Books

This series includes the full text of select faculty-authored books, including some authored by Thomas M. Cooley.

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Titles to Real Property Acquired Originally and by Transfer Inter Vivos

Ralph W. Aigler

Many law teachers have felt that Titles should be the basis of the beginning course in Property. Although this volume appears as number three in a series of casebooks covering the law of Property, it is believed that the subject-matter of the volume, with possibly some shifts in order of the topics, is such that it may well be used in that way.
Cases on the Law of Mortgages

Edgar N. Durfee

“The law of mortgages embraces so many remotely related topics that it is impossible, in the time allotted to it in our schools, to cover the subject completely and thoroughly by the ordinary ‘case’ method. Of the several alternatives that this condition leaves us, the editor has chosen that of covering by cases, with a fair degree of thoroughness, certain selected topics. It is with a view to presenting to the student, in a suggestive way, some of the topics not covered by cases, that the editor has introduced into the book excerpts from text-books and from judicial opinions, and extensive editorial notes.” --Preface
Cases on the Law of Bankruptcy: Including the Law of Fraudulent Conveyances

Evans Holbrook and Ralph W. Aigler

This collection of cases is the result of several years' work in the class-room by both of the editors. It is obvious that there are difficulties in the teaching of a subject based entirely on a statute, especially in the years immediately following the adoption of the statute, when its provisions have not yet been passed on by the courts; now, however, a considerable body of authoritative judicial interpretation of the Bankruptcy Act of 1898 has grown up, and it is hoped that the cases contained in this volume will serve to show the effective structure that has been constructed on the foundation of the Act.
A Modern Action at Law

Horace L. Wilgus

The following is a true "short story" of what occurred in the county a few years ago, taken, for the most part, from the records of the County Clerk, in the Court House, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Corporations and Express Trusts as Business Organizations

Horace L. Wilgus

The advantages of incorporation have long been recognized and frequently referred to in our law ... Upon the other hand the special advantages of Express Trusts have recently been stated .... It is my purpose to compare these two, -- Corporations and Express Trusts, -- in such detail as my time will permit, to discover, if perchance we may, something of the strength and weakness of each, for business purposes, under present day conditions.
Corporations and Express Trusts: As Business Organizations

Horace La Fayette Wilgus
The History of Contract in Early English Equity

W. T. Barbour

“Mr. Barbour’s contribution to the Studies is an attempt to characterize with some precision and detail the functions of the Chancery in the fifteenth century. The court was gradually differentiated from the King’s Council, and the writs of Edward III’s time calling on persons to appear under penalty of a fine or imprisonment (subpoena), and other special injunctions, was generally framed in terms which leave it undecided whether proceedings were to be taken by the King’s Council, or by the Council under the chairmanship of the Chancellor himself with or without the aid of assessors. By the time of Richard II, however, the personal jurisdiction of the Chancellor had acquired a fairly definite range, and was assuming the aspect of a standing institution.” --Preface
Cases on Principal and Agent, Selected from Decisions of English and American Courts

Edwin C. Goddard

It is a striking proof of the fact that Agency is a modern subject in the law that Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, does not mention the subject by name, and barely makes a four-line reference to one sort of agent in his classification of servants. The old ca~es do, of course, sometimes deal with pure agency questions, but the agent is usually referred to as a servant or a factor, and the questions in issue are generally settled upon some principle of the law of Master and Servant. Agency is essentially a business- relation; hence its modernness, if that term may be permitted; hence, also, the singular fact that until within very few years courts treated it as a broadened service, involving wider discretion, and failed to see that its main difference from service is that it deals with a relation for a very different purpose-in other words, that the difference is in kind even more than in degree.

To an extent the law of Principal and Agent is an outgrowth of the law of Master and Servant. The doctrine of respondeat superior is most active in both. The old cases of Master and Servant are therefore in one portion of the field of Agency valuable and illuminating, and are equally valuable to illustrate either relation; but they deal to a considerable extent with questions of tort liability as to third persons, and of contract and tort between the primary parties to the relation, and these are far from being the most important parts of the law of Agency. A casebook on Agency, then, if it is well proportioned, will be made up of modern ca es far more than will a work on Property, for example, or on Contracts in general. The present work contain many early cases of hi torical importance, some involving Agency, but more turning on questions arising out of the relation of Master and Servant. Very largely, however, selections have been made from modern cases, in which the courts are dealing with real agency matters.
Cases on Procedure, Annotated. Common Law Pleading

Edson R. Sunderland

“No subject is more intimately connected with the history and development of our law than common law pleading. In sharp contrast with the other great system of law, that founded by the Romans, the common law has not been the product of legislation, but of litigation. It has grown up in the atmosphere of courts of justice. Such a genesis would necessarily give it a strong procedural favor, and would tend to emphasize remedies at the expense of rights. Procedure might therefore be expected to play a much larger part in the development of the common law than in the development of the Roman law, and such has been the fact. To understand common law rights one must understand common law remedies, for the former were developed through the latter….

