State and Local Government Law Commons^™

Sociological Expediency Of Sterilization Statute, Jay F. Arnold

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Development Of Financing Public Improvements By Kentucky Municipalities, George W. Meuth

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Power Of The Governor To Revoke A Call For An Extraordinary Session Of The General Assembly, C. D. Carpenter

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Excise Taxes And The Uniformity Clause Of The Constitution Of Kentucky, E. G. Trimble

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Taxation--Constitutional Law--Discrimination As To Rate, Louis H. Levitt

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Automobiles - Statutory Liability Of Owner - Registered Titleholder Estopped To Deny Ownership, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs, injured in New York by an automobile driven by defendant's minor son, sued under a New York statute which makes the owner of an automobile liable for damages for injuries resulting from negligence of its operator. The automobile was registered in Connecticut in defendant's name to avoid compliance with the Connecticut statute which requires proof of financial responsibility as a prerequisite of registration for minors over sixteen years of age. Held, defendant estopped to prove ownership of the automobile in his son. Shuba v. Greendonner, 271 N. Y. 189, 2 N. E. (2d) 536 (1936), reversing 245 …

Constitutional Law-Prohibition Of Advertisement Of Prices By Barbers - Improper Police Regulation - Denial Of Freedom Of Speech, Elbridge D. Phelps

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was convicted of violating an ordinance of the City of Long Beach. That ordinance related exclusively to the barber trade and made it a misdemeanor, punishable by fine or imprisonment or both, to advertise prices of services in any publication, handbill, or notice whatsoever, provided, however, that prices might be displayed within a barber shop in such manner as not to be visible from the outside, and provided further that no advertising of prices should be allowed on the windows or on the outside of the shop, or on the adjacent sidewalk or street. Held, the ordinance was …

Journal Of The House Of Representatives Of The Commonwealth Of Kentucky, 1936-1937, Extraordinary Session, Kentucky. General Assembly. House Of Representatives.

Journals of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky

No abstract provided.

Municipal Corporations--Extra-Territorial Powers--Authority To Build Sewage Disposal Plant Outside The State, F. P. C.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Criminal Law And Procedure - Non-Unanimous Verdicts - Constitutionality

Michigan Law Review

An amendment to section 11, article 1 of the constitution of the state of Oregon permitted the concurrence of ten of the twelve jurors to control in criminal trials except in cases of murder in the first degree. It was claimed that this amendment discriminated against persons charged with second degree murder and in favor of those on trial for first degree murder, since in the latter case the jury could recommend life imprisonment which was the punishment prescribed in the former. The court held that there was no violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution. State v. …

Municipal Corporations - Effect Upon Collection Of Tort Judgments Of Constitutional And Statutory Limitations On Indebtedness And Taxing Powers, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In an effort to protect the taxpayer from the extravagance of municipal officials, two types of restrictions, in the main, have been imposed: those limiting the power to contract debts, and those restricting the power to levy taxes. Frequently in an effort to recover and collect a judgment against the city, one or the other of these restrictions is met. Courts seem to hold unanimously that debt limitations apply to the city's obligations in contract and not in tort, but they are divided as to the effect of tax limitations upon collection of a tort judgment. As an example of …

Revenue Financing Of Public Enterprises, E. H. Foley Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Courts have been slow to take judicial notice of the growing needs of local communities. Legislatures have restrained municipal corporations from engaging in business enterprises upon the assumption that the object was mere hope of gain, that the investment of municipal funds in such enterprises was simply a speculation, or that the effect was to divert municipal corporations from their legitimate ends and to poach upon the preserves of private enterprise. Novel municipal undertakings have been feared as an entering wedge of state socialism or governmental paternalism. Even when the instrumentality of private adventure was disposed to leave a need …

Corporations - Statutes Declaring Watered Stock Void - Effect Upon The Stockholder's Liability To Creditors

Michigan Law Review

Prior to the present era of "blue sky" laws providing for the careful scrutiny by the state of the issuance of stock, the evil of watered stock was sought to be curbed by constitutional and statutory provisions of a prohibitory and often penal nature. These statutes and constitutional provisions very generally take one of two forms.

