CHARITIES - INDEFINITENESS - CONSTRUCTION OF STATUTE VALIDATING INDEFINITE TRUSTS FOR CHARITY

The testator\u27s will contained a bequest of $10,000 to executors to be held in trust by them and paid out to such corporations or associations of individuals as will in their judgment best promote the cause of preventing cruelty to animals in the vicinity of Asheville. A state statute provided that no charitable trust should be declared invalid by reason of any indefiniteness or uncertainty of the object or beneficiaries of the trust or because the trustee is given discretionary power in the selection and designation of the objects or beneficiaries of the trust or in carrying out the purpose thereof. Held, that the trust is void for indefiniteness of purpose and the statute does not purport to cure that defect. Woodcock v. Wachovia Bank & Trust Co., 214 N. C. 224, 199 S. E. 20 (1938)

CORPORATIONS - CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH SETTLEMENT OF CORPORATE CLAIMS WILL NOT PREVENT A STOCKHOLDER\u27S DERIVATIVE SUIT ON SUCH CLAIMS

In the recent case of United States Lines, Inc. v. United States Lines Co. the plaintiff was a minority stockholder in United States Lines, Inc., whose only asset was a minority stock interest in the United States Lines Company. A majority of the stock in both companies was owned by the International Mercantile Marine Company. An action originally brought by the United States Lines, Inc., but settled out of court, was sought to be continued by the plaintiff, who alleged: (1) that the Marine Company and its subsidiaries had entered into fraudulent contracts with the United States Lines Company and had made excessive charges, amounting to several million dollars, payable to the Marine Company and its subsidiaries; (2) that a settlement was approved by the majority (consisting of shares owned by the Marine Company) of United States Lines, Inc., whereby the suit was to be dismissed and the shareholders of United States Lines, Inc. were given the option of trading their shares for junior preferred stock of United States Lines Company; (3) that the expense was to be borne by the Marine Company and it was to pay the debts of United States Lines, Inc., amounting to about $40,000. The court held that the plaintiff might continue the derivative action because it did not clearly appear that the settlement was advantageous to the corporation and its stockholders

CONTRACTS - ANTICIPATORY BREACH - RIGHT TO RECOVER IN ADVANCE ON A UNILATERAL OBLIGATION TO PAY MONEY

Plaintiff brought suit on an accident insurance policy. He alleged that the defendant insurer wholly repudiated the policy and informed plaintiff that it would not in any event pay him the monthly indemnity according to the terms of the policy even though a doctor of its own choice advised that the plaintiff was permanently disabled. Held, that under the Texas law, when one who is obligated by contract to make money payments to another absolutely repudiates and abandons the obligation without just excuse, the obligee is entitled to maintain his action in damages at once for the entire breach. Williams v. Mutual Benefit Health & Accident Assn., (C. C. A. 5th, 1938) 100 F. (2d) 264

ADVERSE POSSESSION - SEVERANCE OF MINERALS AND SURFACE - ADVERSE POSSESSION AS AFFECTING TITLE TO THE MINERALS

The land in question was set aside by the state for school purposes. For some time prior to 1881 one Bailey had been in possession. At that time he and his children, to whom he had deeded parts of the land, conveyed the mineral interests to a grantee from whom plaintiff claims. At the time of the conveyance the evidence was insufficient to show title by adverse possession in Bailey. Bailey and his grantees, from whom defendant claims, remained in possession until this action was brought. The limitation ceased running against the state by an act of the legislature at which time, the evidence shows, the grantees of Bailey had acquired title by adverse possession of the surface. In 1925 the owners of the surface received a patent from the state. Plaintiff had never worked the minerals and there had never been any actual intrusion on the minerals until defendant commenced to mine shortly before the present action was brought. Held, that when there is a conveyance of the minerals, with no physical severance of the minerals by anyone, the grantor and his privies will presumptively continue to hold possession of the minerals for the grantee and his privies so that possession of the surface and minerals for the requisite number of years will ripen title in each as against third parties. Tennessee Coal I. & R. R. v. Brewer, (C. C. A. 5th, 1937) 92 F. (2d) 804

BILLS AND NOTES - ALTERATION -ADDITIONAL MAKER AS A MATERIAL ALTERATION

Defendant A made and delivered the note in question in 1921, payable in two years. In 1931 after the death of the payee, the note was duly assigned to plaintiff. When plaintiff received the note, the signature of defendant B appeared below that of A. The court found that B\u27s signature had been added by someone unknown claiming a benefit under the note after delivery and for the purpose of giving a greater security to the note and that neither defendant authorized or had any knowledge of the addition of B\u27s name. The plaintiff sued both defendants as co-makers of the note. Held, that the plaintiff by her pleading had elected to treat the forged signature as that of a genuine maker and that the addition of a maker is a material alteration within the meaning of the Uniform Negotiable Instruments Act so that it is avoided by the maker as to one not a holder in due course, Stacey v. Fritzler, (Ore. 1938) 84 P. (2d) 97, 499

