CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - VALIDITY OF MORTGAGE MORATORIUM ACT - EFFECT OF LAPSE OF TIME ON "EMERGENCY'' LEGISLATION

Authors

Ralph Winkler, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

A mortgage moratorium law was enacted in Nebraska in 1933. It was re-enacted in 1935 and again in 1937. The act recited that an emergency existed and that the law was adopted to provide for this condition. The instant case involved the constitutionality of this law. A majority of the court held that the law violated the due process clause and the contracts clause of the state constitution. While the court admitted that "land values have not been restored to the prices they had attained prior to March 1, 1934," nevertheless, "It appears that there is no crisis now prevailing which involves a general paralysis of business and finance, and that the unfortunate condition now confronting us is strictly a 'continued depression.'" First Trust Co. of Lincoln v. Smith, (Neb. 1938) 277 N. W. 762.

Recommended Citation

Ralph Winkler, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - VALIDITY OF MORTGAGE MORATORIUM ACT - EFFECT OF LAPSE OF TIME ON "EMERGENCY'' LEGISLATION, 36 Mich. L. Rev. 1379 (1938).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol36/iss8/11