ABSTRACTS OF RECENT DECISIONS

The abstracts consist merely of summaries of the facts and holdings of recent cases and are distinguished from the notes by the absence of discussion

ABSTRACTS

The abstracts consist merely of summaries of the facts and holdings of recent cases and are distinguished from the notes by the absence of discussion

Secured Obligations

The scope of this discussion probably is best defined in the words of the act itself as appear in section 302 (1): obligations secured by mortgage, trust deed, or other security in the nature of a mortgage · upon real or personal property, owned by a person in military service at the commencement of the period of military service ; and the problems herein discussed are those which arise under the act in connection with the sale, foreclosure, seizure, or repossession of property which is security for such obligations

ATTORNEYS-PRACTICE OF LAW-PREPARATION OF TAX RETURNS BY LAYMEN

The members of Lowell Bar Association brought a suit in equity to restrain respondents, who are not members of the bar, from holding themselves out as qualified to practice law, and from giving legal advice in respect to liability to pay income taxes and to enjoin the preparation and execution of income tax returns. The facts showed that respondents had advertised, by newspaper and placards, an income tax-service for individuals, including preparation of tax return and counsel in handling income tax matters should any develop after the official audit by the U.S. Tax Department. The lower court enjoined respondents from advertising their tax service and from making out income tax returns as a regular occupation. Respondents appeal. Held, injunction modified so as to permit respondents to prepare income tax returns, which according to their customary practice were of the least difficult kind, but affirmed in respect to respondents\u27 undertaking to provide legal counsel in the event of tax disputes with the government. Lowell Bar Assn. v. Loeb, (Mass. 1943) 52 N.E. (2d) 27

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-DUE PROCESS-PUNISHMENT FOR ACTS DONE WITHOUT CONSCIOUSNESS OF WRONGDOING

In the recent case of United States v. Dotterweich the United States Supreme Court (four justices dissenting) held the president of a drug jobbing company personally liable for violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act on informations charging misbranding and adulteration of products. There was no evidence of any personal guilt on the defendant\u27s part, nor was there any proof or claim that he ever knew of the introduction into commerce of the adulterated drugs in question. The disagreement among the members of the court was essentially one of statutory interpretation, but in view of the fact that defendant\u27s liability is vicarious in nature and is without knowledge or consciousness of any wrongdoing, we properly might give some consideration to the propriety and constitutional justification for the imposition of such liability

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - COURT OF CLAIMS - SEPARATION OF POWERS

Plaintiff sued the United States Government for breach of its contract for construction of a water supply tunnel, and in 1932 recovered judgment in the court of claims for approximately one-seventh of the amount sued for. Motions for new trial were denied and the Supreme Court refused to grant a writ of certiorari. In 1942 plaintiff secured the passage of a special act of Congress conferring jurisdiction on the court of claims to render judgment on plaintiff\u27s claim in accordance with the mode of calculation set forth therein, waiving any defenses which the government might have in respect thereto, and further providing that a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court for a review of the judgment rendered might be applied for. Plaintiff thereupon filed a petition to recover additional compensation under the contract in accordance with the special act of Congress. Held, the special act of Congress giving the court of claims jurisdiction to hear a claim against the United States, notwithstanding previous determination by that court, and directing that court how to decide the case was unconstitutional as an invasion of the prerogatives of the judicial department. Congress cannot by its legislative act decide a law suit pending in the court of claims, nor does Congress have power to set aside a judgment of that court and direct a contrary decision. Pope v. United States, (Ct. Cl. 1944) 53 F. Supp. 570

Gedanken Worlds without Higgs: QCD-Induced Electroweak Symmetry Breaking

To illuminate how electroweak symmetry breaking shapes the physical world, we investigate toy models in which no Higgs fields or other constructs are introduced to induce spontaneous symmetry breaking. Two models incorporate the standard SU(3)_c x SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y gauge symmetry and fermion content similar to that of the standard model. The first class--like the standard electroweak theory--contains no bare mass terms, so the spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry within quantum chromodynamics is the only source of electroweak symmetry breaking. The second class adds bare fermion masses sufficiently small that QCD remains the dominant source of electroweak symmetry breaking and the model can serve as a well-behaved low-energy effective field theory to energies somewhat above the hadronic scale. A third class of models is based on the left-right--symmetric SU(3)_c x SU(2)_L x SU(2)_R x U(1)_{B-L} gauge group. In a fourth class of models, built on SU(4)_{PS} x SU(2)_L x SU(2)_R gauge symmetry, lepton number is treated as a fourth color. Many interesting characteristics of the models stem from the fact that the effective strength of the weak interactions is much closer to that of the residual strong interactions than in the real world. The Higgs-free models not only provide informative contrasts to the real world, but also lead us to consider intriguing issues in the application of field theory to the real world.Comment: 20 pages, no figures, uses RevTeX; typos correcte

Lifetimes of b-flavoured hadrons

I discuss the heavy quark expansion for the inclusive widths of heavy-light hadrons, which predicts quite well the experimental ratios of B_q meson lifetimes. As for $\Lambda_b$, current determinations of ${\cal O}(m_b^{-3})$ contribution to $\tau(\Lambda_b)$ do not allow to explain the small measured value of $\tau(\Lambda_b)/\tau(B_d)$. As a final topic, I discuss the implications of the measurement of the B_c lifetime.Comment: LaTex, 4 pages, 1 figure. Talk given at the "U.K. Phenomenology Workshop on Heavy Flavours and CP violation" Durham, 17-22 Sep. 2000 (Mixing and Lifetimes Working Group