Special Findings and Special Verdicts in Nebraska
Gerald E. Matzke
Introduction
Special Findings and Special Verdicts Defined
Advantages and Purposes of Special Findings of Fact
Some Aspects of the Law Governing the Use of Special Findings … I. Discretion of the Trial Judge … II. Drafting Interrogatories Requiring Special Findings … III. Effect of Special Findings of Fact Which Are in Conflict with the General Verdict … IV. Effect of Failure of Jury to Make Special Findings of Fact in Answer to Interrogatories Submitted by Trial Court … V. Special Findings and the Five-Sixths Verdict
Conclusion
Books Received
Crime, Courts, and Probation. By Charles Lionel Chute and Marjorie Bell. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1956. Pp. 268. $4.75.
Marriage Happiness or Unhappiness. By Judge Tom R. Blaine. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Dorrance & Company, Inc., 1955. Pp. 197. $2.50.
Bastard—Requirements for Acknowledgment in Nebraska
James W. Hewitt
A truck driver, in the presence of a competent witness, signed an application for employment in Nebraska in which he stated that he had two sons dependent upon him for support, and named the sons. The driver was later killed in an auto accident, and in a wrongful death action the question arose as to whether the application was a sufficient acknowledgment under the Nebraska statutes to legitimate the sons who were concededly born out of wedlock. Held: reversing on rehearing a prior opinion on the same facts, that the writing was sufficient to meet the tests of the statute. The result is at last a definitive statement of the Nebraska court’s attitude concerning the problem of legitimation, and is in accord with the prevailing liberal view of treatment of children born out of wedlock. Section 30-109 has been construed to require proof of three facts: (1) that the child was born out of wedlock; (2) that the alleged father was in fact the real father; and (3) that the father has acknowledged the child in the terms of the statute. In the instant case, it was conceded that facts (1) and (2) had been proved, but it was asserted that the application did not constitute sufficient acknowledgment.
Federal Tort Claims Act—A Liberalized Interpretation
Charles K. Thompson
In an action against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act, claimant sought recovery for cargo damage which resulted from the grounding of the tug and barge carrying the cargo. Claimant alleged that the grounding was caused by the failure of Coast Guard personnel to check and repair a navigational light, or to notify claimant that the light was not operating. A motion to dismiss on the theory that a private person would not be liable under “like circumstances,” as required by the act, was granted by the district court. The court of appeals affirmed. Certiorari was granted and the judgment affirmed by an equally divided court. On rehearing, held: reversed, on the ground that a private person would be liable under “like circumstances.” For example, one undertaking to warn the public of danger and thereby inducing reliance would be liable for a failure to perform his good Samaritan task in a careful manner. The instant case is important not only because it clarifies a previously hazy area but also because the logic of the case could be used to greatly liberalize recovery against the Government.
Present Status of Suretyship Defenses of an Accommodation Maker
Bob Baumfalk
Introduction
I. Patent of Latent Sureties
II. Extension of Time … A. The Majority Rule … B. The Minority View … C. Statutory Variations … D. Criticism of the Majority and Minority Views … E. The Uniform Commercial Code
III. Release of Collateral . . . A. Under the Negotiable Instruments Law … B. The Uniform Commercial Code
Conclusion
You Can’t Take My Land! Is Thompson v. Heineman, 289 Neb. 798, 857 N.W.2d 731 (2015), Transformative Law or a Political Anomaly?
Adam W. Kauffman
In Thompson, the Nebraska Supreme Court held Legislative Bill 1161 unconstitutional, while the minority opined that the plaintiffs lacked standing. This Note maintains that the minority opinion in Thompson correctly applied the law to protect Nebraska’s law on standing, and that the minority’s supermajority interpretation mirrors the Nebraska Supreme Court’s past application.
The Economic Characteristics of Indigenous Property Rights: A Canadian Case Study
Dwight Newman
Property rights of Indigenous communities have far-reaching effects, impacting general economic prosperity, the ability to contract outside the community, and resource development. This Article focuses on title rights held by Canadian Indigenous communities, but the analysis and concepts have direct practical relevance to Indigenous communities elsewhere.
Book Review
David Dow
Modern Trials. By Melvin M. Belli. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1954. 2763 pp. $50.00
If the field of taxation has any rival for the title of being most written about, it must be that of procedure and trial practice. The art of persuasion is so all-pervasive in the law, and at the same time so subtle and elusive, that lawyers of all generations have been drawn to write about it as the flies are drawn to honey. The urge is no respecter of age—young and old have sought to solve the mysteries, and they remain unsolved. And these mysteries seem likely to remain so until our scientific brethren, the psychologists, have succeeded in delving much deeper into the problems of motivation and the reasons for human behavior.
It is therefore true that a new book in this field usually is approached with a good deal of skepticism, as something to be skimmed through without much hope of acquiring anything new beyond an anecdote or so for the next bar meeting. Such anecdotes you will find aplenty in Mr. Belli’s Modern Trials, but you will also find a great deal more. Not long ago one of my former students came to me and said that one of the real needs he felt was for new ways to prove various propositions. It is precisely in this area that Mr. Belli has the most to offer. He is, of course, primarily interested in showing how this can be done through the use of demonstrative techniques: pictures, maps, charts, models, illustrative drawings and real evidence. He gives literally hundreds of examples, themselves amply illustrated by photographs, of how these techniques can be used to explain the propositions which counsel is called upon to get across to the jury; and in particular he shows much that is new in photography and medicine.
The Journalist and His Confidential Source: Should a Testimonial Privilege Be Allowed
W. D. Lorensen
Introduction
The Basis for a Privilege
The Current Law
When Is the Public Benefited?
When Should This Privilege Be Denied?
When Is There No Public Benefit?
When Does Detriment Outweigh Benefit?
Conclusion