“A proper balance must be maintained between pleading as a method of analysis and pleading as a practical means of presenting cases for judicial decision. This aim the editor has constantly had in mind in selecting and arranging these cases.” --Preface
Private Corporations

Horace La Fayette Wilgus

This subject will be treated in the following order: The general nature of a corporation. Definition and history. The corporation as a person. The corporation as a collection of individuals.The corporation as a franchise. Corporations and other institutions.Tests of corporate existence. Class of corporations. Creation of corporations. The state's functions. The promoter's functions. The corporate charter. The association agreement. Organization. The body corporate. Members and organs of action. Internal relations. Corporate funds. Corporate name. Corporate life. Corporate death- dissolution. Corporate powers and liabilities. Powers in general. Classes of corporate powers.Particular powers. Ultra vires. Torts and crimes. The corporation and the state. The state and its own corporations. The state and national corporations. The state and foreign corporations. The national government and state corporations. Special relations. The corporation and its promoters. The corporation and its officers. The corporation and its shareholders. Corporate creditors.
Leading and Illustrative Cases: with notes on the law of Judgments, Attachments, Garnishments and Executions

John R. Rood

The prior edition being exhausted, this one became necessary. The scope of the book has been considerably changed by developing the law of jurisdiction and the estoppel by judgments. Room for this has been obtained by dropping some of the less important cases on other topics. In several instances a case has been displaced by another on the same point, because thought to cover the matter better.
Cases on Procedure, Annotated. Code Pleading

Edson R. Sunderland

“In the present volume on Code Pleading, the editor has aimed to present the subject, in all of its more important features, as a complete working system of pleading. The code has frequently been treated as the mere ‘antithesis’ of common law pleading, and this has resulted in throwing the subject completely out of balance by unreasonably extending the discussion of those elements which are ‘characteristic’ of the code, while unduly restricting or entirely ignoring those principles which the code shares with the common law….

“The student should be able to obtain a clear conception of the system as a currently used method of procedure, adapted to the complex demands of modern litigation ....

“The editor has endeavored in this book to treat the code as it is actually employed, to disclose both the logic of its theory and the difficulties of its practice, for the purpose of giving the student a thorough and intimate understanding of code pleading as both a science and an art.” --Preface
Trusts and Duties of Trustees: Instruction Paper

George L. Clark

“Trusts and Duties of Trustees: Instruction Paper” is an overview of the history and current [1912] practice regarding express trusts. Chapters: Chapter I. Origin and Requisites of Expressed Trusts; Chapter II. Nature and Requisites of Express Trusts; Chapter III. Nature of Cestui Que Trust’s Interest; Chapter IV. Resulting and Constructive Trusts; Chapter V. Transfer of Trust Property; Chapter VI. Relinquishment of a Trust; Chapter VII. Duties of a Trustee. Included is an “Examination Paper” for self-testing -- the material is designed to facilitate distance learning under the auspices of the American School of Correspondence based in Chicago, Illinois, as of 1912.
Cases on Procedure, Annotated: Trial Practice

Edson Sunderland

The present volume is intended to develop and disclose the rational basis for the main principles of practice employed in the trial of civil actions at law. Recourse has been had to the whole body of American case law, and the choice of cases has been determined by the clearness with which the court has shown a logical justification for the decision made. By this means it is hoped that the book will help the student to analyze and understand the methods by which courts solve problem of practice, to appreciate the comparative value, importance and bearing of the different elements involved, and to form sound notions of the underlying principles governing the complex field of modern court procedure.
Cases on Procedure, Annotated. Trial Practice

Edson R. Sunderland

“The present volume is intended to develop and disclose the rational basis for the main principles of practice employed in the trial of civil actions at law. Recourse has been had to the whole body of American case law, and the choice of cases has been determined by the clearness with which the court has shown a logical justification for the decision made….

“The cases have been very freely edited, and everything not germane to the subject for which the case was chosen has been omitted….” --Preface
Cases on Suretyship

Robert E. Bunker

A casebook with selected cases to aid the teaching of suretyship.
Decisions, Statutes, & C., Concerning the Law of Estates in Land

John R. Rood

“The following pages have been printed from the notes made from time to time while preparing to conduct exercises in the first course on real property at the University of Michigan, using Blackstone’s Commentaries on the text.… In this edition several typographical errors in the first impression have been discovered and corrected. The scope of the work has also been extended by numerous additions throughout, and by inserting the chapters on uses, trusts, and powers, which did not appear in the first edition.

