“ The right to property is subordinate to the right to life, and as, when a city is besieged, those who have more provisions must share with those who are not so well supplied; so when the supply of land becomes so scant that the right to life comes into conflict with the right to property, the inferior right must yield. The following illustration will, perhaps, better show my meaning: A man has ordinarily the right to keep trespassers from his premises. But suppose a land-owner’s property is on a river-bank, and a drowning man, floating down the river, tries to make a landing. ”

“ Clarke, will not always give a good title, for a human being may be reduced to possession, and it is admitted that slavery is unjust. But the reducing of another’s person or property to possession is clearly a violation of the other’s rights. Possession will give a good title when no better title can be set up against it, and wherein does the possession of an unused block of stone give a better title as against the public than the possession of an unused acre of land? ”

“ That the law treats inebriety, and must treat it, precisely like any other disease, that is to say, as no excuse for crime. If in a particular case the actual effect of inebriety is shown to be such that there was no criminal intent,—that is to say, no crime,—in such case it is not properly spoken of as an excuse for crime, but as a disproof of the existence of crime. ”

“ Few will attempt to deny that “each human being, as against all others, and, so far as interference with him by them is concerned, is entitled to himself, to his life, to his liberty, to the fruits of his exertions, to the pursuit of happiness, subject only to the equal correlative rights of every other human being.” ”

“ When an institution is found to be repugnant to the natural rights of individuals, the government or the people, who are the source of government, may abolish that institution. If private property in land is adverse to natural rights the American people, who have for this reason already abolished property in slaves, may abolish property in land. Starting, then, from this common ground, let us follow George’s chain of argument, as Mr. Clarke gives it, and see if it contains no unsound link. ”

“ A’s obligation, at his peril, was to pay the note to the bearer, and he was guilty of gross negligence in not requiring his note from B. Under the plea of payment he was allowed to show an unauthorized payment to B, who commingled the proceeds in a larger sum, which he paid to C on his own account. If A’s note was a perfect obligation at law, how could equity refuse to foreclose the mortgage securing it? ”

“ What is meant by an equitable estate is, strictly speaking, not an estate (i.e., any ownership in the res itself) at all,—it is a right in personam as distinguished from the right in rem possessed by the owner of a true estate. What is called a conveyance of an equitable estate is really only the assignment of a chose in action. Such conveyances are made without deeds, and require writing only to satisfy the Statute of Frauds. The legal estate and the so-called equitable estate cannot be held by the same person,—no man can hold property in trust for himself. ”

“ To give a clear statement of the law as it exists seems to be the dominating idea. And this has been very successfully done. If the decisions on any point are in harmony, the principle is given clearly and concisely. If, however, there is a seeming conflict among the cases, every endeavor is made to bring them into line along some general principle, and usually with good results; as, for instance, in formulating the rule that remedies may be changed by State legislatures provided that a substantial remedy is left. ”

“ Taking “an act in the law” to be a matter “capable of having legal effect and concerned with rights and duties which can be dealt with by a court of justice,” the learned justice concludes that an agreement between A and B to enter into a contract at some future time is not a contract; but that an agreement by A with B that he will make a contract (as for a lease of land in this case) with C, is a contract in law that may be enforced. Specific performance not being asked for at the trial, he gives damages to the plaintiff. ”

“ Constitutional Law—Prohibitory Liquor Law.—It is within the police power of a State to prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, and although it results in greatly diminishing the value of property engaged in the business, it is not depriving “any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” Mr. Justice Field dissents, on the ground that, conceding the right to stop the use of property for purposes deemed injurious to society, the State has not the right to destroy any property; which might be used for other purposes, without compensation to owners. ”

“ It is generally agreed that the mutuality has reference to the state of things when the contract was made; otherwise the rule involves an absurdity, for the remedy is almost never mutual at the time of filing the bill. The plaintiff alone can then have a remedy; he cannot maintain his bill unless the defendant is in default and he himself is not in default; the defendant in such a case could not maintain a bill. It is not a question, therefore, of the time when the remedy is sought, but of the time when the contract is made. ”

“ The defendant has been indemnified by the payment of the insurance money, which is the equivalent of his mortgage debt. If he is also allowed to retain the debt he will eventually have obtained double satisfaction, which would not only be in violation of the indemnity principle of the law of fire insurance, but would be placing a premium on incendiarism.
Now, the insurer of a person who has a remedy against some one to compel him ultimately to make good the loss stands in the position of a surety. ”

“ What do we mean by saying that all men have equal rights to life? One child may be born strong and healthy, another weak and sickly; and in no way is their condition due to themselves. Do we mean that the weak child is, of right, entitled to a portion of the other’s vitality? ”

