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University of Michigan Law School

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Articles 631 - 660 of 944

Full-Text Articles in Property Law and Real Estate

Future Interests - Federal Estate Tax - Admissibility Of Evidence Of Barrenness Of Devisee Mar 1934

Future Interests - Federal Estate Tax - Admissibility Of Evidence Of Barrenness Of Devisee

Michigan Law Review

In an inquiry as to the value of an executory bequest to charitable institutions, conditioned on the death of the testator's daughter without issue surviving her, was evidence that at the time of the testator's death she had been rendered incapable of bearing children admissible for the purpose of determining the amount of a deduction from the federal estate tax? Held, that such evidence was admissible. United States v. Provident Trust Co., (U. S. 1934) 54 Sup. Ct. 389.

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Highways - Underpass As Highway Use Mar 1934

Highways - Underpass As Highway Use

Michigan Law Review

The defendant was the owner of a gravel pit, separated from his railway shipping facilities by a highway, the fee of a portion of which was owned by the plaintiff. A bill was filed to restrain the construction under the highway of a passageway between the railroad and the gravel pit, permission for which construction had been granted by the state highway commissioner. The bill was dismissed, and on appeal, held, by an evenly-divided court, that the judgment be affirmed. Grand Rapids Gravel Co. v. William J. Breen Gravel Co., 262 Mich. 365, 247 N. W. 902 (1933).

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Torts - Negligence - Liability For Damages Accruing To Another By Act Done To Save One's Own Property Mar 1934

Torts - Negligence - Liability For Damages Accruing To Another By Act Done To Save One's Own Property

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was negligent in allowing a wooden barge to be loaded with crude oil without adequate fire protection. After the ship had been set afire by lightning, defendant had it cast adrift to save its wharf from destruction. The floating vessel later damaged plaintiff's property two miles distant. Held, defendant committed an actionable wrong. Swan-Finch Oil Corp. et al. v. Warner-Quinlan Co., (N. J. 1933) 167 Atl. 211.

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Bankruptcy - Proof Of Claims For Unaccrued Rent Mar 1934

Bankruptcy - Proof Of Claims For Unaccrued Rent

Michigan Law Review

In the very recent case of Manhattan Properties, Inc. v. Irving Trust Co., the Supreme Court for the first time authoritatively passed on the validity of a claim in bankruptcy by a lessor against the bankrupt estate for loss of future rents due after the filing of the petition. The Court, affirming the decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled that the landlord's claim was not provable. Mr. Justice Roberts, delivering the opinion of the Court, reviewed the long history of litigation on the subject and was impressed by the fact that although the great majority of the …

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Contracts - Liability Of The Assignee Of A Land Contract - Reformation By Extrinsic Evidence Feb 1934

Contracts - Liability Of The Assignee Of A Land Contract - Reformation By Extrinsic Evidence

Michigan Law Review

Defendant Campbell assigned a contract to purchase land from the plaintiff to the defendant bank, the evidence being undisputed that the assignment was additional security for an existing indebtedness of Campbell. A printed form containing a promise by the assignee to pay the purchase price was used. The name of the assignee was left blank in order that the name of a prospective purchaser could be filled in if an anticipated sale materialized. In an action to foreclose the land contract the vendor asked for a deficiency judgment against the defendant bank. Held, that the vendor was not entitled …

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Fixtures - Rights Of Conditional Vendors Against Mortgagees Of Realty Feb 1934

Fixtures - Rights Of Conditional Vendors Against Mortgagees Of Realty

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sought to foreclose a mortgage with an after-acquired property clause on an industrial plant in which were installed various pieces of machinery sold by the defendant vendors under a conditional sale to the mortgagor after the execution of the realty mortgage. The machinery was so attached as to become fixtures and was evidently necessary to the continuance of the enterprise, but was removable without damage to the building as it stood before the machinery was installed. It was held that the conditional vendors could remove the machinery. People's Savings & Trust Co. v. Munsert, (Wis. 1933) 249 N. …

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Equity - Election Of Remedies - Proof Of Claim In Receivership Feb 1934

Equity - Election Of Remedies - Proof Of Claim In Receivership

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sold certain chattels under a conditional sales agreement to a partnership which later went into receivership. The purchase price not having been paid, plaintiff filed a general claim with the receiver, which was allowed. Six months later, no dividend having been paid, plaintiff filed a petition to have the general claim withdrawn and a preferred one substituted, based on the title-retaining contract. The court held that by filing and allowance of the general claim plaintiff made a final election between inconsistent remedies which barred rescission and restitution of the specific property. The court held that the inexperience of plaintiff's …

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Constitutional Law - Moratory Legislation Feb 1934