JOHN R. ROOD

Dated, Ann Arbor, February 25th, 1910” --Preface.
Decisions, Statutes, & C., Concerning the Law of Estates in Land

John R. Rood

“The following pages have been printed from the notes made from time to time while preparing to conduct exercises in the first course on real property at the University of Michigan, using Blackstone’s Commentaries on the text. The design has been to present the great monuments which mark epochs in the various branches on the subject, with only an occasional late example… The present is a temporary edition, made to try out the serviceability of such a book by use in class… The editing has been rather hurriedly done, and the charity of the reader is requested.” --Preface
Selected Cases on the Law of Negotiable Instruments

Robert E. Bunker

The cases appearing in this volume have been selected primarily for the use of students pursuing the study of Negotiable Instruments and particularly for students in the Law Department of the University of Michigan. They are arranged in order to conform to the plan of instruction now pursued in that Department. The plan to which reference is made is sufficiently indicated by the Table of Contents infra. In brief, it involves a study of the law of Negotiable Instruments on the basis of the contract of the several parties as that law has been declared by the courts and, incidentally only, a study of the "Negotiable Instruments Law." The cases will be found to illustrate the several phases of the negotiable contract and to be arranged ... in such an order as to show, in sequence, the liability and rights of parties to Negotiable Instruments.
A Digest of Important Cases on the Law of Crimes

John R. Rood

“In selecting the cases to be abridged, an effort has been made to choose those that have drawn the most attention, comment, and citation. The reputation of each case is shown to the reader in part by reference to the various collections of important cases on crimes which have been included….”--Preface.
The Negotiable Instruments Law With Annotations

Robert E. Bunker

"The Negotiable Instruments Law was enacted by the Legislature of Michigan at its 1905 session and on this 16th day of September, 1905, becomes a law of the State.

Soon after the approval of the Act -- June 16, 1905, -- I undertook the work of annotating the statute and of explaining its origin, scope and purpose in such particulars as seemed to invite explanation....

I submit the result of my work -- undertaken in the hope that it might help the profession and the bankers and the business men in dealing with this statute -- to all who may find occasion to make use of it ..."
Cases on the Law of Partnership

Floyd R. Mechem and Frank L. Sage

Note to First Edition [1896]: "The following collection of cases has been made primarily for use in connection with the writer's lectures on Partnership in the Law School of this University and to accompany his 'Elements of Partnership' recently published."

Note to Third Edition: "In this edition the number of cases has again [from Second Edition] been considerably increased." F.R.M. ... October 1, 1905
A Treatise on the Powers and Duties of the Justices of the Peace in the State of Michigan, under Chapter Ninety-Three of the Revised Statutes of 1846, Being Chapter Thirty-Four of the Compiled Laws of 1897; with Practical Forms and an Appendix Containing the Justice Court Acts of Those Cities Having Provisions Differing Materially from the General Justice Court Act.

Alexander R. Tiffany and Victor H. Lane

“Judge Alexander R. Tiffany, its author, put out the first edition of this work in 1849. In the years 1851, 1858 and 1866, he put out the second, third and fourth editions, respectively. The fifth edition was published in 1873 with Judge Andrew Howell as its editor and he edited the succeeding editions to the ninth inclusive ….

“The editorship of the present edition has been undertaken at the request of the family of Judge Tiffany, and while the editor is persuaded that better can be done, yet it is hoped that the present edition may share the favor so long shown to this work by the bench and bar of Michigan…

“The citations of cases have been brought down to the 100th Northwestern Reporter and to the 132nd Michigan Reports. The Reporter citations are added for all cases since the beginning of the Reporter system.

“Citations to statutes are to the Compiled Laws of 1897 and to the Session Laws of 1899, 1901 and 1903…”
The Conveyance of Estates in Fee by Deed : Being a Statement of the Principles of Law Involved in the Drafting and Interpretation of Deeds of Conveyance and in the Examination of Title to Real Property

James H. Brewster

The purpose of the writer has been to state the principles of law applicable to the transfer of the title to real property by deed, in such manner as to assist one in drafting and interpreting the instrument of transfer.
Outlines of the Law of Bailments and Carriers

Edwin C. Goddard

The Outlines of Bailments and Carriers form part of a complete work on that subject intended for the use of classes in law schools. The other part, which is nearly ready for publication, consists of select cases illustrating and amplifying principles stated in the Outlines. It is the purpose of the Outlines not only to state the foundation principles of the subject, but to put these in orderly and consecutive form in order that the student may have an opportunity to see the subject as a whole. It is believed that any study of the cases without some such connected view of the subject will involve considerable loss of time and result in a good deal of in indefiniteness in conception.