“ But is even the abuse of land worse than the abuse of other forms of property; and is the spectacle of one man owning 75,000 acres of rich land more deplorable than that of another man holding enough personal property to buy him out? ”

“ The distinction between an estate, properly so called, and an equitable interest is overlooked in Massachusetts when property is devised by a will that discloses a trust, but keeps the object of the trust a secret between the testator and the trustee. Such property goes, in Massachusetts, by way of resulting trust, to the heirs or next of kin of the testator, as property not disposed of by the will, the secret trust being set aside as too indefinite. ”

“ Thus to lawyers, beyond the mere establishment of a great body of new law, the work of the Commission is of interest as an illustration that true principle must triumph in the end, and that the only true principle or theory is that which gives the final reason, though oftentimes not the perceived cause or motive, for men acting in the way they do. ”

“ The question of whether or not an act is a trespass is a common-law question, to be determined by a common-law court with a jury. Even in those States where equity and law are united, the question of trespass is submitted to a jury, though a separate action is not necessary. But in Tennessee, where such seems not to be the case, the plaintiff should first have been compelled to establish the fact of trespass at law, and then equity would grant an injunction to prevent multiplicity of suits. ”

“ Broadly underlying all the decisions of the committee can be traced the great truth spoken by Judge Cooley at the dinner last June of the Harvard Law School Association: “The strength of the law lies in its commonplace character; and it becomes feeble and untrustworthy when it expresses something different from the common thoughts of man.” ”

“ But in the absence of legislation a corporation may deal as freely with its assets as an individual. The assets of a corporation, solvent or insolvent, are no more a trust fund for its creditors than the property of an individual is a trust fund for his creditors. ”

“ No, not that; we mean that each child has the right to keep whatever of life is his; and the strong child has no greater right to his larger share of life than the weak child has to his smaller portion. In the course of years their positions may be reversed; but, at all times, they have equal rights to their own. In the same way the portion of property to which each child is entitled at birth may be greater or smaller, but the rights of each to his own are equal; and in this sense it is true that all men have equal rights to land as well as to everything else that this world contains. ”

“ The court decided in favor of the defendant. A trespasser at common law is a wrong-doer; no wrong can give the wrong-doer a right of action. The cases in equity do not apply, for equity can probe the plaintiff’s conscience; they rather show there is no remedy at law. ”

“ Equity has deduced from specific performance two important and far-reaching principles which affect the substantive rights of parties. One principle is that of equitable conversion; the other is, that the party entitled to a thing under a contract is regarded as owner of it in equity. Equitable conversion takes place when the result of the contract will be an actual conversion of property into realty or personalty; equitable ownership takes place when the performance of the contract will change the ownership. ”

“ By the deed the defendant acquired an insurable interest in the property, equal, even in equity, to the amount of the mortgage debt. It is for the loss that has happened to his property that he recovers, and the company, having paid only what it agreed to pay, has no equity to claim the debt, and thus to deprive the defendant of the profits of his investment. (Bunyon, Insurance, 3d ed., p. 243.) If any one has an equity to have the insurance money applied in payment of the debt it is the mortgagor, not the company; and this equity would arise only upon maturity of the debt. ”

“ No circumstance of loss need be taken into account, for it would be absurd to talk of one’s loss in his own life, and the idea of loss in the law of life insurance is due to a misconception of the likeness between life and indemnity policies. ”

“ The B bank then went into the hands of a receiver, who asks the Court if he is to pay the A bank in full or pro rata with other creditors. Held — He shall pay it in full. “No difficulty whatever arises from the confusion of these moneys, any more than in every other case where the rightful owner is in pursuit of trust-funds. In such case the owner need not point out the very goods, or bills, or coin. He does all the law requires if he shows that the goods, or bills, or coin came to the hands of the defendant impressed with a trust to his knowledge. ”

“ In most cases the counsel is not the choice of the litigant, but is simply the counsel usually employed by the solicitor. Whether he performs his duty or neglects it, whether he does it well or ill, he is under no legal liability to the man by whom he is paid. ”

“ It must be taken to be true that the constituent, so long as he does not object, confirms the acts of his attorney. The unlawful feature of the trust in the Griffith case was the provision that the power of attorney should be irrevocable; that, although the constituent might desire action of one kind, he was bound to suffer his proxy to take action perhaps of the very opposite kind. The decision is to the effect that though a stockholder may appoint an agent to vote his stock he cannot effectually bind himself not to revoke the agency ”

“ Aside, too, from the excellent practice afforded to those who take part, such trials may be made a means of familiarizing those who witness them with the actual court practice of English and American courts. One other point suggests itself. The Law School has hitherto furnished nothing to attract the college students within its walls, and kindle an interest among them in the study of the profession which so many of them adopt. Does not this year’s experience show that these trials are adapted to serve just that purpose? ”