Constitutional Law - Moratory Legislation

Michigan Law Review

A Minnesota statute, in view of the economic emergency, provided, among other things, that courts might, upon petition of a mortgagor, extend the period of redemption from mortgage foreclosure sales for a definite time not beyond May 1, 1935. If a court took such action, the mortgagor was to remain in possession of the premises and pay a reasonable rental to the mortgagee. Held, by the United States Supreme Court in a five-to-four decision, that this statute did not violate the contracts, or due process, or equal protection clauses of the Constitution. Home Building and Loan Association v. Blaisdell …

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Future Interests -Transferability Of Right Of Entry For Breach Of Condition Jan 1934

Future Interests -Transferability Of Right Of Entry For Breach Of Condition

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff's ancestor conveyed land to the city, on the express condition that the city should construct and forever maintain a "speedway" on the premises conveyed, reserving to himself, his heirs and assigns a right of entry for breach of the condition. Subsequently, before the condition was broken, he conveyed to a third party all his remaining land adjoining the Speedway, "together with all the right, title and interest of the party of the first part, in said Speedway." The breach of the condition having since admittedly occurred, the plaintiff, the heir of the original grantor, sought to assert the right …

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Mortgages - Necessity Of Making A Lessee A Party To The Foreclosure Of A Prior Mortgage Nov 1933

Mortgages - Necessity Of Making A Lessee A Party To The Foreclosure Of A Prior Mortgage

Michigan Law Review

A mortgagee foreclosed by a bill in equity without making a lessee, under a lease executed subsequent to the mortgage, a party. In a suit by the purchaser at the foreclosure sale to recover rent from the lessee the court held that the foreclosure put an end to the term and the obligation to pay rent notwithstanding the fact that the lessee was not made a party to the foreclosure proceedings. Dolese v. Bellows-Claude Neon Co., 261 Mich. 57,245 N. W. 569 (1932).

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Fixtures - Fraud As Basis Of Implied Contract To Retain Status Of Personal Ty After Annexation Nov 1933

Fixtures - Fraud As Basis Of Implied Contract To Retain Status Of Personal Ty After Annexation

Michigan Law Review

S, owner of a farm upon which the defendant held a first mortgage, purchased from the plaintiff, a lumber dealer, building material for the definite purpose of constructing a substantial barn upon the farm. Plaintiff was induced to make the sale in reliance upon fraudulent representations made by S. After the barn was built the plaintiff discovered the fraud. He then brought suit to establish his right to remove the barn, contending that the fraud constituted an implied agreement that the building was to be personal property. Held that, under the circumstances, as a matter of law the …

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Equity- Declaratory Judgment -Injunction To Protect Right In Easement Nov 1933

Equity- Declaratory Judgment -Injunction To Protect Right In Easement

Michigan Law Review

Defendant owned a piece of land in a city block, and plaintiff owned an ad joining piece of land together with an easement for light and air upon a contiguous strip of defendant's land 4 feet wide and 90 feet long. Plaintiff's land alongside the strip was vacant, and he had no immediate intention of building thereon. Defendant erected an office building on his land, constructing an outside stairway on the 4 x 90 foot strip. Plaintiff asked for a mandatory injunction compelling defendant to remove the stairway, stating in his argument before the court that though he had no …

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Mortgages - Assignment Of Rents And Profits - Michigan Statute Jun 1933

Mortgages - Assignment Of Rents And Profits - Michigan Statute

Michigan Law Review

There may be times when legislative action is so obviously dependent upon contemporary circumstances, or when its roots lie so near the chronological surface, that no study of background is possible or necessary. Such is not the case, however, with anything relating to mortgage law; it is too deeply imbedded in our legal system. And though its history be familiar it is felt that a brief review will not be out of place in considering a comparatively recent Michigan statute authorizing the assignment of rents and profits.

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Waters And Watercourses-Right Of Public Passage Along Great Lakes Beaches Jun 1933

Waters And Watercourses-Right Of Public Passage Along Great Lakes Beaches

Michigan Law Review

May the littoral owner whose summer cottage abuts on one of the Great Lakes bring actions of trespass quare clausum against pedestrians who traverse the sand beach which lies at the aquatic terminus of his property? To state the same problem in different form, may he build a lateral line fence designed to exclude the public from that segment of the lake-side beach which he claims as his? The question has never been directly decided by the supreme court of any State, yet it is a source of constant strife between littoral owners who desire privacy and seclusion, and strolling …

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Taxation - Priority Of Realty Taxes In Receivership May 1933

Taxation - Priority Of Realty Taxes In Receivership

Michigan Law Review

The question of the priority of realty taxes has seldom arisen in receiverships, for the statutes in practically every jurisdiction have made the tax a lien on the land. The statutes are so worded that the tax lien takes precedence over mortgages, labor liens, and all other forms of encumbrances and claims. In times of greatly depleted land values it may happen that the unpaid taxes amount to more than the market value of the property. In such a case is the State to be treated as a general creditor for the amount of the deficiency or is it to …

