NEGLIGENCE-PROXIMATE CAUSE-INTERVENING ACT OF CHILD

In the race track arena of defendant\u27s fairground there were nightly fireworks displays. Three bombs, similar in appearance to ordinary firecrackers, but containing explosives more powerful than gunpowder, had failed to explode on the previous night. They had been wrapped in paper, placed in open wooden crates alongside three exposed bombs, and left unguarded in the arena firing area which was accessible to and traversed by the general public. The plaintiff\u27s older brother, aged thirteen, together with other children between twelve and fifteen years old, had climbed over a fence into the fairgrounds. In compassing the fairgrounds he discovered the bombs, took the defective ones, gave two to his friends and carried one to his home two miles away. The next morning while being handled by the infant plaintiff, who was seven years of age, the bomb exploded injuring him seriously. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, and judgment was entered thereon. On appeal, held, affirmed. The intervening acts of the plaintiff\u27s brother did not as a matter of law break the causal chain. Two judges dissented. Kingsland v. Erie County Agr. Soc., 298 N.Y. 409, 84 N.E. (2d) 38 (1949)

POWER OF APPOINTMENT-VALIDITY OF EXERCISE SUBJECT TO A NO-CONTEST CLAUSE

The decedent received under the will of her husband a general testamentary power of appointment over a remainder interest. In her will she exercised the power, providing that any person benefiting under the power who in any manner should institute, encourage, or participate in proceedings for the avoidance of any part of the will should forfeit his right to any benefits from the power or from her estate. Held, exercise of a general testamentary power of appointment subject to a no-contest forfeiture provision is valid. Marx v. Rice, 1 N.J. 584, 65 A. (2d) 48 (1949)

Variability of Active Galactic Nuclei from the Optical to X-ray Regions

Some progress in understanding AGN variability is reviewed. Reprocessing of X-ray radiation to produce significant amounts of longer-wavelength continua seems to be ruled out. In some objects where there has been correlated X-ray and optical variability, the amplitude of the optical variability has exceeded the amplitude of X-ray variability. We suggest that accelerated particles striking material could be linking X-ray and optical variability (as in activity in the solar chromosphere). Beaming effects could be significant in all types of AGN. The diversity in optical/X-ray relationships at different times in the same object, and between different objects, might be explained by changes in geometry and directions of motion relative to our line of sight. Linear shot-noise models of the variability are ruled out; instead there must be large-scale organization of variability. Variability occurs on light-crossing timescales rather than viscous timescales and this probably rules out the standard Shakura-Sunyaev accretion disk. Radio-loud and radio-quiet AGNs have similar continuum shapes and similar variability properties. This suggests similar continuum origins and variability mechanisms. Despite their extreme X-ray variability, narrow-line Seyfert 1s (NLS1s) do not show extreme optical variability.Comment: Invited talk given at Euro Asian Astronomical Society meeting in Moscow, June 2002. 20 pages, 4 figures. References update

CONFLICT OF LAWS-LIMITATION OF ACTIONS-STATUTE OF FORUM SHORTER THAN LIMITATION IN FOREIGN STATUTE CREATING CAUSE OF ACTION

Action was brought in a United States district court of Pennsylvania to recover for a death by wrongful act which occurred in Minnesota. The action was brought within the time limit of two years allowed by the Minnesota statute, but after the period of one year designated by the Pennsylvania statute for commencement of such action. The district court gave judgment for the defendant. On appeal, held, affirmed. Federal courts in diversity cases are bound by state rules of conflict of laws, and consequently the Pennsylvania rule that no action for wrongful death can be brought in Pennsylvania after the one year period of its statute controls, irrespective of the duration of the right under the statute creating it. Hughes v. Lucker, (3d Cir. 1949) 174 F. (2d) 285

LIBEL AND SLANDER-NECESSITY FOR ALLEGATION OF SPECIAL DAMAGES FOR DEFAMATION NOT SHOWN LIBELOUS PER SE

Defendants, the deacons, pastor, and clerk of the Gallatin Baptist Church, published to the church membership a letter to the plaintiff, an ordained minister of the Baptist Church, and a member of the Gallatin Church, requiring him to report and show cause why the hand of fellowship should not be withdrawn from him because of heresy. The plaintiff\u27s complaint for libel set out the letter published, but a motion to dismiss for failure to state a cause of action was sustained by the circuit court on the grounds that there was no allegation of special damages to the plaintiff. On appeal, held, affirmed. In the absence of an allegation of some special loss or injury, the charge of heresy in a church disciplinary proceeding is not libelous and actionable per se. Creekmore v. Runnels, et al., 359 Mo. 1020, 224 S.W. (2d) 1007 (1949)

REAL PROPERTY-TAX SALES-TITLE OF PURCHASER OF LAND SUBJECT TO EASEMENT

In an action to enforce a lien for taxes on real property, the defendants counterclaimed, asking for a declaratory judgment as to whether a sale of real property for nonpayment of taxes extinguishes an easement with which the property is burdened. The easement was appurtenant to an adjoining parcel of land. Held, an easement appurtenant is not extinguished by sale of the servient tenement for nonpayment of taxes. District of Columbia v. Capital Mortgage & Title Co., Inc., (D.C. Cir. 1949) 84 F. Supp. 788

Spectrophotometry of 2 complete samples of flat radio spectrum quasars

Spectrophotometry of two complete samples of flat-spectrum radio quasars show that for these objects there is a strong correlation between the equivalent width of the CIV wavelength 1550 emission line and the luminosity of the underlying continuum. Assuming Friedmann cosmologies, the scatter in this correlation is a minimum for q (sub o) is approximately 1. Alternatively, luminosity evolution can be invoked to give compact distributions for q (sub o) is approximately 0 models. A sample of Seyfert galaxies observed with IUE shows that despite some dispersion the average equivalent width of CIV wavelength 1550 in Seyfert galaxies is independent of the underlying continuum luminosity. New redshifts for 4 quasars are given