(CONTRACTUAL AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS.) person who goes into the trench to rescue a | taxes assessed against a water company for boy who had gone into it to get a ball, and a term of years in return for a supply of had been overcome by the gas. (Pa.) 715. water is held not to be contrary to public policy. (Me.) 294. De facto town. A bona fide attempt to incorporate a town under a statute authorizing the incorporation is held sufficient to make orders issued by the town which there has been an attempt to organize enforceable. (Wis.) 443. Taxation. A patented article which is leased or rented by the patentee for a valuable consideration is held to be taxable at its true value in money, although that value is enhanced by reason of the patent. (Ohio) 427. The exemption from taxation for a term of years of manufacturing companies, as a condition of their locating in a town, is held not to violate a constitutional provision declaring that the burdens of the state ought to be fairly distributed among its citizens. (R. I.) 604. An agreement that a city will pay the A charity for the benefit of the members of the Masonic Order, their widows, children, or others directly or indirectly connected with the order, is held not to be a purely public charity for the purpose of exemption from taxation. (Ky.) 252. School tax. A statute allowing pupils from outside the district to attend a high school free, but requiring the county to pay a certain sum as tuition out of the general county fund, is held invalid, where this sum may be greater or less than the actual cost of the tuition, since it may impose double taxation upon the inhabitants of the district. (Neb.) 343. Assessments. The rule that assessments for local improvements must be limited to the benefits received is fully adopted in an Indiana case which upholds a statute providing for assessments by frontage, where there is a provision for hearing of grievances before the final assessment, as the court holds that there is an implied obligation to change the frontage assessment if it is more than the benefits. (Ill.) 797. A statute providing for the assessment of the expense of draining lands upon all persons deemed benefited thereby is held unauthorized by the New York Constitution providing for drains over lands of others upon just compensation, as this is held to contemplate payment by the petitioner alone. On the question whether or not such a drain is do not pass. for a public use the majority of the court (N. Y.) 781. A rural highway is held not to be a local improvement for the cost of which a local assessment can be laid on farm lands. (Minn.) 757. An assessment of the entire cost of taking land for a highway upon the remaining land of the same owner is held to be in violation of a constitutional provision requiring compensation for property taken for public use to be made in money, without deduction for benefits. (Ohio) 566. II. CONTRACTUAL AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS. An ordinance requiring a license for the sale of goods on the street or by soliciting orders from house to house is held valid as to residents of the state, against the claim that it discriminated against them in favor of nonresidents, though it might be invalid as to nonresidents. (Pa.) 446. Partial performance. A right to recover for the partial performance of a contract to move a building is sustained where the building was destroyed by fire after the work was partly performed. (Mass.) 562. Failure of consideration. The death of a stallion, preventing an exercise of the privilege of return by one who had paid for a fruitless service with an agreement for the privilege of return during the season, is held not to create any failure of consideration which will give a right to repayment. (Me.) 693. (CONTRACTUAL AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS.) Surety. One who signs a note as surety after the signatures of several makers is held to guarantee the genuineness of such signatures to an innocent payee, and bound thereby, even if one of the signatures is a forgery. (Ky.) 315. Support. An oral contract by an aged person living alone in apparent destitution, whereby she agrees to give all her property, both real and personal, but which is of no great amount, to a husband and wife in return for their maintaining, caring for, and supporting her during life and after her death giving her decent burial, is held to be one which may be specifically enforced in equity after it has been executed by the other parties in all respects, but she has failed to execute any conveyance. (W. Va.) 527. Negotiable paper. A bank discounting negotiable paper for one who is not its debtor, and placing the amount to his credit by way of deposit, is held not to be a purchaser of the paper. But it is not deemed sufficient to show that the paper is not purchased by showing merely that the proceeds are credited to him, without showing from the state of the account that the transaction was not such as to make the bank a purchaser. (Ill.) 412. A stipulation in an instrument for the payment of a certain sum of money with current exchange on a place other than that of payment is held not to destroy the negotiability. (Kan.) 190. The addition of the word "trustee" to the name of the payee of a note is held not to destroy its negotiability. (Iowa) 661. Assignment. An assignee of a bill of lading with draft attached, who receives payment of the draft, is