Legal Decisions

JÁability for Husband's JDebts. - The case of Citizens' National Bank against Green, recently decided in the Supreme Court of North Carolina, suggests that "the emancipation of woman" is not complete in that State; at least, that her husband cannot turn property over to her and so free it from liability for his debts : " A homestead in land tothe máximum valué allowed by law had been allotted to G., who was insolvent. From the proceeds of a erop grown on the land he loaned his wife $300, with which she purchased other land, taking the deed in her own name. Held, that the money advanced to the wife was still the husband's money, and the land purchased therewith his, and that such land was not exempt from his debts. The circumstance that property is the product of or increase from exempt property does not lender it exempt." The Albany Law Journal flnds some interesting cases in the latest volume of "American Reports." The following are among them: A Son Insuring His Father's Ufe. - In Guardian Mutual Life Insurance Company agiinst Hogan (Illinois) it is held that the relation of father and son does not give the son an insurable interest in the life of the father, unless the son has a well-founded or reasonable expectation of some pecuniary advantage to be derived from the contirraance of the life of the father. On the other hand, in Eeserve Mutual Insurance Company against Kane (Pennsylvania) it is held that the sou has an insurable interest in the life of his father, expccia)ly where the son is liablc, under the Poor law, for tho support of his father. Dog Law. - In Helsrodt against Hackett (Michigan) a statute authorized "any person" to kill a dog going at large, and not licensed or oollared. In an action to recover for the killing of plaintiff's dog by defendant's dog, held no defense that plaintiff's dog was not licensed and collared, as defendant's dog was not a "person." Weknowthe converse of this to be urged once. Sidney Smith, when solicited by Landseer, the famous animal painter, to sit to hitn for his portrait, exclaimed : "Is thy servant a dog, that he sholl do this thing ?" In Rider against White (New York) it is laid down that one injured by the bite of a dog may recover damages of the owner on prooi' that the dog was vicious, and that the owner knew it, without showing that it had ever bitten any one. Distinctions of Hace and Color. - In State against Ross the court adjudged that where a white woman left the State to be married in another State to a negro resident thereof, but not intending to return, but was so married and afterward did return, the marriage was lawful in North Carolina. In State against Kennedy, where a negro man and a white woman lelt the State to be married, with intent to evade the law and to return, and were married in another State where such marriages were lawful, and did return, the marriage was held invalid in North Carolina. In Mount Moriah Cemetery Association against Commonwealth (Pennsylvania) it is held that a by-law of a cemetery association prohibiting the burial of negroes therein is void as to persons who were lot owners when the by-laws were passed. JudgeGordon says: "In a sound code of ethics this prejudice never had a regpectable standing, for it was but the child of an abnormal, servile system that was entitled to no man's respect outside of the country and laws which maintained it. But at this time, when this prejudice is under the ban of recent constitutional and legal provisvion, expressly-designed for its auppression and extinction, it is scarcely to be expected that we can be induced to indorse its respectability or to encourage it to linger around the halls of justice,' Jndge Sharswood said, "I dissent from this judgment and opinión." Long Opinión. - New Hampshire still continúes the banner State for long opinions. Here in Hardy against Merrill we have twenty-two pages to demónstrate that non-professional witnesses may testify to their opinión of a testator's sanity, founding their opinión upon their knowledge and observation of his appearance and condnet. A good deal of the opinión was omitted, too. Horses and " the Tender Passion." - In McKee against Nelson (New Hampshire) the court says : " There are a thousand nameless things indicating the existence and degree of the tender passion which language cannot speeify; precisely what Judge Bellows, in Whittier against Franklin, said of the frightened mental condition and sulky disposition of a horse." A Manía for Suicide. Suicide has become an incident of such frequent occurrence in this city that it has almost ceased to excite surprise, and, consequently, we have in a great measure come tü regard the event as part of the ordinary course of things. In this regard, however, we are far behind San Francisco. In that city a suicidal mania prevails to an extent that is positively startling. Tho following extract from the Chronicle, complied from the official records, reveáis a horrible tendeney to self-destruction: Fiscal Year. Suicides. Fiscal Year. Suiciden. 1860 31 1870 47 1861 30 1871 51 1862 13 1878 37 1863 18 1873 38 1861 20 1874 61 1865 17 1875 64 1866 24 1876 60 1H67 29 1877 76 1968 28 1878 107 1869 39 The number of suicides in San Francisco is equal to that in Philadelphia, which has a population two or three times as numerous. In New York, which, except San Francisco, shows the heaviest inortality from suicide of nny American city, the number of deaths from this cause in 1876 was 150 against 29,102 deaths from all other causes, or 1 to 194; in 1877 the suicides were 148 against 20,055 deaths, or 1 to 176. In San Francisco the proportion of suicides to all deaths in 1875 '76 was as 1 to 80, and in 1876-77 as 1 to 81. In 1877-78 it will be much greater. The ratio of suicides to all deaths is already more than twice as great in San Francisco as New York, and will this year be nearly thrice as gieat, while the ratio to population is still more imfavorable. Three conclusions are fully warranted by these f acts: First, suicida! death is more frequent m San Francisco tljan anywhere else in the civilized WQyJfl, and more frequent pow than at rwty "previouij date. Second, it is accompanied by a similar pre-eminence and development of insanity, wbich appears to prove that both have a common origin. Third, this reinarkable prevalence of insanity and suicide, and the inórense of both in late years, corresponds with that development of stock-gambling and jobbing whioh, if allowed to proceed much further, -srill foroe every dollar of capital out of the Staie, reduce the masses ot the people ío despair and utterlv