Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 4.djvu/413

397 RECENT CASES. 397 Constitutional Law — Killing Infectious Animals — Statutory Con- structions. — A statute of Massachusetts provides that" in all cases of glanders, the commissioners having condemned the animal, shall cause it to be killed without appraisment." An action of tort was brought for killing the plaintiff's horse, and it was held^ the order of the commissioners was no defence unless the animal was in fact diseased. It was admitted that this construction was likely to make the statute a dead letter, as no one would be found to undertake the risk of liability; but the construction is the natural one, and any other would make the statute unconstitutional, for the State cannot order healthy horses to be killed without compensation to the owners. Devens, Allen, and Knowlton, JJ., dissent on the ground that the State could give the commission power to decide finally whether the animal was dangerous or not, and that it did so here. Miller V. Norton^ 26 N. E. Rep. 100 (Mass.). Constitutional Law — Interstate Commerce. — An act of the Legisla- ture of Georgia lays a tax upon all persons engaged in the business of buying and selling " futures " within the State. Held, that this act applied to an agent of a firm in another State, soliciting customers in the State of Georgia ; and that the act was not a violation of the interstate commerce clause of the Consti- tution of the United States, inasmuch as the business of dealing in "futures" was generally held to be gambling, and the clause in question was not intended "to protect interstate gambling." Alexander v. State, 12 S. E. Rep. 408 (,Ga.). Constitutional Law — Jury of the Vicinage. — The Code of California provides that the State may have a change of venue in a criminal action " on the application of the district attorney, if from any cause no jury can be obtained for the trial of the defendant in the county where the action is pending. Held, that the provision is void, being in conflict with the Bill of Rights of California, which provides that " the right of trial by jury shall be secured to all and remain inviolate," the right secured being the right to trial by a jury of the vicinage, as it existed at common law. People v. Powell, 25 Pac. Rep. 481 (Cal.). Constitutional Law — Original Packages — Intoxicating Liquors. — Act Pa., May 13, 1887, § i?) making it an offence to sell intoxicating liquor to a person of known intemperate habits, is not unconstitutional as an infringement of the commercial power of Congress, when applied to sales in the original pack- age in which the liquor was imported. Commonwealth v. Zelt, 21 Atl. Rep. 7 (Pa.). Constitutional Law — Power of School Boards. — While the Legislature may have authority to confer upon boards of education of cities power to es- tablish separate schools for the education of white and colored children, unless such authority be expressly granted, a board of education has no such power. Knox V. Board of Education, 25 Pac. Rep. 616 (Kan.). Conversion — What constitutes. — The lessees of a bar-room executed a chattel mortgage on the fixtures to their landlord, the mortgage providing that the lessees should be entitled to the possession of the mortgaged property. The lessees assigned their lease to third persons. The landlord refused to allow them to remove the mortgaged property. Held, that this did not constitute a con- version by the landlord, since the control of the room passed absolutely to the assignees of the lease, and the plaintiffs were not bound to respect the landlord's prohibition. Dozier v. PUlot, 14 S. W. Rep. 1027 (Tex.). Equity Jurisdiction — Quieting Title. — The plaintiff had sold the land in question with a covenant of warranty. Subsequently the land was sold by a sheriff at a tax sale for delinquent taxes of a prior owner. Through an infor- mality in the proceedings, if objection were taken of it before a deed was given to the purchaser at such sale, the sale was void, and could be set aside. Held^ that though, as a general rule, a party cannot maintain a suit to remove a cloud, or a bill quia timet, who has no other interest than that he has sold the. property with a covenant of general warranty, yet in a case where an adverse title would be acquired unless he took steps to prevent it, he may bring a bill of quia timet, Jackson V. Kittle, 12 S. E. Rep. 484 (W. Va.). Extradition — Offence of Political Character. — Murder incidental to and forming a part of political disturbances is an offence of a political char-