(CONTRACTUAL AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS.) abutting owner, without compensation. (Or.) | turnpike is held to be subject to the penalty of 88. Vacating a portion of a city thoroughfare across railroad tracks, and erecting a viaduct on one side of the location so as to shut off land cornering on the vacated portion from access, so far as to destroy its former availability for business purposes, are held to give the owner a right to damages. (Ill.) 568. A city ordinance exacting rent from a telegraph company for the use of the streets for poles and wires is held invalid where the statutes authorized telegraph lines without any provision for making compensation to cities. (Miss.) 770. A novel statute making the driver of live stock over a highway on a hillside liable for damage to the banks or by rolling rocks into the highway is upheld as constitutional. (Utah) 97. A constitutional provision against poll taxes is held in Maryland not to apply to compulsory work in repairing highways, with a privilege of commuting or furnishing a substitute. (Md.) 404. The use of a bicycle on a sidewalk along a the Pennsylvania act against riding or driving a horse or other animal on a sidewalk, when construed with the Act of April 23, 1889, extending the same privileges and restrictions to the use of the bicycle as are prescribed for persons using carriages drawn by horses. (Pa.) 365. Railway crossings. A street railway track in a highway, which is laid across a railroad crossing, is held to be a part of the public use of the street for which the railroad company cannot claim compensation. (Ill.) 485. The right to make a grade crossing at the intersection of a street railway and a steam railroad is sustained under a special statute, notwithstanding general statutes to a different effect. (Conn.) 367. State boundary. A shallow lake having no current at ordinary stages of the water, but connected with the Mississippi river, is held not to be a part of the boundary of Iowa so as to be excluded from the operation of the state against the use of seines in the waters of the state. (Iowa) 390. II. CONTRACTUAL AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS. The fact that a contract made by letters and | Pennsylvania case, against the contention that telegrams was intended to be put into a formal it was in violation of the constitution of the writing is held not to prevent the contract from being completed without such writing. (N.Y.) 431. A city is held liable for the paving of a street when assessments prove invalid, although the paving was done under a contract which required the contractor to accept the assessments in payment, whether they were collectible or not. (C. C. App. 3d C.) 401, Validity of contracts. A contract for the purchase of property, made by a city through an officer who receives a commission from the other party, is held invalid and subject to repudiation by the city on discovering the facts. (C. C. App. 6th C.) 188. See also supra, I., Municipalities, and infra, III. A stipulation against liability for negligence is sustained in a lease by a railroad company providing that the lessor shall not be liable for any damages caused by fire. Such an agreement is held not to be void as against public policy. (Cal.) 751. A similar provision in such a lease is held in another case to be ineffectual as against an agent of the lessee whose property was on the premises, where he was a stranger to the lease. (Cal.) 755. Failure to obtain a license is held not to prevent a broker from recovering commissions, where the ordinance requiring a license imposes a penalty for such failure, and the object of it is simply to enforce payment of a tax. (S. C.) 215. A contract by the owners of mines, furnaces, and a railroad therefrom, to give all their traf fic to a connecting railroad which had aided in developing the business, is sustained in a state, and that it was ultra vires. (Pa.) 423. The invalidity of an agreement for a divorce is held not to defeat the recovery by the wife of the consideration of a contract for release of her dower rights, which she has performed, and after which she has resumed marital relations with her husband, although the agree ments were contemporaneous. (Pa.) 292. Negotiable paper. Corporate bonds secured by mortgage payable to bearer are held to be negotiable so far as to sustain an action by the holder in his own name, although the statute as to negotiable paper applies in terms only to promissory notes. (R. I.) 103. Refusing to adopt the doctrine of other courts, the court of appeals of Kentucky adheres to the doctrine that a subsequent promise without consideration will not prevent the release of the indorser for lack of notice. (Ky.) 305. A payee's guaranty of attorneys' fees if the note has to be collected by law is sustained so as to bind him for such fees in case of the dishonor of the note and the expenditure of the fees. (Ga.) 616. Writing one's name on the back of a note to which he is not a party is held in Minnesota to be open to explanation by parol evidence, but, when done in accordance with a parol contract of guaranty, to be sufficient to justify writing a guaranty over the name, and thus satisfy the statute of frauds. (Minn.) 612. Bona fide holders of a negotiable note are held unaffected by usury in the note, where the statute declares that usurious contracts shall be deemed to "be for an illegal consideration." (Va.) 827. Taking interest in advance on a negotiable (CORPORATIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS.) note at the highest rate allowed by the constitution is held not to constitute usury, although the note is running for