Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 August 1899 — LAW AS INTERPRETED. [ARTICLE]

LAW AS INTERPRETED.

The power of a municipality to collect a tax upon property or business so situated that it can not receive any protection or benefit from it is denied in Kaysville v. Ellison (Utah), 43 L. R. A. 81. where a city undertook to compel a merchant to obtain a license for doing business at a little place about two miles out of the city, though within its territory, but which received no police protection from the city. The negligence of parents, though not imputed to a minor child who is injured in consequence of the negligence pf a third person, is held, in Ploof vs. Burlington Traction Company (Vt.), 43 L. R. A. 108, to preclude the parents themselves from recovering for the loss of the child in such case, under a statute which gives a right of action to the personal representative of the child for the benefit of the next of kin.

An important limitation on the doctrine that the death of the principal revokes an agency is shown in Dewees vs. Muff (Neb.), 42 L. R. A. 789, in which it is held that payment of a negotiable note indorsed by the payee in blank, if made to the payee’s agent, who is in possession of the note, will discharge the maker, although the payment was made after the death of tho principal, but without notice of his death. The right of a state under the federal constitution to provide for a Jury of less than twelve men is sustained in State vs. Bates (Utah), 43 L. R. A. 33, in which the provision of the State constitution for a jury of eight was sustained. This case also held that such a condition was not ex post facto as applied to prior offenses, but on this point it has been- overruled by the United States Supreme Court in Thompson vs. Utah, 170 U.S 343, 42, L. ed. 1,001. The case is accompanied by an exceedingly elaborate note reviewing all the authorities on the subject Of the number and agreement of jurors required to constitute a valid verdict.