Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 21.pdf/325

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302

The Green Bag

"(a) When the commodity has been manu factured, mined, or produced by a railroad company or under its authority, and at the time of transportation the railroad company has not in good faith before the act of trans portation parted with its interest in such commodity. "(6) When the railroad company owns the commodity to be transported in whole or in part. "(c) When the railroad company at the time of transportation has an interest, direct or indirect, in a legal sense in the commodity, which last prohibition does not apply to commodities manufactured, mined, produced, owned, etc., by a corporation because a rail road company is a stockholder in such cor poration. Such ownership of stock in a pro ducing company by a railroad company does not cause it, as the owner of the stock, to have a legal interest in the commodity manu factured, etc., by the producing corporation." All the Justices concurred except Mr. Jus tice Harlan, who said, in his dissenting opinion: "In my judgment, the act, reason ably and properly construed, according to its language, includes within its prohibitions any railroad company transporting articles or commodities if at the time it legally or equitably owns stocks—certainly if it so owns a majority or all the stock—in the com pany that mined, manufactured, or produced the articles or commodities being transported by such railroad company." Contempt. See Perjury. Corporations. See "Commodities Decision,' ' Monopolies, Railroads. Criminal Intent. Natural Consequences of Act. Lower Burma. In Po Tu v. Emperor, decided by the Chief Court of Lower Burma, and reported in 9 Criminal Law Journal Reports 5 (Calcutta, Jan.-Feb.), it was held that A's intention, in striking B with a heavy chopper, must be inferred not merely from the actual conse quences of his act, but from the natural con sequences likely to follow an act of the kind committed. "Every man," said the Court, "must be presumed to intend the natural or necessary consequences of his own act. What is the natural consequence of aiming at and cutting the head of another with this formidable chopper? In my opinion it would be death. We must presume that Maung Po Tu meant

to give Shwe Thin a fair and square blow on his head. His conduct was such prior to his giving this blow as is in my opinion sufficient to allow this presumption to be drawn. He was in a quarrelsome and savage mood. I cannot for a moment think that he merely meant to slice off a bit of the frontal bone, or to cut off a bit of the ear, or to strike with the flat of the chopper, in which cases it might be held he did not intend to cause death. I must hold that he meant to give an ordinary fair and square cut on the head." Exterritoriality. Asylum in Legations—De serters Seeking Protection of Foreign Consu late. Hague Court. The Court of Arbitration at The Hague delivered its decision May 22 in the Casa blanca dispute between France and Germany. The Court declared the act of the secretary of the German consulate at Casablanca wrong ful, in endeavoring to bring about the embar kation on a German steamship of deserters from the French foreign legion who were not of German nationality, and found that the consul committed an error in signing their safe conduct. The Court also ruled that the French mili tary authorities were wrong in not respecting the de facto protection exercised by the Ger man consulate, and in threatening the con sular agents with revolvers and ill-treating the Moroccan troops attached to the consu late. Extradition. Trial for Different Offense— Perjury—Treaties. U. S. The Supreme Court of the United States decided May 17 that a person who has been extradited from a foreign country on a specific charge may under a treaty with that country be tried for another offense before he has been given a reasonable time to get back to that country. George D. Collins v. Sheriff O' Neil of San Francisco. Collins was extradited from Victoria, B. C., for alleged perjury and subsequently arrested on a new charge of perjury alleged to have been com mitted at the time he was tried on the first. Forgery. Material Alteration by Severance— Creation of New Instrument. Mont. Three trustees of a school bought supplies, signing their names to a note attached to the order blank. The payee cut the note from the order. In State v. Mitton, 96 Pac. Rep. 926 appellant claimed that the cutting out of the note was not a material alteration. The