676
THE GREEN BAG
pavement. If some one should invent and patent a pavement as hard as steel, as smooth as glass, as resilient as asphalt, and cheaper than sawdust, and agreed to sell its component elements to any body who wished to buy for ten cents a cubic yard, the pavement could never be used in Indi ana unless the court changed its mind or the legis lature repealed the statute requiring competitive bidding. Justices Wiley and Myers dissented. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS. (Torts — Prox imate Cause.) N. Y. S. C., App. Div. — The plain tiff, in Sadlier v. City of New York, 93 New York Supplement, 579. claimed damages for injuries to his property resulting from the maintenance of the New York and Brooklyn bridge. As the case is somewhat unusual, a number of interesting propositions arose from it, chief among which, probably, is the holding, that the fact that the legislature authorized the construction of the bridge by the municipality, does not relieve it from liability for a trespass committed in the administration of the bridge. This trespass the court regards as having been sufficiently shown by evidence that persons caring for the bridge, swept debris therefrom so that it fell on the roof of plaintiff's house. This house, it appears, was some twenty feet distant from the base of a verti cal line dropped from the edge of the bridge. On this was found fl defendant's contention that the currents of air which carried the debris on plain tiff's premises were a superseding cause, relieving .the city from liability for the trespass. This view is negatived by the court. The general rule is announced that as the construction of the bridge was authorized by the legislature, and the bridge itself constituted a highway, the obligation of the city with respect to its care is to be determined with regard to the duties of the city as to high ways or streets, modified by the consideration that the bridge is not on the surface of the earth, and pursuant to this principle it is held specifi cally that, under evidence showing that it was not feasible to so construct the bridge as to prevent water from rain and melting snow from flowing or being blown by the wind from the sides thereof onto houses below, the city is not liable for dam ages to a house caused thereby. NATIONAL BANKS. (Compound Interest.) U. S. S. C. — In Citizens' Nat. Bank v. Donnell, 15 Sup. Ct. Rep. 49, it is held that by compounding interest oftener than is permitted by a state stat ute, a national bank charges interest at a higher rate than that allowed by the laws of the state.
and thus violates U. S. Rev. St., Sec. 5197, fixing the rate which national banks may charge; and this is true, although the compounded interest is less than the state laws permit to be charged directly without compounding. The rights of a. national bank with respect to interest charges upon overdrafts are also defined, and it is deter mined that where a twelve per cent charge is made when eight per cent is the highest rate of interest permitted by the state laws, the for feiture of all the interest prescribed by U. S. Rev. St., Sec. 5198, as the penalty for usurious trans actions cannot be escaped because of the trifling amount involved, or on the theory that the charge is a penalty because of the failure to pay a debt when due. The election of the bank in suing on a note to remit the excessive interest is also de termined to be unavailing to avoid the forfeiture. PROPERTY. (Meteorites — Severance from Realty — Evidence.) Ore. — A case which, so far as appears from the opinion, finds its only pre cedent in Goodard v. Winchell, 86 Iowa, 71, 52 Northwestern 1124, is that of Oregon Iron Com pany 11. Hughes, 81 Pacific Reporter, 572, wherein it is held that a meteorite, though not buried in the earth is, nevertheless, in the absence of proof of severance, real estate belonging to the owner of the land and not personal property. The holding in both cases is based upon the idea that a meteoric deposit is a natural accretion to the soil, and hence that its ownership is de termined by the ownership of the soil. The force of this principle was in the Oregon case, sought to be avoided by evidence tending to show that at some time in the past, the Indians had dug the meteorite up. used it as an object of 'worship, and afterwards abandoned it so that it belonged to the next finder. The evidence of this was held insufficient. SALES. (Rescission — Pan Delicto — Laches.) U. S. S. C. — In Harriman v. Northern Securities Co., 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 493, the decisive point is that the stock, which had been transferred to the Northern Securities Company, could not be returned to its original owners; first, because property delivered under an illegal contract can not be recovered back by the parties in pari delicto; second, because those seeking to recover their stock had stood upon their rights as share holders in the Northern Securities Companv until nearly a year after the Supreme Court had adjudged the combination to be illegal.
