STATUTES CONSTRUED-Continued.
1887, for injuries sustained by reason of its neglect to keep
its highways in repair, where such neglect is the proximate
cause of the injury. 536 (1).
30. Act No. 264, Laws of 1887, making villages liable for injur-
ies caused by defective sidewalks, does not require that such
walks should be wholly within the line of the street. 544 (2).
31. The filing and serving of a declaration under How. Stat.
§§ 7291, 7292, as commencement of suit, is in the nature of
process to bring the defendant into court. 577 (2).
82. A will is attested and subscribed in the presence of the
testatrix, within the meaning of How. Stat. § 5789, where
the witnesses subscribe their names in another room, but
within the hearing, knowledge, and understanding of the
testatrix, after which they return to her room, and the will,
consisting of one sheet of paper, is read over, and the signa-
tures of the witnesses shown, to the testatrix, who is
informed by the witnesses, or by one of them in the pres-
ence of the other, that the will had been signed by them,
and who replies that "it is all right, and just as I want it;
the witnesses and everything are all right." 581.
33. How. Stat. chap. 256, providing for "proceedings as for
contempts to enforce civil remedies, and to protect the rights
of parties in civil actions," is construed as follows:
a-Such proceedings cannot be instituted on the petition of
a party upon whom process has not been served, and who
has not appeared and submitted himself to the jurisdiction
of the court.
b-Such proceedings may be prosecuted although no party
is aggrieved by the misconduct for which the attachment is
issued, and, like proceedings as for criminal contempts, may
be instituted by the court upon its own motion, and without
the intervention of the party to the pending suit; citing Lang-
don v. Wayne Circuit Judges, 76 Mich. 358.
c-A failure to file interrogatories, as required by How.
Stat. § 7275, and to allow the party proceeded against an
opportunity to produce his witnesses, is an irregularity call-
ing for a reversal of the final order adjudging him guilty of
the contempt charged.
d-Imprisonment can only be ordered, under How. Stat.
§§ 7279, 7280, until the fine is paid or the act or duty imposed
performed. 592.
STATUTES CONSTRUED-Continued.
34. In the absence of an election, the directors and officers of
a county agricultural society organized under How. Stat. §§
2303-2312, hold over. 610 (4).
35. The president and secretary of a county agricultural society,
organized under How. Stat. §§ 2303-2312, are ex officio direct-
ors, and entitled to vote on all matters the same as those
who are specifically called "directors." Id. (5).
36. Act No. 378, Local Acts of 1885, authorizing the Kent
County Agricultural Society to dispose of its grounds and
invest the proceeds, is a valid enactment. Id. (6).
STENOGRAPHERS' NOTES-See CONDEMNATION PROCEEDINGS (1);
EVIDENCE (15).
SUBAGENT-See PRINCIPAL AND AGENT.
SUMMONS-See JUSTICES' COURTS (4).
SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS-See SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-DIS-
SUPPORT OF POOR PERSONS-See POOR PERSONS.
SURETIES-See BOND.
1. It will not do to permit boundaries to be disturbed and
moved upon a survey made from an assumed starting point,
without some proof of its being a true line, located and fixed
by the original survey. 103 (1).
2. The only practical way of ascertaining the true line is by
a survey made from some fixed starting point, -some monu-
ment placed under the original government survey, and, if
such monuments are no longer discoverable, the question is,
where were they located? And fences of long standing, erected
upon what parties have called the "true line," and up to
which they have improved and cultivated, are better evidence
of the true line than surveys made after the monuments
have disappeared. Id. (2).
1. A supervisor, when acting as assessor, is a quasi judicial
officer, and in the exercise of his judicial duties he cannot
be held liable in a suit at law for errors he may have made,
but the injured party must resort to some direct proceeding
for their correction. 261 (1).
2. A supervisor is not bound to take the statements of any
person as to the ownership of land, nor as to the person to
whom it should be assessed, but may exercise his best judg-
ment in determining these questions. Id. (2).
3. A person who claims that a supervisor has wrongfully
refused to assess land to him, which he claims to own, and
fails to present the matter to the board of review for cor-
rection, cannot maintain a suit against the supervisor for
such refusal, even if he could otherwise maintain his suit.
262 (3).
4. How. Stat. § 5090, which provides that where school taxes
are not assessed at the proper time they shall be assessed the
succeeding year, applies to a case where the district board
fails to certify a tax to the township clerk in time for cer-
tification to the supervisor for assessment, which statute is
in the very line of an uniformity of taxation.. 271 (2).
