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The Green Bag

238

is all that he should be entitled to. The community at large is not interested in his having more than one. Many appeals are not in the interest of the poor suitor, but only of the litigant having the longest purse. . . . “Courts of Last Resort." By Judge William L. Carpenter. 19 Yale Law journal 280 (Feb.) “Judging from my limited experience as a member of a court of last resort, the mistake

most frequently committed . . . is a. failure to understand the case; a misconception of the controlling issue, resulting not, it is true, in unsettling the law, but none the less in an erroneous decision. This consequence is, however, serious enough, for I imagine it would afl'ord little consolation to a defeated suitor to be told that the erroneous decision which denied him his right left the rights of his neighbors unimpaired." New York. "Simplification of Procedure." (Communication) By Henry A. Forster. 20 Bench and Bar 77 (Feb.). Mr. Forster is the secretary of the com mittee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York which prepared the pro posed code amendments. "The safest form of language to use to enable all appellate courts to ignore harmless technical errors is the pioneer rovision to that efiect that has been in the ode of Criminal Procedure since its adoption in 1881. The Bar Association simply added the phraseology of this section (542) of the Code of Criminal Procedure to section 1317 without any change. It has been repeatedly construed, and has been uniformly held to cure harmless technical errors even in capital cases. . . . "The well-drawn recommendations to the same efiect made by Presidents Roosevelt and Taft and a proved by the American Bar Association have never been judicially con

non-judicial, legal and equitable, and some times all are required." Quasi-Contracts. "Waiver of Tort and Suit in Assumpsit." By Arthur L. Corbin. 19 Yale Law journal 221 (Feb.). "This . . . is a subject in which there has always been great confusion of thought, and the decisions are in hopeless conflict. This is due to the fact that the substantive prin ciples of the common law were developed as mere incidents to forms of action and pro “A great many of those rights now usually referred to as quasi-contractual are among these newly recognized rights. But they have long been described in the terms appli cable to real contracts and enforced as if they were really contractual. . . . “There is grave doubt as to the propriety of the whole doctrine of waiver of tort and suit in assumpsit, a doubt that has been ex

pressed by many judges. Perhaps the best thingA that can be said of it is that it was a step in t e breaking down of the common law forms of action. The injured party certainly already had an adequate remedy at law. The actions of trespass, trover, detinue, and

replevin were open to him. This was not true of other large classes of quasi-contracts, so that the extension of assumpsit to them was necessary. "However, the doctrine has been perma nently engrafted on the common law, and it should now be applied along consistent lines with a correct understanding of the nature of the cause of action and the character of the remedy. In jurisdictions where the old forms of action have been totally abolished, there should be nothing whatever left of the wltilole doctrine excepting a few historiml ec oes."

strued in this state; and until their meaning

is authoritatively determined it is safer to adopt our own provision that has been before the courts for twenty-nine years and whose meaning is now settled." See Courts, Criminal Procedure. Proximete Cause. “Proximate Cause in the Law of Torts." By A. A. Boggs. 4411mm can Law Review 88 (]an.-Feb.).

This

aper, which was read before the

Florida ar Association, has already been published in the L er and Banker, and was

noticed in 22 Green ag 125 (Feb). Public Health. “The Relation of the Law to Public Health." By Alfred Hayes, Jr., College of Law, Cornell University. Popular Science Monthly, v. 76, p. 280 (Man). "The ingenuity of lawyers has been taxed to the utmost in devising remedies for nuisances. So difficult is it at times to succeed in ending a nuisance that the law provides as many remedies for nuisance, perha s more remedies, than for any other form 0 injury, an entire arsenal of weapons, some ‘public,

some private, civil and criminal, judicial and

Real Property. "The King's Kindlie Tenants of Lochmaben." By John Carmont. 21 juridical Review 323 (Jan). “The Kindlie Tenants of the subject-land owner may be taken as the normal repre sentatives of the Scottish Rental System. They were in origin tenants-at-will, and eventu ally acquired a legal right to their holdings, which endured at lon est for two successive lives in line. . . . thou h the Scottish Courts only recognized the 'ndlie Tenants’ right as a mere life-rent, and most landlords availed themselves of this judicial attitude to turn the Rental roums into feus, all land

owners did not avail themselves of the oppor tunity.” Religious Freedom. "Is Christianity Part of the Law?" By G. S. H. 46 Canada Law journal 81 (Feb. 15). “As was said by Bramwell, B., in Cowan v. Milbourn, L. R. 2 Ex. 236: ‘A thing may be unlawful in the sense that the law will not aid it, and yet the law will not immediately punish it.’ . . .