The sun., 1919-10-26
LEGAL POINTS FOR
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Tolls. Taxation and Other
Questions That "Sun" Read
ers Should Know.
Article No. q.
orR LEGAL CORRESPONDENT


something of the historical develop
want of vehicular traffic frequently crops
.,, IN connection with tho many legal
nrohlems arising out Of the use Of auto
mobiles. Note. for example, this Inter-
ostinp situation as disclosed by a recent
Socision of the Supreme Court of New
Hampshire.
oomnany was Incorporated in the year
tfe5 Its charter expressly provides the
.oaio of charges for traffic passing over
,ho bridge. and under the law 1t is linn
Nod strictly to such charges. The
schedule thus provided sets out the va
rIous forms Of traffic then In vogue, In
Guiding pack horses, hand barrows' OK
,aoms two wheel passenger carriages,
ana carriages for burthen," but tn"
,riIv LEGISLATOR who drew the charter
,.rted the prescience to foresee the new
towns OF conveyance that future genera
tons we're to develop.
NAn ingenious tourist who was aware
~ this gap in the Gc1le of charges re-
fused TO pay the tolls required OF auto
,nobilists for passage over the bridge
insisting that the imposition of such
charges was an enlargement OF the char
tar scale made without the legal au-
thority which is necessary to effect
Charge in corporate charter.
But the law Is elastic; that is the
judicial way of expressing the popular
idea Of stretching the law. The court
held that as to passenger automobiles
the provision of the charter covering
-four wheel carriages for passengers" Is
applicable, although admittedly this
rrovison was expressly intended to
cover horse drawn vehicles. AS to au-
tomobils trucks, the court decided that
tbev must be held to be subject to the
charges provided for Carriages for
burthen drawn by two or four beasts
Query-wnl the charter stand an
other pull to cover the case Of aeroplane
traffic?
Some soiace for public officials who.
barred from the helpful tactics of the
labor unions, find themselves losing out
in the fight with Mr.. II. c. L., Is found
IN a recent New York case. In New
York, as In almost all other States
there is constitutional Inhibition
against granting extra compensation to
public officials during the TERM for
which they were elected or appointed
In one of the counties the superinten.
dent of roads was provided with an au-
tomobile at public cost for the purpose
~ facilitating the performance of his
duties. Payment for the car was re-
fused by some orficial concerned with
the approval OF expenditures on the
ground that the transaction was tanta-
mount to the granting of extra compen-
sation to the road officer. But the
court decided otherwise, and directed
that payment be made.
The tendency toward parsimony In
the provision OF insurance for the va
rious contingencies involved in the op-
Grafton Of a car sometimes raises very
close questions. In a very recent case
an owner who carried only collision in
surance accidentally drove his car of
the side Of public bridge and into a
stream below 1t. The owner was not
injured, and the damage to the car was
due entirely to the fall and to its i'm
mersion in the stream and not to COM
ing into contact with any object before
the fall. Was this collision? The
court decided that 1t was and SO the in
surance company had to pay.
Among the very recent decisions Is one
Of especial interest to dealers who sell
cars and truck attachments on the par
tal or time payment plan. A Ford was
purchased on the partial payment plan,
mortgage or its equivalent being givei,
for the unpaid balance at the time OF
purchase. While the mortgage remained
unpaid the owner purchased one of the
well known truck attachments and by
means OF II converted his passenger ma
chine into a truck The attachment was
likewise purchased on the partial pay
ment plan, and a mortgage was giver
on the car as reformed. covering the un-
paid balance due on the attachment
The payments on the attachment were
not kept up. and when the seller at
tempted to enforce his mortgage he wa:
ment by the claim of the h lder of tht
first mortgage, who maintained hat h;
mortgage covered the car not only In IT.
original condition but also in any
changed or improved condition in which
1t might be put while the mortgage re
mained in force. The curt decided
however, that the seller of the truck at
tachment could detach and reclaim II
though as a general rule mortgage oil
personal property includes improve
ments placed upon It In the course o
It's use for its usual purposes.
Answers to Questions.