Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 19.pdf/271

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246

THE GREEN BAG

petty kind. They are disagreeable exactions. Everyone except plutocrats and the ' tipped ' would willingly see them disappear. The rail way guard and the hotel porter and the hotel chambermaid may be saved from prosecution because their employers know of the practice. It is for them to denounce and prohibit it. The continuance of ' tipping ' in such cases is not tto be understood as recommended. The ' tipper ' and the ' tipped ' must take their risk of trial under the Act. The butler and the cook are not in so seemingly favorable a position as the guard or the porter. The butcher, the baker, and the grocer, or other tradesman, will give to the butler and to the cook, and the butler and the cook will take any discounts, presents, or gratuities each at their own peril. A careful perusal of the Statute may satisfy all such servants and all such tradesmen inclined to deal in this nefa rious way that the blessing will be for those who neither give nor take bribes in any shape or form." DIVORCE. " Marriage and Divorce in France," by J. C. Adam, Madras Law Times (V. i, p. 281). DIVORCE. " An Argument for Uniform Divorce Laws " by Dr. Felix Adler, March Woman's Home Companion, p. 10. A con servative discussion of a grave social problem by the leader of the Society for Ethical Culture. DIVORCE. Proceedings of the National Congress on Uniform Divorce Laws. Harrisburg Publishing Company, Harrisburg, Pa., 1907. EDUCATION. Floyd R. Mechem's paper on " The Opportunities and Responsibilities of American Law Schools," read at last August's meeting of their association is printed in the March Michigan Law Review (V. v, p. 344). EQUITY. " Delay as Defense to Specific Performance," by Sarat Chandra Chandhri, Allahabad Law Journal (V. iv, p. 55). EQUITY (Control over Foreign Property). Joseph H. Beale, Jr., in the March Harvard Law Review discusses " Equitable Interests in Foreign Property," both real and personal. As to real property, he summarizes as follows: "An equitable interest in land can be

created only by the law of the situs; if that law creates an interest, the courts of all other states must recognize and enforce it; while, if the law of the situs does not create the equi table interest, no foreign court can assume the existence of such an interest. But since equity acts in personam it has power to act whenever it has jurisdiction over the person of a defendant; and if a defendant is shown to be in default for a breach of obligation, it may, in some cases at least, decree a convey ance of land, by way of reparation for the injury, although there was no prior interest in the land created by the law of the situs. The limitations of this power must now be examined. "First, there must be a real obligation growing out of the transaction of the parties. If there is no equitable interest in the land, and there is no independent legal obligation in the owner to deal with the -land for the benefit of a cestui que trust, the court of equity of another state cannot create and enforce such, an obligation merely because it has power over the owner and regards the trans action as one which should have given rise to a trust. . . . "The second limitation ... is this: that the obligation violated must have run from the defendant to the plaintiff. If land in a common law state subject tp an equitable claim is sold to a purchaser with notice, he is bound to respect the equity. But this is because he takes the land subject to the other's equitable right; and if by the law of the situs there is no equitable right in the land, the purchaser cannot be subject to a claim on the part of the asserted beneficiary, even though he would be held a trustee if the land were in the state of forum. . . . "The third limitation ... is based on the lack of jurisdiction of a court of equity to order the doing of an act on foreign soil. The decree of the court cannot directly affect the foreign land; if it is to be effective, it must be through a conveyance of the land by the defen dant. In countries governed by the common law land may be conveyed by a deed made anywhere; and. a court of equity may there fore make an effective decree by ordering the defendant to give a deed of foreign land. But in countries governed by the civil law a