held to be subject to an action for the return of the money in case the property covered by the bill does not comply with the contract. (N. C.) 679. An assignee of a mortgage holding it as collateral, who receives his pay from the mortgagor, and thereupon surrenders the mortgage and unites in having it canceled, is held not to be liable to repay the money to the mortgagor because the latter is com pelled to pay a second time to a prior assignee, whose assignment, though duly recorded, was not known to either of the parties. (N. J.) 578. Bonds. Statements made on the face of municipal bonds as to the purpose for which they were issued are held to constitute an estoppel against the municipality which will prevent the controverting of such statements for the purpose of invalidating the bonds in the hands of bona fide purchasers. (C. C. A. 8th C.) 534. An action for money had and received,. against the municipality, by a bona fide purchaser of bonds issued without authority in payment of a stock subscription to a foreign railroad company, which the municipality had no authority to make, is denied, although. the proceeds of the bonds were used in constructing tracks and depot in the municipality, and it had received the stock certificates, and might have lawfully issued bonds to a domestic corporation. (C. C. A. 6th C.) Gas supply. 123. A rule of a gas company, consented to by the consumer, that it will cease to furnish gas when the consumer becomes delinquent in paying bills therefor, is held to be enforceable by discontinuing the gas supply at one set of premises until payment of a delinquent bill for gas previously furnished the consumer at other premises. (Or.) 596. Water supply. A water company which fails to supply sufficient water for fire purposes, although the failure is due to a breaking of the pipes without any fault of the company, is held to be liable to a consumer for the loss of property by fire, where the company had expressly contracted to furnish a supply for fire purposes. (N. J.) 572. Insurance. Delay for nine months to give notice of am injury is held fatal to recovery on an employer's liability policy requiring immediate notice of any injury, although the notice was. sent as soon as a claim was made by the in760. jured employee. (Ohio) A policy on the life of a person in another state is held to be within the provisions of the New York statute prohibiting the forfeiture of a policy by any life insurance company doing business in that state without giving the prescribed notice. (C. C. A. 9th C.) 132. Beneficiaries of a life insurance policy subject to the operation of the New York laws requiring notice of accrual of premium before forfeiture for nonpayment were held not to be bound, in the absence of such a notice, by statements of the insured to the company that he cannot pay premiums, and that the company may consider the policy forfeited. (But this decision was reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States on the ground that the parties had agreed to abandon the contract.) (C. C. A. 9th C.) 127. Forfeiture of a life insurance policy for ticket sold at reduced rates, that the return (CORPORATIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS.) noncompliance with the conditions of a premium note which were more onerous, as against the interests of the wife of the insured as beneficiary, than were the conditions of the policy itself, is held invalid, where the premium note was given by the husband without her consent, several years after the policy was issued. (Ohio) 737. Temporary occupation of the platform of a car for a necessary or proper purpose is held not to be a "riding" thereon, within the meaning of an accident policy. (C. C. A. Sth C.) 116. The damage to a cargo of lime by the protracted length of the voyage on account of rough weather was held not to be included within a policy of insurance. (Me.) 389. Carriers. A constitutional provision against contracts to limit the liability of carriers is held inapplicable to a contract of a corporation of that state made in another state for transportation to be performed entirely outside of the state. (Ky.) 557. The ejection from a train of a child of tender years in the custody of an adult is held to be in effect the ejection and removal of the custodian, even if the latter had paid fare, and therefore requires a payment or tender to the latter of the fare paid, or the unearned part thereof, as a condition of the ejection. (Minn.) 319. A condition on a round-trip excursion A rule of a street-railway company requir ing passengers to buy tickets and board cars within the station, and compelling one who boards a car outside the station to pay fare, though he had already paid in the station, while deemed reasonable, is held to be one which must be enforced in a reasonable manner, and therefore insufficient to authorize the ejection of a passenger who, after paying fare inside the station, entered a car which had started a few feet from the station and stopped, when, if he did not take that car, he would be compelled to wait twenty minutes for another. (Tenn.) 451. ered for transportation is held liable for its A carrier refusing to accept freight tendloss by theft before the owner had opportunity after notice of refusal to make some safer disposition of it than to leave it in the warehouse at the wharf. (Ky.) 270. The loss of perishable freight carried in refrigerator cars which are not properly refrigerated