Experiential Education Through the Vis Moot

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Descent and Distribution - Effect of Advancements, Debts and Releases When Expectant Distributee Predeceases Intestate

The law of advancements is part of the law of intestate succession. But the right of retainer, which allows an offset against a distributee\u27s share of the estate for a debt owed by the distributee to the decedent, is merely a method of debt collection and historically has not been considered as a part of the law of inheritance. For this and other reasons, the law applicable to advancements in this situation is better treated separately from that concerning debts of predeceased expectant heirs. There are also sufficient differences between the treatment given a release and that of either an advancement or a debt to warrant separate discussion

Corporations - Reclassification of Securities as a Purchase Under Section 16 (B) of the Securities and Exchange Act

Plaintiff, a minority stockholder in the Old Town Corporation, brought action on behalf of the corporation to recover alleged shortswing profits made by defendants, who were officers, directors and large shareholders of Old Town, on the sale of 45.9 percent of the outstanding stock of the corporation. The corporation had, with the approval of 78 percent of the owners in interest, reclassified the 320,402 outstanding shares of $5 par common stock as 320,402 shares of$1 par common and 320,402 shares of 40¢ cumulative preferred stock of $7 par value. This reclassification was done for the frank purpose of increasing the market value and salability of defendants\u27 interest so that the defendants could sell their holdings. Within six months of the reclassification defendants sold both the new common stock and the preferred stock. Held, the reclassification was not a purchase so as to bring it within the scope of section 16(b) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. Roberts v. Eaton, (2d Cir. 1954) 212 F. (2d) 82, cert. den. 348 U.S. 827, 75 S.Ct. 44 (1954)

Corporations - Securities Regulation - Material Misstatements of Omissions of Fact Under the Securities Act of 1933

Plaintiff sued for rescission of his purchase of stock in a corporation under section 12 (2) of the Securities Act of 1933 (hereafter referred to as the act) alleging a material misleading statement of fact in the prospectus. The alleged misstatement was that defendant was an underwriter (as defined pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933 as amended). No further explanation of defendant\u27s status and consequent obligation was made in the prospectus. Defendant had agreed in fact to be only a best efforts underwriter. The trial court found that the statement was misleading and material. On appeal, held, affirmed. Defendant\u27s statement conveyed the impression that he had made a firm commitment to dispose of the entire issue. Dale v. Rosenfeld, (2d Cir. 1956) 229 F. (2d) 855

Patents - Licensing - Legality of Grant-Back Clauses

There is no authoritative definition of the term patent grant-back. It has been defined as a clause in a patent license which provides for license or assignment to the licensor of any improvement patented by the licensee in the products or processes of the licensed patent. In litigated cases grant-back clauses usually appear either in basic patent licenses or in licenses of the products or processes of an industry which the licensor dominates through control of a multitude of overlapping patents

Using Photometrically-Derived Properties of Young Stars to Refine TESS's Transiting Young Planet Survey Completeness

The demographics of young exoplanets can shed light onto their formation and evolution processes. Exoplanet properties are derived from the properties of their host stars. As such, it is important to accurately characterize the host stars since any systematic biases in their derivation can negatively impact the derivation of planetary properties. Here, we present a uniform catalog of photometrically-derived stellar effective temperatures, luminosities, radii, and masses for 4,865 young (<1 Gyr) stars in 31 nearby clusters and moving groups within 200 pc. We compared our photometrically-derived properties to a subset of those derived from spectra, and found them to be in good agreement. We also investigated the effect of stellar properties on the detection efficiency of transiting short-period young planets with TESS as calculated in Fernandes et al. 2022, and found an overall increase in the detection efficiency when the new photometrically derived properties were taken into account. Most notably, there is a 1.5 times increase in the detection efficiencies for sub-Neptunes/Neptunes (1.8-6 Re) implying that, for our sample of young stars, better characterization of host star properties can lead to the recovery of more small transiting planets. Our homogeneously derived catalog of updated stellar properties, along with a larger unbiased stellar sample and more detections of young planets, will be a crucial input to the accurate estimation of the occurrence rates of young short-period planets.Comment: 16 pages, 5 Figures, 3 Tables. Revised and resubmitted to AJ after a favorable referee report. Co-First Author

Deep-Sea Origin and In-Situ Diversification of Chrysogorgiid Octocorals

The diversity, ubiquity and prevalence in deep waters of the octocoral family Chrysogorgiidae Verrill, 1883 make it noteworthy as a model system to study radiation and diversification in the deep sea. Here we provide the first comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the Chrysogorgiidae, and compare phylogeny and depth distribution. Phylogenetic relationships among 10 of 14 currently-described Chrysogorgiidae genera were inferred based on mitochondrial (mtMutS, cox1) and nuclear (18S) markers. Bathymetric distribution was estimated from multiple sources, including museum records, a literature review, and our own sampling records (985 stations, 2345 specimens). Genetic analyses suggest that the Chrysogorgiidae as currently described is a polyphyletic family. Shallow-water genera, and two of eight deep-water genera, appear more closely related to other octocoral families than to the remainder of the monophyletic, deep-water chrysogorgiid genera. Monophyletic chrysogorgiids are composed of strictly (Iridogorgia Verrill, 1883, Metallogorgia Versluys, 1902, Radicipes Stearns, 1883, Pseudochrysogorgia Pante & France, 2010) and predominantly (Chrysogorgia Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864) deep-sea genera that diversified in situ. This group is sister to gold corals (Primnoidae Milne Edwards, 1857) and deep-sea bamboo corals (Keratoisidinae Gray, 1870), whose diversity also peaks in the deep sea. Nine species of Chrysogorgia that were described from depths shallower than 200 m, and mtMutS haplotypes sequenced from specimens sampled as shallow as 101 m, suggest a shallow-water emergence of some Chrysogorgia species