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.
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.
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
Professional Liability
Earl Cline
The subject of this article, “Professional Liability,” is very broad and could include not only malpractice liability but also other liabilities of the physician and surgeon. Instead of attempting to discuss so broad a field, it will be confined to the subject of liability for malpractice and trespass and particularly recent trends in court decisions relating to the liability of the physician and surgeon therefor.
Civil Defense and Law, Part II
Val Peterson
American lawyers dare not ignore the legal dislocations that would result from an attack upon this country. A new dimension to the responsibilities of the legal expert is the protection of the legal structure around which is built the nation’s economy. The threat to the national legal machinery is a real one. This danger probably cannot be eliminated; however, intelligent planning can very definitely lessen the impact of severe destruction. Careful, skillful planning, reduced to practical terms and applied judiciously to the daily problems with which we are most familiar, can do much toward reducing the effects of devastating disaster.
Separation of Powers and the Class Action
Mark K. Moller
The federal court system’s increasing hostility toward class action certification has resulted in tens of thousands of individual cases winding up in state courts. This Article analyzes the new way of thinking about litigant autonomy in this “post-class-action” era.
Rethinking Counterterrorism in the Age of ISIS: Lessons from Sinai
Sahar F. Aziz
Failing states serve as havens for violent extremist groups to grow and spread, yet Western nations continue to limit their counterterrorism practices to merely preventing violence on their soil. Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula serves as a valuable case study for rethinking counterterrorism methods in the age of ISIS.
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