is held to make the carrier liable to the shipper, although it had leased the cars from another company, which agreed to keep them properly iced. (Va.) 462. III. CORPORATIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS. Boycott by by-law. Promoters who organize a corporation are denied the right to take any remuneration A by-law of a liverymen's association profor their services as such unless a full state-hibiting members from furnishing a hearse ment thereof is incorporated in the pros- or carriages to nonunion liverymen or for use pectus, or unless it is voted to them after all at a funeral conducted by such nonunion the stock has been taken by the public. liverymen is held illegal. (Wis.) 475. (Mass.) 725. Insolvency. Payment by an insolvent bank of a check of a company in which the president of the bank is the chief stockholder, and of a note on which its directors are indorsers, is held to make an unlawful preference, although the bank has not yet committed a formal act of insolvency. (Md.) 698. Employees. Employment for life of a person to act as medical agent of a life insurance company is held to be beyond the power of officers under a by-law giving them authority to appoint and remove all persons, except agents, employed by the company, where the members of the board of trustees, who passed the by-law, hold office for only four years each. (N. Y.) 471. Committees and tribunals. Interference with the decision of a committee of a board of trade is held to be within the jurisdiction of a court of equity when property rights are involved, and the decision of the committee has been made in violation of the rules of the board. (Ill.) 353. A by-law of a board of trade which gives a committee power to investigate charges against a member in order to determine the necessity of preferring formal charges against him, though this may be done without his knowledge, and a trial before the directors had at which he is not allowed the aid of professional counsel, is held valid. (Ill.) 365. An agreement by members of a voluntary benefit association that the decision of its tribunals rejecting a claim to benefits shall be conclusive is upheld against a contention that it violates public policy as an attempt to oust the courts of jurisdiction. (Mich.) 592. The right to resort to the courts by a member of a fraternal organization whose claim has been finally rejected by its tribunals cannot be taken away unless it is done in the clearest and most express terms, and it is held that a constitutional provision giving (DOMESTIC RELATIONS; PERSONAL CAPACITY.) Telephone company. the supreme lodge exclusive jurisdiction of appeals, and declaring that its decisions shall A telephone company is held to be entitled be the supreme law of the order, does not to exercise the power of eminent domain unexclude resort to the courts. (Kan.) 373. der a statute authorizing condemnation for A rule of the relief department of a rail-"a magnetic telegraph line," where the teleroad company providing that all claims of phone company is organized under a statute beneficiaries should be submitted to the de- providing that the company may be organtermination of the superintendent, whose de-ized to construct "a telegraph and telephone cision should be final and conclusive unless dine,” while the statute formerly provided for appealed to the advisory committee, and in a corporation to organize "a telegraph or case of such appeal the decision of the com- telephone line." (Tex.) 459. mittee should be final and conclusive upon all parties without exception or appeal, was held insufficient to bar an action in court after the rejection of a valid claim by the committee. (Ohio) 381. Stockholders. The rule that a stockholder cannot set off an obligation of the corporation to him against his liability as shareholder is held applicable, not only in equity, but in an action at law against him by a single creditor of the corporation. (S. C.) 448. Liability imposed upon stockholders for debts of the corporation is held to be contractual and enforceable in foreign jurisdictions, if the statute requires no preliminary proceedings for the adjustment of equities. (Mass.) 301. An action to enforce the liability of stockholders for corporate debts, under a statute which provides a single mode of enforcement by a single suit in the state courts in favor of all creditors and against the corporation, if it has assets, and all stockholders, is held to be maintainable only in that state, and not in any court out of the state. (Wis.) 486. Officers. The execution of an agreement by the president and general manager of a bank, with the approval of the vice president, is held sufficient to bind the bank without any approval or knowledge of the board of directors, where the president was allowed to do pretty much as he pleased in managing the affairs of the bank. (Cal.) 647. Building and loan association. A notice of withdrawal, given by a member of a building and loan association, is held not to sever his relation so completely as to preclude him from bringing suit for a receiver, when the company has not provided any fund for withdrawing members, and the stockholders have taken such action that there is no possibility of relief from that source. (Va.) 659. Colleges. Discrimination between regular dental colleges and other colleges authorized to grant diplomas to dentists is held constitutional, where a statute authorizes a graduate of the former to practise