Partnership—Deed to a Firm under the Firm-Name.—Certain parties entered into an agreement whereby a real-estate business was to be carried on for the mutual benefit and profit of the parties thereto, under the name of the Grant’s Pass Real Estate Association. In an action to quiet title it was held that the legal effect of the agreement was to form a partnership; and, whether or not a legal title passes by a conveyance to a partnership under the firm-name when this contains none of the names of the partners, the firm got an equitable interest good against a subsequent purchaser who took with notice of the deed to the firm.—Kelly v. Bourne, 16 Pac. Rep. 40 (Ore.).
Quasi-Contract—Goods Sold and Delivered.—The defendant ordered certain school-books from the dealer with whom he was accustomed to trade, The latter, having gone out of the business, induced the plaintiff to supply the books. At the time the books were shipped the plaintiff sent to the defendant an invoice and letter showing who supplied the goods, but the defendant gave no attention to them, supposing the goods were supplied as before. Held, notice being given before the goods were converted, the defendant is liable, and cannot excuse himself by his negligence. Barnes v. Shoemaker, 14 N. E. Rep. 367 (Ind.).
Stock—Liability for Unpaid Subscription—Bona-fide Purchaser—The defendant bank took as collateral security without notice, a number of certificates of stock in the plaintiff corporation, the subscription price of which had been paid only in part. The defendant surrendered these certificates for new ones identical in form issued to itself, and is now sued for an instalment of the subscription price. Held, the defendant is not liable. The court went upon grounds of public policy. West Nashville Planing-Mill Co. v. Nashville Sav. Bank, 6 S.W. Rep. 340 (Tenn.).
Transfer of Stock—National Banks.—Under the national banking act it is not the duty of an assignee of national bank shares to register his ownership in the transfer book of the bank in order to protect his assignor, who will otherwise be liable to contribute towards the liabilities of the bank. Lessassier v. Kennedy, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 244.
REVIEWS.
Bracton’s Note-Book. A Collection of Cases decided in the King’s Courts during the Reign of Henry the Third, annotated by a Lawyer of that Time, seemingly by Henry of Braxton. Edited by F. W. Maitland. London: C. J. Clay & Sons. Three volumes. 8 vo. xxiii and 337, 720, 723 pages.
The history of this book is a striking illustration of the indifference of English lawyers to the history of their law. In 1842 a manuscript containing about 2,000 decisions in the first half (1218–1240) of the reign of Henry III. was acquired by the British Museum. There, for forty years, this treasure lay neglected, until at last, its nature and value were discovered by a foreigner. In 1884, Professor Vinogradoff, of Moscow, in a letter to the “Athenæum,” gave his reasons for thinking it probable that this collection of cases was compiled for Bracton, and annotated by him. Even now, however, the publication of the “Note-Book” is not the work of the English Government, nor even of a learned society, but the labor of love of a single scholar, who has already made very valuable contributions to the history of English law in his edition of “Pleas of the Crown,” for the year 1221, and in two essays in the “Law Quarterly Review” upon “The Seisin of Chattels,” and “The Mystery of Seisin.”
The student of legal history cannot be too grateful for this publication. It diminishes materially the gap between 1200, when Palgrave’s