one year. (Ark.) 761. Banks. The doctrine that a bank to which paper is sent by another bank, with which it is deposited for collection, will be regarded as the agent of the owner, and not of the sending bank, is applied to a case in which worthless drafts were received and credited as proceeds of the collection before knowledge of the insolvency of the drawer of them. This was held to leave the depositor still liable for the loss. (Ill.) 794. Insurance. Insurance on a butcher shop and contents, and a smoke-house and contents, is held to cover smoked meats in a storage room to which they are taken from the smoke-house as fast as cured. (Pa.) 55. Insurance on a building with personal property therein is held not to be forfeited as to personal property by lack of title to the real property, which defeats the insurance as to that. (Tex.) 706. Carriers. A ticket bearing a prior date is not invalid on the day of sale because it states that it is good only within one day of date of sale. (Iowa) 178. The relation of carrier and passenger is held not to exist between a street railway company and a person struck by the sudden switching of a street car which he had signaled and was waiting for. (Conn.) 297. Assuming mortgage. Personal liability of a purchaser of land for a mortgage upon it which he assumes and agrees to pay is sustained in a Nebraska case, although the grantor may not have been liable on the mortgage. (Neb) 851. III. CORPORATIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS. Forfeiture of the charter of a waterworks, quirement expressly made a condition of corcompany is enforced on account of its failure porate existence is held to prevent a company to supply to a city pure, wholesome, deep-well from being a de facto corporation, but it leaves water in accordance with the requirements of it the privileges as well as liabilities of a part its charter. (Ala.) 743. nership. (Colo.) 143. The duty of a railroad company to operate a ferry which has become unprofitable, but which constitutes an extension of its road, is held to be enforceable by suit in court. (Mass.) 169. Officers of a corporation are compelled to account for salaries voted and paid, where it was done largely for the purpose of depriving the stockholders of the results of litigation brought by them if successful, although it was nominally and partly to pay for services rendered. (R. I.) 100. Preferences to directors of a corporation are sustained in a Missouri case, when their debts As to this see were honestly and justly due. note, 22 L. R. A. 802. (Mo.) 830. An agreement between corporations to cooperate in furnishing water to a city is sustained, although they appointed an officer of each as trustee to carry on the business. (Cal.) 839. See also supra, II., Validity of contracts. Promoters of a corporation are discussed at much length in a case which denies the enforcement of a mortgage received by them on the property of a corporation. (Md.) 262. Foreign company. Contrary to many other authorities, it is held in Arkansas that an unauthorized foreign insurance company, though guilty of a misdemeanor in issuing a policy and subject to a penalty therefor, may enforce its claim for a premium due under the contract. (Ark.) 712. Public corporations. A state university is held to be a corporation subject to quo warranto, and an invalid attempt to charge a library fee for the use of the library by students is defeated by such writ. (Kan.) 378. The claim that a state agricultural society was a public corporation, such that it could not be held liable for negligence in the management of a horse race whereby a person was injured, is denied, although it was required to report to the state and received state aid. (Minn.) 708. Building and loan associations. The powers of a building and loan associa tion under the Indiana statutes are held to include assessments to equalize the members at the winding up of the association. (Ind.) 177. A forfeiture of the stock of a member of s Fraud of promoters in inducing a person to building and loan association is held lawful, subscribe to a corporation, where he has carried although it leaves a mortgage given by him in out his contract and united with others in form-force for the full amount of principal and interest, without deduction of any payments ing the corporation, is held to be no defense to made by him on his stock. (Ala) 120. an assessment on the stock, but to give a remedy only against the wrongdoers. (Mich.) 63. Proxies. A by-law restricting proxies to stockholders is held invalid where a statute provides generally for proxies. (Cal.) 844. But the claim that membership in a building and loan association and the loan to a member are distinct contracts, and that the stock of a member and payments made thereon may be forfeited without applying any previous payment on the mortgage when that is foreclosed, is denied in a case which holds that Failure to comply with the statutory re- a rigid provision of the contract allowing for De facto. (DOMESTIC RELATIONS. FIDUCIARIES. TORTS: NEGLIGENCE; INJURIES.) feiture of stock on default will not be given | involves the split of the Evangelical Associathis effect. (Neb.) 133. tion. It is held, among other things, that the secession of the majority leaves the minority as the rightful church, but that less than a quorum of an annual conference cannot take any action which will be binding on the absent majority, even after subsequent ratification by the highest tribunal of the denomination. (Pa.) 476. Monthly payments of shares of stock in a building and loan association are held in a South Carolina case to be applicable to a mortgage given for a loan, where