LANDLORD AND TENANT - ASSUMPTION OF RISK OF DEFECTIVE STAIRWAY IN LANDLORD\u27S CONTROL BY EMPLOYEE OF TENANT

Plaintiff, employee of a tenant in defendant\u27s building, fell and suffered injuries while using a stairway designed for the use of the tenants and their employees. The stairway was in the control of the landlord, and had long been in a defective condition. It was the only means of ingress and egress. In the plaintiff\u27s action against the landlord the trial court granted a non-suit on the ground that plaintiff had voluntarily assumed the risk of the defective stairway by her use thereof. Plaintiff appealed. Held, the question whether the plaintiff had voluntarily assumed the risk is a question for the jury. Di Geso v. Franklin Washington Trust Co., (N. J. L. 1939) 4 A. (2d) 9

SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS - SCHOOL ELECTIONS - TAX LIMITATIONS - BOND ISSUES - QUALIFICATIONS OF ELECTORS UNDER MICHIGAN CONSTITUTION

The plaintiff submitted to the school district electors two propositions: (1) that of increasing the tax limitation from 1.5 per cent to 1.802 per cent of the assessed valuation, and (2) that of bonding the school district in the amount of $182,600 for improvements. Both at the registration of voters, and at the election, the qualifications of the electors were tested by the school code. On the tax limitation question, all registered school electors were permitted to vote. On the question of the bond issue, only those registered electors who owned property assessed for school taxes in the district were permitted to vote. The defendant, president of the school board, refused to issue the bonds on the ground that persons entitled to vote on this issue were wrongfully deprived of their vote. The plaintiff sought mandamus to compel the defendant to execute the bonds. Held, mandamus denied. The qualifications of the electors should have been tested by the provisions of the constitution, and not by the school code. Potter, J., concurred as to the question of the tax limitation, but as to the bonds held that the school code should govern. McAllister, J., dissented, holding that the school code should have governed as to both the tax limitation question and the question of the bond issue, and that the election as held was proper. Dearborn Township School District v. Cahow, 289 Mich. 643, 287 N. W. 484 (1939)

PUBLIC UTILITIES - MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS - POWER OF MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS TO REGULATE PUBLIC UTILITY RATES - FINALITY OF SUCH REGULATION

Since the decision in the case of Munn v. Illinois it has been settled that where property is devoted to a public use and is charged with a public interest, the state may prescribe reasonable rates for such public service. However, the question then arises as to the manner in which the state may prescribe these rates, through what agencies it may act, and the effect on the total picture of rate regulation within a state after there has been action by one of the proper agencies. The answers to these questions depend to a large extent upon the particular statutes in any one state. The extent of this comment is not to offer a compilation of statutes, but rather to present a few illustrative situations, centering for the most part about the actions of municipal corporations in this field

CRIMINAL LAW AND PROCEDURE-FEDERAL COURTS - SUBSTITUTION BY SUPREME COURT OF ITS INFERENCES OF FACT FOR THOSE OF THE STATE COURT

The recent cases of Avery v. Alabama and Chambers v. Florida raise the interesting question of the conclusiveness of a fact finding of a state court upon the United States Supreme Court in a criminal trial when the accused claims that one of his constitutional rights has been impaired, and the holding of the state court is to the effect that on the facts presented such right has not been impaired. The case may arise in the United States Supreme Court in either of two ways. It may come up on appeal from a lower federal court denying a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, as in Moore v. Dempsey. Or it may arise under a writ of certiorari to the state court. Certiorari is the most common method, but even if habeas corpus is used, the Supreme Court does not feel itself bound by res judicata, this being stated in Justice Holmes\u27 dissenting opinion to Frank v. Mangum. The Supreme Court has not seemed inclined to state a basis for its action in reaching a different conclusion upon a given state of facts from that reached by the state court. The scope of this comment is to attempt to determine: (1) the basis of federal interference with the findings of fact of the state court; (2) which portion of that fact picture interests the federal Court; (3) in what situations the federal Court will review the findings of fact made by the state courts; and (4) to what extent the federal Court will substitute its own inferences of fact for those of the state court

EVIDENCE - ADMISSIBILITY OF HOSPITAL RECORDS AS BUSINESS ENTRIES

Following the report of the Commonwealth Fund Committee, in which they advocated the adoption of a model act to govern the admission of business entries as evidence, a comparatively small number of states have enacted legislation of this kind, either the model act or an act of similar nature. The extent of this comment is to show: (1) in what states hospital records have been held not to be admissible as business entries, the states where there has been no decision on the subject, and the states where the status of the rule is in doubt; (2) the states where hospital records have been held to be admissible, and whether they are so by virtue of the common law, or only because of statute; (3) the authentication which is necessary; and (4) the purposes for which the record may be used

Low prevalence of fibrosis in thalassemia major assessed by late gadolinium enhancement cardiovascular magnetic resonance

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Heart failure remains a major cause of mortality in thalassaemia major. The possible role of cardiac fibrosis in thalassemia major in the genesis of heart failure is not clear. It is also unclear whether cardiac fibrosis might arise as a result of heart failure.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We studied 45 patients with thalassaemia major who had a wide range of current cardiac iron loading and included patients with prior and current heart failure. Myocardial iron was measured using T2* cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), and following this, late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) was used to determine the presence of macroscopic myocardial fibrosis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The median myocardial T2* in all patients was 22.6 ms (range 5.3-58.8 ms). Fibrosis was detected in only one patient, whose myocardial T2* was 20.1 ms and left ventricular ejection fraction 57%. No fibrosis was identified in 5 patients with a history of heart failure with full recovery, in 3 patients with current left ventricular dysfunction undergoing treatment, or in 18 patients with myocardial iron loading with cardiacT2* < 20 ms at the time of scan.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study shows that macroscopic myocardial fibrosis is uncommon in thalassemia major across a broad spectrum of myocardial iron loading. Importantly, there was no macroscopic fibrosis in patients with current or prior heart failure, or in patients with myocardial iron loading without heart failure. Therefore if myocardial fibrosis indeed contributes to myocardial dysfunction in thalassemia, our data combined with the knowledge that the myocardial dysfunction of iron overload can be reversed, indicates that any such fibrosis would need to be both microscopic and reversible.</p

Value of black blood T2* cardiovascular magnetic resonance

Purpose To assess whether black blood T2* cardiovascular magnetic resonance is superior to conventional white blood imaging of cardiac iron in patients with thalassaemia major (TM). Materials and methods We performed both conventional white blood and black blood T2* CMR sequences in 100 TM patients to determine intra and inter-observer variability and presence of artefacts. In 23 patients, 2 separate studies of both techniques were performed to assess interstudy reproducibility. Results Cardiac T2* values ranged from 4.5 to 43.8 ms. The mean T2* values were not different between black blood and white blood acquisitions (20.5 vs 21.6 ms, p = 0.26). Compared with the conventional white blood diastolic acquisition, the coefficient of variance of the black blood CMR technique was superior for intra-observer reproducibility (1.47% vs 4.23%, p < 0.001), inter-observer reproducibility (2.54% vs 4.50%, p < 0.001) and inter-study reproducibility (4.07% vs 8.42%, p = 0.001). Assessment of artefacts showed a superior score for black blood vs white blood scans (4.57 vs 4.25; p < 0.001). Conclusions Black blood T2* CMR has superior reproducibility and reduced imaging artefacts for the assessment of cardiac iron, in comparison with the conventional white blood technique, which make it the preferred technique for clinical practice