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Home > Journals > Michigan Law Review > MLR > Volume 44 > Issue 4 (1946)

 

Abstract

In 1943 the New York State Legislature extended its moratorium legislation for another year, thereby continuing the suspension of mortgage foreclosure proceedings on real property due to default in payments on principal. The legislature declared that an emergency still existed and therefore the continuance of legislative action, first taken in 1933, was justified. The law made payment of interest, taxes, insurance and amortization charges a prerequisite to suspension of foreclosure. Appellant brought an action to foreclose a mortgage on appellee's property for the non-payment of principal, contending that the suspension of foreclosure proceedings resulted in an impairment of the obligation of contract contrary to Article I, Section 10 of the federal Constitution. Previous cases sustaining this type of legislation were distinguished on the ground that whereas an emergency did exist when the law was first enacted, it no longer existed at the time the present statute was enacted or at least did not exist when this action was brought. The trial court and the New York Court of Appeals sustained the legislative findings and upheld the statute and the case came to the United States Supreme Court on appeal. Held, whether an emergency exists justifying the exercise of the police power of the state is a matter for legislative determination. The court will not substitute its judgment for the considered determination of the legislature. And justification for the 1943 enactment is not negatived because the factors that induced and supported the 1943 law were different from those which resulted in the passage of the 1933 act. East New York Savings Bank v. Hahn, (U.S. 1946) 66 S. Ct. 69.

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