the shares were pledged as collateral and the interest and dues consolidated. (S. C.) 127. A mortgage given to a building association, containing a stipulation for payment of assessments on the members, is held to cover assessments for shortages in the assets after the appointment of a receiver. (Ohio) 184. Labor union. A statute protecting a labor union in the use of its labels is sustained in case of a label on cigars. (Mo.) 200. Church. Partnership. The assumption of individual debts by a partnership is held to convert them into firm debts, which may share equally with other firm debts in case of dissolution. (Mo.) 681. in a private transaction to collect a chose in An agreement by one member of a law firm action without charge is held not binding on his partner so as to make the property of the latter liable to attachment for the failure of the other to pay over the money collected. The constitutional law of a church organization is extensively discussed in a case which | (Ga.) 496. IV. DOMESTIC RELATIONS. A divorced wife is denied the right to recover from her former husband for necessaries furnished their children in her custody under the divorce decree, which made no order for their maintenance. (Or.) 678. The right of action for alienation of a husband's affections and depriving the wife of his society is sustained in Iowa. (Iowa) 150. V. FIDUCIARIES. Compound interest is charged upon an exec | used, in a case which extensively reviews the utor for money of the estate which he had question. (Mont.) 622. VI. TORTS; NEGLIGENCE; INJURIES. Profanity of a passenger on a street car is held to justify his ejection therefrom. (Me.) 530. Negligence. Fraud. The rule that a misrepresentation honestly made with reason to believe it true will not create a liability for fraud is applied to a case in which the president of the corporation Licensees walking on a path upon a railomits from a statement of its assets and liabili-road right of way are denied a remedy against ties any mention of a claim then in litigation, the railroad company for injuries caused by which he did not believe to be valid. (N. Y.) 360. Libel. Falsely publishing that a person would be an anarchist if he thought it would pay is held to be libelous. (Md.) 59. A pleading is held libelous when defamatory allegations therein are wholly irrelevant, gratuitous, and immaterial. (Minn.) 153. Wrongs to or by passengers. An accidental blow by a railroad employé, received by a passenger but which was aimed in play at another employé, is held not to make the railroad company liable, as it was not with in the line of employment. (Ala.) 729. Theft by a sleeping-car employé of the property of a passenger in a sleeping car, including such money as she had a right to carry, is held to make the sleeping car company liable. (Ga.) 498. The liability of a carrier for illegal arrest of a passenger, which a conductor causes to be made, is sustained where the arrest was made without a warrant while the passenger was quietly seated in a car. (Kan.) 465. the sliding of the bank on which the path ran, in consequence of the removal of a boulder which was in danger of falling upon the track. (Va.) 825. The negligence of a child nine years old in climbing over the coupling of a car when a train is standing at a crossing is held to be a question for the jury, together with the question of negligence on the part of the trainmen in starting the train. (Ohio) 757. Negligence of a bandman walking close to an electric railway track while playing his instrument is held to be a question for the jury, like the question of the motorman's negligence when the bandman is struck by a car. (Mich.) 287. The duty of a railroad company to signal the approach of a train at a crossing is held not to extend to a private crossing, or to persons driving parallel to the railroad without using or intending to use a crossing. (C. C. App. 8th C.) 695. Negligence of master or servant. A railroad company which requires employés to be engaged on duty nineteen hours per day (PROPERTY RIGHTS.) without time for food is held responsible for | railroad within the meaning of a statute abolan accident by the backing of a train insuffi- ishing the fellow servant doctrine in case of ciently manned while part of the crew were railroads. (Minn.) 208. temporarily absent for food. (Ind.) 104. The law of fellow servants is discussed at length in a case which denies that a foreman or boss of a railroad gang is an alter ego whether he has authority to discharge the men or not. (Mich.) 321. The doctrine of fellow servants is discussed in a Nebraska case, which holds that consociation in the same department or line of employment is necessary to that relation. (Neb.) 137. A cable street railway is held not to be a Explosion of gas. Liability for an explosion of natural gas during transportation is held under the Ohio statute to be independent of the question of negligence. (Ohio) 337. Negligence in conducting natural gas through leaking pipes on the surface of the ground and across a highway is found in a case where the chief contention was as to contributory negligence. (Ind.) 342. VII. PROPERTY RIGHTS. Trust. Funds in the hands of a receiver of a consignee are held not chargeable with a trust on account of goods, where the consignee dissi The value of permanent improvements and repairs made by a coparcener, although he cannot compel contribution therefor, may be allowed him out of the proceeds of the property when sold for a division of interests be-pated the proceeds of the goods sent in paying cause it was unsusceptible of partition. (W. current expenses of the business. (Or.) 664. Va.) 449. Tenancy. Permitting