5. Rules of taxation may at times operate harshly, but courts
cannot for that reason declare them void if a proper exercise
of taxing power. Id. (3).
6. A liquor tax, paid before the approval of the required bond,
cannot be recovered back from the township receiving it.
355.
7. The illegal assessment to the owner of the legal title of land
dedicated to a city for public purposes, and its purchase by.
the city at a sale to satisfy the taxes levied under such
assessment, will not estop the city from asserting its claim
to the land, the same being exempt from taxation by statute,
of which fact all persons were bound to take notice. 382 (3).
8. Township bonds, if legally issued, are fixed charges against
the township, and the record of the meeting of the township
board at which money is voted to be raised to pay such bonds
need not show the neglect or refusal of the electors to vote
money for that purpose. 416 (2).
9. The amount of money which the board of supervisors can
authorize a township to raise by tax or loan in any one year
to build or repair roads or bridges under How. Stat. § 483,
subd. 15, is limited to $1,000. Id. (3).
10. There is no presumption that the electors neglected or
refused to vote a sufficient sum to defray the ordinary town-
ship expenses at the annual township meeting, and where
the township board assumes to vote money for that purpose,
such neglect or refusal must be affirmatively shown by its
record (Harding v. Bader, 75 Mich. 316, head-note 2); and
the same rule applies to the voting of a money tax for high-
way purposes, under How. Stat. § 1328. Id. (4).
11. The title to personal property in possession of an officer at
the time fixed by law for its assessment, under an attach-
ment in favor of the owner's creditors, remains in such owner,
to whom the property is legally assessable. 446 (1).
12. Subdivision 1 of section 11 of Act No. 153, Laws of 1885,
which provides for the assessment of personal property to the
owner in a township in which he is not an inhabitant if he
hires or occupies a store, etc., in such township for use in
connection with such property, was only intended to meet
that class of cases where non-residents of a township carried
on a business there, and had their personal property and
effects stored in such township for the purpose of such busi-
ness. Id. (2).
See EVIDENCE (20); LIQUOR TRAFFIC; MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS
(4); SALE (4); PLANK-ROAD COMPANIES.
TENANCY AT WILL-See LANDLORD AND TENANT.
TITLE-See SALE (4); STATUTE OF FRAUDS (4); TAXES (11).
TOLL-GATE-See PLANK-ROAD COMPANIES.
TOWNSHIP-See POOR PERSONS.
Where the record of a meeting of the township board shows
that two justices of the peace were present and acting, the
presumption is that they were entitled to sit as members, and
the record need not show that they were the two justices
whose terms of office would soonest expire. 416 (1).
An order for the transfer of a cause on account of the disqual-
ification of the circuit judge, to a county in which neither of
the parties or their attorneys resides, is not warranted by
TRANSFER OF CAUSE-Continued.
How. Stat. §§ 6499-6502, unless made by agreement of the
parties. 116.
TRESPASS UPON LANDS-See ACTION; PLEADING (7).
WAIVER-See DEMAND (3); PLEADING (5, 6).
1. Under a life-lease given by a grantee to his grantor, pro-
viding that the lessee should have as full and complete con-
trol of the premises (160 acres of land, with nine acres of
standing timber thereon) as though the conveyance had not
been made, the lessee has much of the character of a tenant
in fee, but he cannot destroy the inheritance. He may take
the timber for his own use, and do all those acts which a
prudent tenant in fee would do; but he will not be permitted
to entirely strip the land of timber, and convert it into lum-
ber, and sell it away from the inheritance. 332 (1).
2. Chapter 271, How. Stat., giving a right of action at law
for waste, does not deprive the court of chancery of juris-
diction in proceedings to restrain threatened waste. Id. (2).
A will is attested and subscribed in the presence of the testa-
trix, within the meaning of How. Stat. § 5789, where the
witnesses subscribe their names in another room, but within
the hearing, knowledge, and understanding of the testatrix,
after which they return to her room, and the will, consisting
of one sheet of paper, is read over, and the signatures of the
witnesses shown, to the testatrix, who is informed by the
witnesses, or by one of them in the presence of the other,
that the will had been signed by them, and who replies that
"it is all right, and just as I want it; the witnesses and
everything are all right." 581.
|