Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 21.pdf/188

 Review of Legal Articles cates a realization that the time has come to bring the state banking laws of the country up to a higher standard of efficiency." New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Ohio were the states in which important banking legislation was enacted in 1908. As regards legislation relating to savings banks and savings deposits, Massachusetts adopted some provisions possibly of greater interest than those of the other three states. Savings banks were authorized to maintain branch offices for the receipt of deposits. An audit ing committee must be appointed each year, and savings banks are to be incorporated through a board of state officers, so that the establishment of new banks may become easier than under the old plan of incorpora tion by special charter. The investment law has been considerably changed in Massachusetts, and the writer shows in what respects this state has also undertaken to throw additional safeguards about savings deposited in trust companies, which are now required by law to maintain separate departments wherever such deposits are received, in order that such departments may be covered by the laws regulating sav ings bank investments. This principle has already appeared, though less completely worked out, in the laws of Michigan, New Hampshire and Connecticut. "It is the logical solution for the present lack of savings facili ties outside those states (the New England states, New York and New Jersey) where the mutual, or non-stock, savings bank system is fully developed." So far as legislation regarding trust com panies and state banks is concerned, New York passed the most important measures of 1908, falling into three classes. In the first, relating to the operations of the banks, the reserve requirement was increased, certain state and municipal bonds being no longer permitted as a form of reserve, and trust companies having an active demand business being forced to keep a commensurate reserve, while those having time deposits, by issuing certificates, are not required to keep any reserve on such deposits. Restrictions on loans are also here described. Under the second head, legislation relating to duties of directors, a remedy was provided in New York for conditions disclosed by the panic, with the purpose of checking the prac tice whereby individuals formerly obtained control of a chain of banks by using the funds

167

of one bank to purchase the stock of a second, the funds of the second to purchase the stock of a third, and so on. In the third class, legislation relating to the authority of the supervisor, the 1908 law of New York extends the power of the superintendent to discontinue unsafe prac tices to all institutions under his supervision. He is also authorized to liquidate an institu tion which has been closed as unsound and is not in condition to reopen. This follows closely the provisions of the national banking law; in all other states, closed state banking institutions are liquidated by receivers ap pointed by the courts. Bill of Eights. "Property." By O. H. Myrick. Lawyer and Banker, v. 1, p. 107 (Apr.). The writer, a member of the Los Angeles bar, describes some of the fundamental attri butes of property, which is next in importance to life and liberty, and the power of the state over it under constitutional guaranties. Bill of Rights. See Procedure. Codification. See Illinois, Uniformity of Laws. Contracts (Agency). "The Liability of the Undisclosed Principal in Contract." By Wil liam Draper Lewis. 9 Columbia Law Review 116 (Feb.). "To permit the person who has dealt with the undisclosed principal's agent in such a way as to raise a contract on which the action of assumpsit could be brought, on discovery of the principal, to elect whether he shall regard the contract as with the agent or with the principal instead of being an anomaly and contrary to the fundamental common law idea of the reason for the obligation of the contract, would appear to fit in as per fectly with the fundamental idea lying at the foundation of the liability, as the denial of such a right to one who has made a formal contract under seal with the agent of the undisclosed principal, fits in with the funda mental idea lying at the foundation of liability on formal contracts. ". Corporations. "Corporate Powers." By Thomas Thacher. 9 Columbia Law Review 243 (Mar.). The grant of a corporate franchise in and of itself creates no power, says this writer, but if incorporation induces combination of capital and energies, it may in that way develop the power which would have been capable of asserting itself without such incor poration.