property, or the reverse, is another, and one which grows out of the interplay of both of these divisions of the law upon the particular field of equitable servitudes. The following discussion is designed to indicate that many of the difficulties inherent in the concept of equitable servitudes may be resolved by analyzing the subject from the point of approach of …

Municipal Corporations - Constitutional Law-Exemption Of Homesteads From Taxation For State Purposes, Hobart Taylor, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

A taxpayer brought a class suit in his own name for the use and benefit of himself and other taxpayers against the city of Wichita Falls to have an ordinance exempting from all taxes $3,000 of the assessed taxable values of all residence homesteads of the city declared void, and for a permanent injunction restraining the city from allowing such exemption and issuing certificates therefor to owners of homesteads. The ordinance had been passed under authority of a constitutional amendment permitting a similar exemption for "state purposes." Held, a homestead is taxable under the constitution for all purposes other …

Constitutional Law - Highways - Billboard Regulations-Application Of Easement Principles, Ruth I. Wilson

Michigan Law Review

In Kelbro, Inc. v. Myrick, where the license and setback requirements of the Vermont outdoor advertising law were sustained together with provisions for summary removal of nonconforming advertisements, the Vermont Supreme Court declared that the commercial billboard companies have no common-law right to the privilege of visibility on which their business depends. Their exploitation of this privilege, it held, is a commercial use of the public thoroughfares which has been permitted only by sufferance and has always been subject to prohibition or regulation by the legislature.

Taxation - Special Assessments - Due Process - Requirement Of Notice For Repair Of Existing Improvement, Hobart Taylor, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff brought this action against the Board of Commissioners of Wells County, Indiana, to quiet his title to 160 acres of land owned by him in the county and to enjoin enforcement of supplementary drainage assessments upon the property as permitted by Indiana law. Plaintiff contended that the statute creating drainage districts was violative of due process of law and unconstitutional in that it authorized supplementary assessments to be made by the Board of Commissioners without the same notice and hearing which was required before the original assessment could be made. On demurrer, the Wells Circuit Court held for plaintiff …

Trusts - What Constitutes Revocation When No Method Specified, Dickson M. Saunders

Michigan Law Review

By trust deed of 1927, settlor conveyed two mortgages {the first for $5,200, and the second for $1,000, both given by Harry E. Hough and wife) to trustees, in trust for herself for life, and providing for certain disposition upon her death. The trust deed was revocable with reserved power in the settlor to convey, release or otherwise dispose of the property. In 1928 the settlor released both mortgages but took in lieu thereof one mortgage for $6,200 from the same mortgagors on the same property. This substitution was effected to accommodate the mortgagors and no money changed hands. The …

Eminent Domain - Disposition Of Award When Land Is Subject To Life Estate And Remainder, Mary Jane Morris

Michigan Law Review

Testator devised property to his adopted daughter for life and remainder to her children, but should she leave no children at her death, then the estate was to go to a named charity. The United States took title to this property and paid the compensation into court. The life tenant and one of the five children filed a motion that the life tenant be permitted to withdraw the funds arising from the condemnation for the purpose of having them immediately reinvested in other real estate and/or government securities. This motion was approved by the guardian ad litem for the one …

Easements-Use Of Boundary-Line Driveways As Permissive Or Adverse

Michigan Law Review

The essence of prescription as a means of acquiring ownership or an interest is long-continued use. If the claimant's task were simply the proof of the use and that it had been open, it would not be a difficult one. The chief difficulties are encountered in establishing that the use had the necessary quality of adverseness. The like requirement as to a possession that ripens into ownership under the statute of limitations has its problems, but they are, generally speaking, not so troublesome.

Deeds - Effect Of Noncompliance With Statute Requiring Grantor To Set Forth In Deed Name Under Which He Derived Title, Mary Jane Morris

Michigan Law Review

In a suit between plaintiff and defendant Girola Bros., plaintiff obtained a judgment and levied upon certain property. Plaintiff purchased the land at an execution sale and recorded the sheriff's deed conveying the property to him. Prior to the commencement of the action, defendant Girola Bros. had changed its name to Madalay, Inc., and under the latter name had conveyed the property, subsequently levied on by plaintiff, to defendant M. Girola, pending the action by plaintiff. This deed was recorded. It set forth Madalay, Inc., as grantor, but failed to set forth the name in which Madalay, Inc., derived title …

Constitutional Law - Validity Of Rent Provisions Of Emergency Price Control Act, George T. Schilling

Michigan Law Review

The administrator of the Office of Price Administration brought an action in a federal district court to enjoin defendant from violating the rent provisions of the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, and orders and regulations issued pursuant thereto. Defendant, by way of counterclaim, challenged the constitutionality of the act and Regulation No. 10 and sought an in junction restraining plaintiff from enforcing against her the provisions of the act, from interfering with the use and occupancy of her premises and her right to invoke the jurisdiction of the state courts, and requesting the suspension of the penal provisions of …

Assault And Battery - Defense Of Property

Michigan Law Review

In a suit brought to recover damages for the death of plaintiff's husband the evidence indicated that the deceased, and other intruders, entered defendant's place of business after having been ordered to leave. The group "threw bricks and other missiles at Gennaro, destroying whiskey bottles and other property, whereupon Gennaro secured a pistol and shot and killed Wade." It was held that defendant was justified in killing the inebriated trespasser. Wade v. Gennaro, (La. App. 1942) 8 So. (2d) 561.

Trusts - Constructive Trusts - Protection Of Trade Secrets And Like Confidential Information, E. George Rudolph

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff hired a seismograph company to make surveys of certain land for the purpose of locating oil and gas. The results of the survey were favorable. An employee of the seismograph company communicated the results to the defendant who thereafter leased the land. Plaintiff brought suit to have defendant declared constructive trustee of the land for plaintiff. Held, that the relief could not be granted since defendant might have leased the land without such information. Ohio Oil Co. v. Sharp, (D. C. Okla. 1942) 45 F. Supp. 969.

Executors And Administrators - Distribution Of Surplus Proceeds When Realty Devised Subject To A Condition Is Sold For Debts, E. George Rudolph

Michigan Law Review

Testatrix devised a house and lot to the trustees of the First Methodist Church Oil the condition that it be used for a parsonage. In administering the estate it became necessary to sell this real estate. Seven thousand dollars was realized by the sale, of which five thousand remained after debts were paid. This action was brought by the executors to determine the respective rights of the trustees of the First Methodist Church, the residuary legatee, and the heirs at law to this five thousand dollar surplus. Held, the condition relating to the use of the realty was rendered …

Federal Courts - What Is An Equitable Claim To Real Property Within The Meaning Of Section 57 Of The Judicial Code?, Charles J. O'Laughlin

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, an Ohio corporation, was the lessee of land in Kentucky. It entered into a contract with defendant lessor, a resident of the District of Columbia, to renew the lease. Defendant failed to carry out his agreement, and plaintiff" sued for specific performance of the contract to lease in the United States District Court for Eastern Kentucky, jurisdiction being based on diversity of citizenship. Plaintiff was unable to obtain personal service upon defendant, but obtained service by publication under section 57 of the Judicial Code, which authorizes the court to take jurisdiction and to allow service by publication in "any …