without being examined. (Md.) 695. Churches. The majority of the members of a church are held entitled to continue in control after changing their belief, where the rules of the church entitle the majority to control, and it is held that there is no implied trust that property acquired by a church shall continue to be used to teach the doctrines professed at that time. (Tex.) 617. The right of a religious corporation to buy real estate for speculation is denied, and such contract held ultra vires. (Neb.) 337. Free Masons. Arch Masons to prevent the trial of charges work of the association. (Cal.) 400. A contract by which the owner of a farm engages another to occupy and cultivate it, each furnishing a part of the seed, implements, and stock, with a provision that the products shall be divided at the end of a certain term, or sold and the proceeds divided, is held not to create a partnership which will give the occupant the rights of a surviving partner in case the owner dies, but only to make him a tenant or agent. (Ind.) 792. The nature of a partnership in oil wells is considered in a case which holds that it constitutes a mining partnership which is not dissolved by the sale of the interest of one member. (W. Va.) 468. IV. DOMESTIC RELATIONS; PERSONAL CAPACITY. An infant is held not to be liable in tort for false representations as to his age, by which he procures credit on a purchase of goods. (Mass.) 560. Dower. Divorce. Evidence in a suit for divorce on the ground of habitual intemperance, showing the condition and habits of the defendant since the commencement of the action, is The right of dower, given to a former wife held admissible on the ground that the indivorced without alimony, if she is the in- terests of the state, as well as the parties, nocent party, is held not to extend to the are involved, and that the condition justifycase of such a former wife if the decedenting the divorce must be shown to exist at the leaves another lawful wife surviving. very time it is granted. (Conn.) 142. (Conn.) 144. The abatement of a divorce proceeding by (FIDUCIARIES OR REPRESENTATIVES. TORTS; NEGLIGENCE; INJURIES.) the death of the appellant pending an appeal is held to terminate the power of the court over costs, where the statute makes costs depend on the judicial determination of the action. (Cal.) 141. Domicil. A woman who places her husband in a home for incurables, with his expenses for life and for burial paid, is held to have no right for that reason to acquire a separate domicil which will give jurisdiction to a probate court, although in actions for divorce there is a statutory presumption that the husband's domicil does not apply to the wife. (Cal.) 138. Placing a debtor's name on a blacklist as one who does not pay his honest debts is held to constitute a libel for which he is entitled to damages, notwithstanding the fact that he may not have paid his debt, where there was a valid counterclaim which justified its nonpayment. (Mass.) 612. Negligence of bailee. The negligence of a gratuitous bailee of a mule using the animal for the very purpose for which it was loaned is held to be imputable to the owner so as to prevent recovery against a third person whose negligence, combined with that of the bailee, causes the Ideath of the mule. (Miss.) 322. Negligence as to electricity. Lack of insulation of electric-light wires where they run above an awning which is 16 feet above the street level is held not to be such negligence on the part of the electric company as will create a liability for the death of a person who touches a wire while upon the awning for the purpose of lifting the wires in order to allow a house to be moved under them. (Tex.) 771. Injury to employee. A teamster of experience is held to assume the risk, as a matter of law, in using short lines, although he has complained of their insufficiency, where he continues their use for months after making his complaint without any promise of the master to remedy the de(Cal.) 33. fects. а Injury by mail bag. Negligence of a mail agent in throwing mail from a moving train, causing injury to person standing on the platform of a station, is held to render the railroad company liable only in case the carrier had notice of his improper practice in this respect. (Mich.) 308. Injury by street car. A passenger who was injured after leaving a street car and while attempting to pass behind the car in the dark, by falling over a fender which had become disarranged without the knowledge of the company and was projecting from the rear of the car, is held to have no right of action against the carrier. (Mass.) 421. Injuries by trains or cars. A railroad company which runs its train at a prohibited speed, and fails to ring its bell as required by ordinance, or keep a proper lookout, is held not to be liable for the death of a person struck by the train, who was walking ahead of it in open daylight, on a straight piece of the road, and had power up to the last moment to step off the track and prevent the accident. (N. C.) 684. The rule that a railroad company owes no duty to a trespasser on its track until he is discovered and the trainmen have reason to believe that he will be injured unless the train is stopped is applied to a case in which the train was running at an unlawful rate of speed, and the fact that he might have been sooner discovered is held insufficient to create liability. (C. C. A. 7th C.) 98. A passenger alighting from a train at a |