The Colorado and the Arizona provisions are typical. In practical effect the two types of provisions are indistinguishable. The phrase "bona fide subscribers" in the Arizona form is construed to mean one who actually turns something of value over to the corporation in lieu …

Eminent Domain - Slum Clearance And Low-Cost Housing Program As Public Use

Michigan Law Review

A New York statute set up a public corporation with power to investigate and study housing conditions in the city, and to plan and carry out projects for the clearance of slums and the providing of housing accommodations for persons of low income. The corporation sought to condemn certain property owned by the defendant, who resisted the proceeding on the ground that the taking was not for a public use and therefore violative of the Fourteenth Amendment and a similar provision in the state constitution. Held, that the taking was for a public benefit and that therefore the constitutional …

Municipal Corporations - Liability To Riparian Owners For Pollution Of Stream

Michigan Law Review

A stream into which the plaintiff in error dumped its sewage flowed through the lands of defendant in error. Odors from the stream, deposits of foreign substances on the banks, and the pollution of the waters about the farm of the defendant in error constituted a nuisance. Held, the city is liable to one suffering from the nuisance, irrespective of whether it is exercising a governmental function in the installation of the sewer system. Oklahoma City v. Tyetenicz, 175 Okla. 228, 52 P. (2d) 849 (1935).

Constitutional Law-Police Power -Validity Of Compulsory Unemployment Insurance Act

Michigan Law Review

Complainants asked for a declaratory judgment that the New York Unemployment Insurance Act is unconstitutional. They contended that the law, providing for the payment of limited unemployment benefits out of a fund raised by a uniform payroll tax imposed on all employers, takes property without due process of law. Held, that the law is valid, violating neither the state nor the Federal Constitution. W. H. H. Chamberlain, Inc. v. Andrews, 271 N. Y. 1, 2 N. E. (2d) 22 (1936).

Constitutional Law - Franchise Tax - Burden Upon Interstate And Foreign Commerce - Due Process - Equal Protection Of The Laws

Michigan Law Review

The state of California adopted a franchise tax which was based upon the corporations' net income apportioned according to "that portion which is derived from business done within the State." When this was construed to include not merely the income from intrastate business alone, but rather the income from both this and from all interstate and foreign business attributable to California, its enforcement was resisted upon the grounds that (1) so construed it was repugnant to the commerce clause upon the theory that it burdened interstate and foreign commerce, (2) it violated the due process clause upon the theory that …

Constitutional Law-Due Process--Nonresident Motorist Statute

Michigan Law Review

Petition for writ of prohibition on the ground that the notice provided by the Arkansas nonresident motorist statute did not meet the requirements of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The statute required that service of process be had on the secretary of state and that the plaintiff send notice of such service to the nonresident defendant at his last known address by registered letter, and required that the defendant's return receipt or the affidavit of the plaintiff of compliance with the statute be filed in the office of the clerk of court. Held, the statute is …

State "Blue-Sky" Laws And The Federal Securities Acts, Russell A. Smith

Michigan Law Review

With the current revival of business has come increased activity in the securities markets. Corporations are taking advantage of low money rates to refund outstanding issues and, to some extent, to obtain new money for corporate purposes. If the upturn in business proves to be substantial, rather than merely a temporary, government-induced short-time swing, the issuance of securities for the purpose of financing capital improvements will doubtless accelerate. Questions arising under the various laws, federal and state, for the regulation of the sale of securities will become increasingly important. Persons interested in the issuance and disposal of securities desire, of …

Constitutional Law - Minimum Wage Decision - Future Of Legislation By States

Michigan Law Review

The shadow of a thirteen-year old decision which many had hoped was laid forever again fell upon the field of minimum wage legislation as the Supreme Court invalidated the New York minimum wage law for women. With this holding, which came as a surprise to many, the issue of the constitutionality of minimum wage legislation was again thrust into the limelight, and with the two great political parties wrestling with the problem of party programs, the decision may have political repercussions, of a force as yet incalculable. Before considering the future of minimum wage legislation, let us take a brief …

Municipal Corporations-Liability For Negligence In Maintenance Of Swimming Pools And Parks-Governmental And Proprietary Functions

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff sued to recover damages for the death of his son by drowning, which he alleged was caused by the negligence of the defendant city in the maintenance of a public swimming pool. In upholding the overruling of the defendant's demurrer, the court held that on the authority of an earlier South Dakota case, the maintenance and operation of a public swimming pool or park is the exercise of a proprietary function of the municipality, and therefore, the city is liable for the negligence of its servants in maintaining and guarding the pool. Glirhas v. City of Sioux Falls …

Municipal Corporations-Power Of Congress To Pass Act For Readjustment Of Municipal Debts