NEGLIGENCE - NEGLIGENT FAILURE OF PRINCIPAL TO PROMULGATE ADEQUATE REGULATIONS FOR SAFE DISCHARGE OF PUPILS

The infant plaintiff, during the dismissal of her class, was pushed or thrown from an exterior stairway by a fellow pupil. As a consequence she sustained personal injuries. She sued the city, the board of education, the principal of the school, and the teacher. Held, that whether the principal was negligent in failing to promulgate more adequate regulations for the safe discharge of the pupils was a question of fact for the jury. Thompson v. Board of Education of City of New York, 255 App. Div. 786, 6 N. Y. S. (2d) 921 (1938)

STATUTE OF FRAUDS - ESTOPPEL AT LAW AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR PART PERFORMANCE IN EQUITY

In 1930, plaintiff, as administratrix, mortgaged real estate to defendant. In 1933, plaintiff acquiesced in a foreclosure by defendant in pursuance of an oral agreement between the parties whereby it was understood that defendant would convey the land to plaintiff individually to hold for herself and others, plaintiff to give to defendant another mortgage for the same amount and to pay the costs. Defendant obtained title by foreclosure in March, 1934. Extensive repairs and improvements were made by plaintiff between September, 1934 and the spring of 1935. In October, 1934, defendant gave notice to plaintiff that it would not be bound by the contract and that part of the land had been sold. Plaintiff retained possession until November, 1935. This action was brought by plaintiff to recover damages for breach of the oral contract. Held, that the doctrine of estoppel at law is co-extensive with that of part performance in equity and that, by reason of plaintiff\u27s possession and improvements on the land which was the subject of the oral contract, defendant is estopped to assert the statute of frauds. Wolfe v. Wallingford, (Conn. 1938) 1A. (2d) 146

Household saving motives and socio-demographic factors

This research was inspired by broad discussions on the motives for saving. We examine the relationship between the motives for saving and the socio-economic characteristics of households in the eurozone, Croatia, Hungary and Poland, such as: the social type of the household, gender of the reference person (RP), their age, level of education, marital status, taking into account the differences in the value of these households’ financial assets. For this purpose, we used data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey. The logit model was used to analyse with maximum likelihood estimation the different saving motives and country groups. We also used a Poisson model for a count variable. The results demonstrate that the social type of households is crucial in determining their motives for saving, particularly for child education and leaving an inheritance. Additionally, we identify differences in the number and sets of saving motives between households from countries with both high and low levels of financial assets. In countries where households are less well-off, the motive for saving to purchase residential estate is of greater importance. Moreover, households with more financial assets – mainly from the countries of Western Europe – show more concern about saving for old age and investment.This research was inspired by broad discussions on the motives for saving. We examine the relationship between the motives for saving and the socio-economic characteristics of households in the eurozone, Croatia, Hungary and Poland, such as: the social type of the household, gender of the reference person (RP), their age, level of education, marital status, taking into account the differences in the value of these households’ financial assets. For this purpose, we used data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey. The logit model was used to analyse with maximum likelihood estimation the different saving motives and country groups. We also used a Poisson model for a count variable. The results demonstrate that the social type of households is crucial in determining their motives for saving, particularly for child education and leaving an inheritance. Additionally, we identify differences in the number and sets of saving motives between households from countries with both high and low levels of financial assets. In countries where households are less well-off, the motive for saving to purchase residential estate is of greater importance. Moreover, households with more financial assets – mainly from the countries of Western Europe – show more concern about saving for old age and investment

Cell Detection with Star-convex Polygons

Automatic detection and segmentation of cells and nuclei in microscopy images is important for many biological applications. Recent successful learning-based approaches include per-pixel cell segmentation with subsequent pixel grouping, or localization of bounding boxes with subsequent shape refinement. In situations of crowded cells, these can be prone to segmentation errors, such as falsely merging bordering cells or suppressing valid cell instances due to the poor approximation with bounding boxes. To overcome these issues, we propose to localize cell nuclei via star-convex polygons, which are a much better shape representation as compared to bounding boxes and thus do not need shape refinement. To that end, we train a convolutional neural network that predicts for every pixel a polygon for the cell instance at that position. We demonstrate the merits of our approach on two synthetic datasets and one challenging dataset of diverse fluorescence microscopy images.Comment: Conference paper at MICCAI 201

Reconstruction of Marine Fisheries Catches for the Republic of Malta (1950-2010)

 The marine fisheries catches of Malta were reconstructed for the period 1950-2014, including for reported and previously unreported commercial large- and small-scale catches, unmonitored fisheries catches, i.e., subsistence and recreational fisheries, as well as major discards. The present study updates and improves a previous catch reconstruction for Malta for the 1950-2010 time period. Reconstructed marine fisheries catches for Malta are nearly 1.3 times the official landings reported by the FAO and national authorities on behalf of Malta, increasing from around 1,200 t·year-1 in the 1950s to 3,700 t·year-1 in the 2010s. The discrepancy between reported and reconstructed total catches is mostly due to the subsistence catches estimated, which here consist exclusively of on-board consumption and take-home catch of commercial fishers. While the Maltese fisheries statistical system includes procedures to estimate ‘unmonitored’ commercial landings, this contribution documents that it would be beneficial to also account for non-commercial catches