554
THE GREEN BAG
the force of the older holdings, making the publi cation of a white man as a negro a libel. LOTTERIES. (GUESSING CONTESTS — EQUIT ABLE JURISDICTION) OHIO SUPREME COURT. In Stevens v. Cincinnati Times-Star Co., 73 Northeastern Reporter, 1058, the Supreme Court of Ohio holds that a guessing contest instituted by a newspaper company by which persons are invited to deliver to the company fifty cents each, of which twenty-four cents was for payment of a subscription to the paper and twenty-six cents for the privilege of making a guess upon the vote for a state officer to be chosen at an approaching election, the guesser coming nearest to the actual total vote cast to receive a money prize from the fund equal to one tenth thereof, and others next nearest to receive from the fund lesser money prizes, is within the condemnation of the statutes of Ohio against lotteries and schemes of chance, and is an unlawful enterprise. It is also decided that a similar scheme involving the same amount of payment by each person, but differing from the former in that there was to be no subscription to a paper, the prizes promised being definite amounts from $5.000 down to $2.00, was equally unlawful. But while the plaintiff in this case succeeded in vindicating a most admirable prin ciple of the law, his triumph is somewhat shorn of practical results by the further decision that one who delivered fifty cents to the company, under the before-mentioned plan, has no standing in a court of equity to maintain an action for injunc tion and a receiver, on the claim that the money paid by himself and other contributors, amount ing to $200.000 or over, constituted a fund equit ably belonging to all who had made guesses and paid money. MASTER AND SERVANT. (INTERFERENCE WITH RELATION — PROCURING DISCHARGE — CONTRACT WITH LABOR UNION) MASSACHUSETTS SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT. The right of a labor union, acting under a contract with an employer, which obligated the latter to employ only union workmen, and to discharge such as refuse to join the union, to insist upon performance of the contract as against a non-union workman, who of course was not a party thereto, is denied in Berry v. Donovan, 74 Northeastern Reporter, 603. It is incidentally decided that one has an inherent right to dispose of his labor, which can only be legally interfered with by one acting in the exercise of an equal or superior right which comes in conflict therewith,
and that an intentional interference with such right without legal justification is malicious in law, even if it springs from good motives and is without express malice. What would seem to be the real essence of the decision, is the argument in answer to the contention that procuring the discharge of a non-union workman. is justifiable as a kind of competition, to wit, competition be tween employers and employed, in the attempt of each class to obtain as large a share as possible of the income from their combined effort. It is pointed out that the gain which a labor union may expect to derive from inducing others to join it, is not an improvement to be obtained directly under the conditions under which the men are working, but only added strength for such con tests with employers as may arise in the future; and it is held that an object of this kind is too remote to be considered a benefit to business, such as to justify the infliction of intentional injury upon a third person for the purpose of obtaining it. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS. (LOWERING GRADE IN STREET — DAMAGES — EVIDENCE — MORTALITY TABLES) WASHINGTON SUPREME COURT. A rather curious theory as to the measure of damage in an action against a municipal corpora tion for lowering the grade in front of property abutting on a street, is illustrated by an offer of evidence in the case of Swope v. City of Seattle, 78 Pacific Reporter, 607. At trial the plaintiffs offered in evidence, mortality tables for the pur pose of showing the expectancy of their respective lives, as a basis for the determination of the length of time during which the extra burden placed on them in the use of their home would obtain, and the extra steps plaintiffs would be obliged to climb for ingress from the street. Without argument or citation of authority the court's ruling, excluding the evidence is sustained, the supreme court contenting itself with observing that plaintiff's counsel had not mentioned any rule of law, vio lated or ignored by the ruling, and that it would seem to require no extended argument to demon strate its propriety. NEGLIGENCE. (PROXIMATE CAUSE — BURN ING OF VACANT HOUSE) VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT OP APPEALS. A house located in a negro community was abandoned by the lessee before the expiration of the term. When he moved out, the lessee left an up-stairs door unlocked, and some three weeks after it was vacated the house was burned.