Michigan Law Review

In 1934, Congress amended the National Bankruptcy Act so as to authorize any municipality or other political subdivision of any state to effect a readjustment of its debts by proceedings in courts of bankruptcy. A water district in Texas petitioned the United States District Court asking for a readjustment of its obligations. After the dismissal of the proceedings in the District Court, but before the reversal of the decision by the Court of Appeals, the state legislature of Texas passed an act empowering municipalities and other political subdivisions to proceed under the federal statute. Held, that the municipal debt …

Public Utilities - Charging Companies With Expense Of Investigation - Constitutionality

Michigan Law Review

A Washington statute provides that whenever the public service commission shall deem it necessary in the performance of its duties to make any investigation or valuation of a public service company, the public service company shall pay the expenses reasonably attributable thereto. The statute provides that the commission, after giving an opportunity to be heard, "shall render a bill therefor or for such part thereof as it may find necessary and reasonable." In an appeal by certain public service companies from an assessment made by the commission, held, the statute was unconstitutional because of denial of equal protection of …

Taxation -Interstate Commerce- Levy On Use By Interstate Carrier Of Gasoline Bought Outside State

Michigan Law Review

A statute of New Mexico imposed "an excise tax of five cents (5c) per gallon upon the sale and use of all gasoline and motor fuel . . . " The effect of the statute was to compel the appellee corporation, a common carrier, to pay a tax upon the use of motor fuel purchased in and brought from another state and used only in such transportation. This suit was brought to enjoin enforcement of the foregoing statutory provision on the ground that it constituted a regulation of interstate commerce in contravention of the commerce clause of the Federal Constitution. …

Public Utilities-Injunction Restraining Enforcement Of Rate Order Of State Commission-Jurisdiction Of Federal Court Under Johnson Act

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs sued in a federal district court for an injunction restraining enforcement of an order of the Corporation Commission of Oklahoma reducing gas rates. The plaintiffs alleged that the new rates were confiscatory and in violation of due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment. It appeared that there was much uncertainty in the decisions of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma as to whether the appeal to that court from the orders of the Corporation Commission were legislative or judicial. Held, that in view of the uncertainty of an opportunity for judicial review of the orders of the Commission, …

Municipal Corporations-Fencing Ordinances

Michigan Law Review

Defendant city passed an ordinance which prohibited the erection of fences that exceeded four feet in height, or which were composed wholly or in part of barbed wire. Plaintiff was refused permission to build a woven wire fence, six feet high with barbed wire attached to arms extending inward at the top. Plaintiff thereupon sued to enjoin defendant city from enforcing this ordinance, claiming that it deprived her of property without "due process." Held, by the court, that the right to fence one's land is a right of property that cannot be unreasonably interfered with. The ordinance in question …

Splitting The Cause Of Action Before A Justice--The Strange Case Of Bane V. Wilson, Robert T. Donley

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Attack On Decrees Of Divorce, Albert C. Jacobs

Michigan Law Review

This paper deals with attacks on decrees of divorce. The attack may arise in the state of the divorce or elsewhere. F-1 is used to designate the state in which the divorce was granted; F-2 a state other than that in which the decree in' question was rendered. The attack in F-1 may be on purely local or non-jurisdictional grounds, such as fraud, collusion, duress or perjury, or upon the ground that the proper jurisdictional requirements were lacking. The attack in F-2 will generally be on jurisdictional grounds, though in certain situations a decree has been impeached for non-jurisdictional factors. …

Municipal Corporations-Standards Required In Licensing Ordinances

Michigan Law Review

Defendant appealed from conviction for operating a used auto business without obtaining a license for such business under a city ordinance requiring same to be granted by the city commission if in its opinion applicant was a proper and suitable person, the place to be used was proper, having in mind the nature and character of the business and possibility of commission of crime, and the sanitary facilities thereon were proper. There was no specific legislative grant for passage of such ordinance. Defendant's application was rejected by the commission mainly because of lack of proper sanitary facilities. Held, standards …

Future Interests - Effect Of Eminent Domain Proceedings

Michigan Law Review

This study is concerned with the effect of condemnation proceedings upon future interests. The problems which arise are chiefly whether the owner of a future interest has such an interest in land as to be awarded a share of the fund given as compensation for the land, and if he does have such an interest as to be awarded a share, how it will be determined or apportioned to him and at what time. The first part of the study is a consideration of the question: what types of future interests are compensable? The second part involves an examination of …