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Easements - Creation By Implied Grant-Land Conveyed For A Specific Purpose May 1933

Easements - Creation By Implied Grant-Land Conveyed For A Specific Purpose

Michigan Law Review

The defendant owned property next to a lake which he subdivided into residential lots for the purpose of establishing a summer resort colony. In 1924 he sold one of the lots some distance back from the lake to the plaintiff, and during the negotiations for such sale it was represented that all the lots which bordered on the lake, both in front of and on both sides of the plaintiff's lot, would be improved as a park, that no buildings would be put upon them, and that the plaintiff would have a quiet summer home with an unobstructed view of …

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Vendor -Purchaser-Prospective Inability Of Vendor To Convey May 1933

Vendor -Purchaser-Prospective Inability Of Vendor To Convey

Michigan Law Review

In a contract for the sale of sixty-three lots of a subdivision, the defendant agreed to take the purchase money by installments extending over a period of eighteen months, and promised to convey the premises free from encumbrances when twenty-five per cent of the sale price was paid. While the plaintiff was not in default the defendant mortgaged the entire subdivision to one who was not charged with notice, to secure the payment of bonds some of which did not mature for five years. Stipulations m the mortgage allowed the release of any lot on deposit with the mortgagee of …

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Life Estates - Oil And Gas -Effect Of Lease By Life Tenant May 1933

Life Estates - Oil And Gas -Effect Of Lease By Life Tenant

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff, a remainderman, granted an "oil and gas lease to X, subject to the rights of the tenant by curtesy, Anderson. Anderson, seven years later, granted an "oil and gas lease" in the same premises to Y. Eventually both leases were acquired by the defendant who entered upon the land and drilled for oil. Anderson contended that he was entitled not only to the royalty stipulated in the lease made by him, but also to receive for his lifetime the income from the proceeds of the sale of the royalty for which the remainderman stipulated. The defendant …

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Finders -Lost Article In Taxicab Apr 1933

Finders -Lost Article In Taxicab

Michigan Law Review

X and Y, government agents, were taking A and B, bribery suspects, to the station in a taxicab. X thought he saw A drop something on the floor. When the cab reached its destination X picked up, from under the collapsible seat, a roll of bills, the ownership of which A denied. The bills were subsequently used in evidence against A and B. Petitioner, the driver of the cab, now claims the money on the ground that it was found on the floor of his cab and the real owner had not appeared. Held, petition dismissed because …

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Quasi-Contracts-Waiver Of Tort-Suit Against Governmental Agency Apr 1933

Quasi-Contracts-Waiver Of Tort-Suit Against Governmental Agency

Michigan Law Review

County officials forcibly ejected plaintiff from five acres of his land, harvested and used plaintiff's oat crop thereon, and converted the land into a road. Held, that although a county, being an agency of the State, is not liable in tort in the absence of statute, the tort may be waived and recovery allowed on the implied promise to pay for the taking of private property for public use without just compensation. Kerns v. Couch, (Or. 1932) 12 Pac. (2d) 1011.

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Contracts - Champerty Mar 1933

Contracts - Champerty

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff leased her lands to defendant under a void oil and gas lease. One Johnston induced plaintiff to enter into a contract with him whereby Johnston agreed to pay the costs of a bill to cancel the lease in return for a new lease to himself should the bill be successful. Accordingly, this suit was brought to cancel the lease. The court, agreeing that the existing lease was void, nevertheless dismissed the bill on the ground that the contract between Johnston and plaintiff was void as against public policy, and that plaintiff had no standing in equity. Of the eight …

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The Meaning Of "Heirs" In Willsa Suggestion In Legal Method, Lewis M. Simes, Lorentz B. Knouff, George E. Leonard Jr.: Jan 1933

The Meaning Of "Heirs" In Willsa Suggestion In Legal Method, Lewis M. Simes, Lorentz B. Knouff, George E. Leonard Jr.:

Michigan Law Review

A major task of the lawyer is the prediction of judicial action. No less than a quarter of a century ago Justice Holmes referred to the law as a body of "systematized prediction." Today legal scholars are not content to base their predictions solely upon the body of rules announced in judicial opinions. By means of elaborate fact studies they have sought to ascertain how rules of law actually function in society. Not only have these studies dealt with problems of procedure and the administration of courts, they have also invaded the fields of commercial and property law. Among such …

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Vendor And Purchaser-Right Of Purchaser To Exoneration As To A Prior Vendor's Lien Nov 1932

Vendor And Purchaser-Right Of Purchaser To Exoneration As To A Prior Vendor's Lien

