Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 18.pdf/51

 THE GREEN BAG

CURRENT LEGAL LITERATURE This department is designed to call attention to the article! in all the leaJim; legal periodicals of the preceding month and to new law hoots sent usfor review.

ADMIRALTY (State Statutes). Under the title "State Statutes and Admiralty " an article in the Yale Law Journal (V. xv, p. 51) by James D. Dewell, Jr., calls attention to the perplexing questions occasioned by State statutes which give, and attempt to give, actions against vessels. It is within the power of a State to provide liens, and so far as state-created liens are confined to domestic vessels they may be enforced in admiralty for supplies or repairs, and the author believes that the United States Supreme Court might now be persuaded to overrule an earlier de cision and consider the construction of a ves sel an admiralty matter. Liens imposed on foreign vessels, or all vessels, are in direct con flict with admiralty jurisdiction and are uncon stitutional. Where a State provides for the enforcement of a proper lien in the state courts the lien may nevertheless be enforced in admir alty. " It would be unreasonable to say just because the State has provided an unlawful means for carrying out the liens, that where the lien is good, one may not use it and select a proper form." Statutes which attempt to impose a tonnage tax are unconstitutional even though they be ostensibly to collect fees for the services of a harbor master or port warden. An interesting instance of the conflict between State statutes and admiralty is found in those statutes which absolve municipalities from liability for injuries done in performing a public service for the general welfare of the inhabitants. Such statutes are not recog nized by the maritime law of collisions, but it is not clear whether an action for injury done by a fire-boat while proceeding to a fire would proceed in personam against the municipality or in rem against the vessel. State statutes which limit a lien to three years have no effect in the admiralty courts where due diligence in the pursuit of a claim is the only requisite in determining whether or not the right to take advantage of the lien has been lost.

AUTOMOBILES. " The Motor Car's Status," by Xenophon P. Huddy, in the Yale Law Journal (V. xv, p. 83 ) collates the painfully few decisions applicable to automobiles. While many of these are harsh, the swelling ranks of the automobilists may result in a reversal of feeling as is intimated by a California decision upholding an ordinance forbidding such vehi cles the use of country roads by night where the court said, " Of course, if the use of auto mobiles becomes more common, there may come a time when an ordinance like the one here in question would be unreasonable. The writer makes the point that the car itself is not so much a source of danger as is the oper ator. Mr. Huddy, and the profession gener ally, are succumbing to the loose use of the words " motor car " which, technically, are applicable only to electrically propelled cars, for the gasoline engine is closely akin to the reciprocating engine, and is not a motor. BANKRUPTCY (Trustee's Election ). Lee M. Friedman has an article in the December Harvard Law Review (V. xix, p. 106) upon the " Debtor's Interference in the Election of a Trustee in Bankruptcy." In the continental systems of bankruptcy the Court appoints its own official administrator. Under the English system the creditors have the full control of the administration of the bankrupt's estate. In this country the policy has not been uni form. By the bankruptcy law of 1800, Con gress gave the creditors the fullest liberty in the choice of trustee. In the Act of 1841, however, the continental practice was adopted. The Act of 1867 left the creditors to choose one or more assignees of the estate of the debtor subject to the approval of the District Court. The Act of 1898 was closely modeled after the Act of 1867, though the provisions regarding the selection of trustee are not wholly consistent. The Bankruptcy Court is invested with power to appoint trustees pur suant to the recommendation of creditors. On the other hand, the creditors themselves