another person to have his name and occupation painted on a wagon in his possession is held to estop the owner to assert title as against an innocent purchaser from the possessor. (Pa.) 607. Assigning forged copy of mortgage. An assignee of a mortgage and indorsee of forged copies of notes secured thereby is held not to have so good a title to the mortgage as a subsequent assignee of a forged copy of the mortgage who was a bona fide purchaser of the genuine notes before their maturity. (Ohio) 317. Records. Failure to index a mortgage on the records is held not to be fatal to its validity, in the absence of any statute making the indexing a part of the recording. (S. C.) 772. Quitclaim deed; notice. The effect of possession as notice is involved in some degree in a case where a woman in possession under an unrecorded deed giving her only a life estate concealed and afterwards destroyed the deed, and gave her vendee a later quitclaim deed from the person holding the record title. The latter is held to be protected by the records. (Mo.) 39. The effect of a quitclaim deed to sustain the claim of a bona fide purchaser is discussed in differing opinions in a case in which the grantee was charged with notice by reason of his relations to the grantor, who had acted as his agent. (S. Dak.) 33. Inheritance. The occupancy of part of a schoolhouse by a teacher is held to be that of an employé rather than a tenant, but his holding over without right is held to make him a tenant at sufferance. (Mich.) 576. Easement. An implied easement of light is held not to arise on the purchase of a strip of land 40 feet wide on which a building stands 11 feet from the boundary. (Conn.) 582. An unusual instance of an easement by pre scription is found in a Massachusetts case, which holds that the liability of a servient estate to pay a portion of the expense of repairs to a dam which supplies its water power is established by long continued and regular pay. ment of such contributions. (Mass.) 500. Lien. Funds in the hands of a receiver of a bank are held not to be chargeable with an equitable lien in favor of a depositor of money for s special purpose, where the bank was permitted to use the money in the course of regular business. (Or.) 667. The lien of a judgment for damages under the Illinois dramshop act is held inferior to that of a pre-existing mortgage on the premises. (Ill.) 571. The lien of a judgment against a railroad company is held to be unaffected by foreclos ure to which the judgment creditor is not made a party, but when judgments were obtained pending foreclosure they are held to be subject thereto on the ground that the pendency of the suit is constructive notice. (Ohio) 438. Tradename. Descent of property to an heir who killed his ancestor to obtain the inheritance is perThe use of the letters "U. S." on the winmitted in Pennsylvania. One consideration is the constitutional provision against jattain-dows of a dental office, in connection with der. (Pa.) 145. That half-blood brothers and sisters are included in the general words "brothers and sisters" is held in an Indiana case, which also supports the right of descendants of such of them as are deceased to take by representation. (Ind.) 541. the words "dental rooms," is held to be unlawful, when another person has adopted them as a tradename, and the attempt is to mislead the public. (R. I.) 524. (CIVIL REMEDIES; RULES AND PRINCIPLES.) water mark, and not the point to which the water recedes in an exceptionally dry season. (Vt.) 539. metes and bounds, which is identical with the See also supra, I., State boundary. VIII CIVIL REMEDIES; RULES AND PRINCIPLES. An order to restore and operate a passenger | train that had been discontinued, made by the Kansas railroad commissioners, is held not final or conclusive, and mandamus to enforce it is denied. (Kan.) 444. Jury. An appeal with a right to a jury trial in the proper court is held to be a sufficient compliance with the constitutional right to a jury in a condemnation proceeding. (S. Dak.) 861. Injunction. made in a case holding that such judgment does not preclude the owner, who did not appear or defend, from bringing an action for damages to the property in making the improvement on which the assessment was based. (Minn.) 778. A judgment of another state, made payable in United States gold coin, is enforced as for the nominal amount in lawful money, in a case in which it is declared upon without describing the clause as to payment in coin. Such a judgment is held to be an obligation to pay in de-money, or an amount of gold ascertainable by count of coins. (Ill.) 593. An injunction against slander of title to property is denied in a Florida case, which clares it to be well settled that such relief can not be granted; but see 16 L. R. A. 243, note. (Fla.) 66. Choice of remedy. Enforcement of a chattel mortgage upon exempt property is held not to be defeated by a prior judgment for the mortgage debt, with an attempt to enforce it by levy upon the exempt property. (Ill.) 803. judgments, it is held, reviewing conflicting As to attorneys' liens and right to set off decisions, that the more equitable rule is to make the set-off of independent judgments subject to such liens. (Tenn.) 705. The sufficiency of a pleading charging negligence in allowing natural gas to escape, from which an explosion resulted, is denied, where no agency causing the explosion is alleged on the part of the defendant. (Ind.) 355. Evidence. A receipt is held to be only a hearsay dec laration and inadmissible as against strangers, on the question of the payment of money. (Neb.) 737. Presumptions. Setting a house on fire by sparks from a fire |