Michigan Law Review

The case of McClure v. Southfield Woods Corporation, decided by the Michigan supreme court last year, raised an interesting question as to whether a contract vendee of land which is included in a tract subject to a pre-existing vendor's lien has a right of exoneration against his vendor as to such incumbrance. The plaintiff in that case had sold land to the Southfield Woods Corporation by a contract which provided for joinder of the vendor and vendee in a subdivision plat and for release of any lots from the vendor's lien upon payment of a stipulated sum, in addition …

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Mortgages-Given Without Consideration But Intended As Gift Nov 1932

Mortgages-Given Without Consideration But Intended As Gift

Michigan Law Review

Statements that no mortgage is good unless there is consideration therefor are common; but that such statements are entirely true is very doubtful. Jones, in his book, Mortgages, makes such a statement, and then in the same section tells us that a mortgage intended as a gift will be enforced against all but prior creditors of the mortgagor. Wiltsie, in his book, Mortgage Foreclosures, states that want of consideration is a good defense, with some exceptions which are not clearly indicated. And Tiffany, in his work on Real Property, suggests that although a mortgage without consideration might be valid as …

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Non-Assignment Provisions In Land Contracts, Edwin C. Goddard Nov 1932

Non-Assignment Provisions In Land Contracts, Edwin C. Goddard

Michigan Law Review

Many a sale of real estate is made to a purchaser who lacks the ready cash to pay the price. A deed of conveyance may be given with a mortgage back for the unpaid portion of the purchase price. But more and more in recent years the vendor has given a contract to convey conditioned upon the making of periodical payments of stipulated amounts, a deed to be given when the whole or a stated portion of the purchase price has been paid. The initial payment may be very small, and not infrequently the periodic payments are little more than …

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Mortgages -Assignment In Good Faith After Maturity Cuts Off Prior Latent Equities Jun 1932

Mortgages -Assignment In Good Faith After Maturity Cuts Off Prior Latent Equities

Michigan Law Review

M executed a negotiable note payable to the order of P, secured by a mortgage. After maturity, P assigned the note and mortgage without his indorsement to X for value. Y procured an assignment of these from X by fraud and in turn assigned them to Z, a purchaser without notice and for value. In Z's suit to foreclose the mortgage, X intervened, demanding the delivery of the same to himself. Held, Z's bona fide purchase cut off X's latent equity. Frank v. Brown, 255 Mich. 415, 238 N. W. 237 (1931).

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Railroads-Right To Drill For Oil Or Gas On Right Of Way Jun 1932

Railroads-Right To Drill For Oil Or Gas On Right Of Way

Michigan Law Review

A railroad had acquired a one-hundred-foot strip of land through a farm, the deed describing the land granted by metes and bounds, and "for railroad purposes only." For fifty years the defendant has continuously used the strip for railroad purposes. The plaintiff, who became owner of the farm and successor to whatever rights in the strip remained to his grantor, sought to enjoin the defendant from drilling for oil and gas in the strip. Held, that the railroad had purchased a fee simple absolute in the strip and was therefore entitled to develop its own minerals. Quinn v. Pere …

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Pleading - Joinder Of Parties - Successive Converters Jun 1932

Pleading - Joinder Of Parties - Successive Converters

Michigan Law Review

A chattel mortgagee brought an action for conversion against successive purchasers of mortgaged property, wrongfully sold by the mortgagor. Held, the joinder was improper. Each defendant was guilty of a separate conversion giving rise to a separate cause of action. They cannot be joined as each cause does not affect both defendants. Warren, J., dissented, Northern Finance Corp. v. Midwest Commercial Credit Co. et al. (S. D. 1931) 239 N. W. 242.

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Quasi-Contracts -Assumpsit For Use And Occupation Against A Trespasser In Modern Cases May 1932

Quasi-Contracts -Assumpsit For Use And Occupation Against A Trespasser In Modern Cases

Michigan Law Review

Perhaps the doctrine of stare decisis is sometimes deserving of severe criticism in its application to matters of substantive law; but the unfortunate results of uncritical adherence to precedent appear most clearly in regard to rules of procedure, where the demand for certainty cannot be justified by a supposed reliance of laymen on "settled" rules. The evils are aggravated where inconvenient decisions are not undermined or their effects evaded by the lawyer's typical process of "distinguishing'' cases. A forcible illustration is the firm refusal of most courts to extend quasicontractual relief to cases of use and occupation of land by …

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Bailments - Innkeepers - Liability For Loss Of Baggage May 1932

Bailments - Innkeepers - Liability For Loss Of Baggage

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a guest at defendant's hotel, on his arrival there gave his trunk check to the head porter who, in turn, gave the check to a licensed expressman. Due to the expressman's negligence the trunk was stolen. At the trial it was shown that it was customary for the defendant to make a separate charge for trunk delivery. Held, defendant was liable for the negligent performance of the contractual duties by the expressman. Davidson v. Madison Corp. (N. Y. 1931) 177 N. E. 393.

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