A Look at the Places and Personalities Made Famous by Sherwood V. Walker
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Summer 2009 ROAD TRIP! A LOOK AT THE PLACES AND PERSONALITIES MADE FAMOUS BY SHERWOOD V. WALKER T. C. Sherwood by Norman Otto Stockmeyer Hiram Walker I want to begin by thanking Wallace Riley and the The resulting opinion, Sherwood v. Walker, handed Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society for down by the Supreme Court of Michigan in 1887, allowing me the privilege of speaking to you today. became a legal classic and is still studied by law stu- It is a great honor to follow in the footsteps of such lu- dents across the country. Indeed, in 1985 American minaries who have delivered past Legal Vignettes such Heritage magazine picked Sherwood v. Walker, as as former justices Dennis Archer, Thomas Brennan, one of its “Five Classic Cases” that every law student and James Ryan, and several members of the profes- must know. Sherwood v. Walker became “the single soriate, including Professor Paul Moreno and the most loved law case at Harvard” due to the delight that distinguished teacher and scholar Paul Carrington. Professor John P. Dawson, a native Detroiter, took in My presentation, however, will be more in the mode teaching the case to generations of law students. of last year’s luncheon entertainment. If you were I share Professor Dawson’s delight. I’ve taught here, you surely recall the delightfully wacky humor of Contracts and Remedies for more than 30 years, and A (Habeas) Chorus Line. For someone who aspires to Sherwood v Walker shows up in both courses: As a offer a lighthearted presentation, that’s indeed a very mistake case in Contracts, and as a rescission case difficult act to follow. in Remedies. I’ve often thought how instructional it INTRODUCTION would be to lead a road trip to the sites involved in the More than a century ago, Theodore Sherwood of litigation. Today, with the help of PowerPoint, I’m go- Plymouth entered into a contract to purchase a cow ing to take you along on my virtual road trip. from Hiram Walker of Detroit. Because it was thought While the students are piling on the bus, let me tell that the cow was barren, it was sold for beef. The you a little more about the importance of the case. price was 5½ cents a pound. Later, when Walker tried In Sherwood’s hometown, the State Bar of Michi- to back out of the deal, Sherwood sued him. gan dedicated a Legal Milestone historical marker in this issue A Look at the Places and Personalities Made Famous by Sherwood v. Walker. ..............1-4 Verdict of History Update .............................................................................................................. 4 Society Welcomes New Board Members................................................................................... 5 Image from the 18th Annual Luncheon ...................................................................................6-7 Membership Renewal Form ........................................................................................................... 8 michigan supreme court historical society recognizing the case as “one of the Walker appealed again, this time to the most celebrated contracts cases Michigan Supreme Court. The Court in American history.” And most overruled the lower courts. The bronze recently, the case was the subject letters on the Legal Milestone plaque of a “Verdict of History” essay by summarize the decision this way: “Be- Professor Moreno, sponsored by our cause a mutual mistake affecting the sub- Society. stance of the transaction had been made, What could possibly be of such Hiram Walker had a right to rescind the lasting significance about a dispute contract, and keep the cow.” between two nineteenth- (One may assume that the litigation century farmers over a barren cow? delighted the lawyers. The case could For one thing, nothing about the well have served as the inspiration for case is quite as it appears. Neither “The Lawsuit.” It’s a lithograph from the the buyer nor the seller was a true 1800s that depicts a plaintiff and a defen- farmer. More importantly, the cow turned out not dant tugging at opposite ends of a cow, while a lawyer to be barren after all. And although Walker won the milks it.) appeal, Sherwood ended up with the cow. THE PARTIES THE LAWSUIT Theodore C. Sherwood (1839–1910) Are we all aboard? Good. As we head for our Theodore C. Sherwood was age forty-seven at the first stop in Plymouth, let’s review the facts of time of the controversy. He owned an eighty-acre farm Sherwood v Walker. The story begins in May of on Ann Arbor Road at Sheldon Road, just south of the 1886 when Sherwood approached Walker about village of Plymouth. A Mobil gas station sits on the site buying some of his stock of purebred Angus cattle. today. Let’s stop there and gas up the bus. On his farm, Walker suggested that Sherwood look at a few head Sherwood raised the best breeds of livestock; his farm of cattle on Walker’s Greenfield farm. was one of the finest in the county. But Sherwood made Walker told Sherwood that the cows on that his living as president of the Plymouth National Bank. A farm were probably barren and could not breed. refined individual, and prominent member of the Plym- Sherwood picked out a cow with the fancy name outh community, he always appeared in public wearing a of “Rose 2d of Aberlone.” The parties agreed on tall silk hat. a price, amounting to about $80, and Walker con- Two years after the Supreme Court’s Sherwood deci- firmed the sale in writing. sion, Governor Cyrus Luce appointed Sherwood to be When Sherwood later returned to the Greenfield Michigan’s first State Commissioner of Banking. He farm to accept delivery of the cow, Walker refused organized the new state banking department and drew up to take Sherwood’s money or to deliver the cow. rules and regulations for banking institutions. Commis- By then, Walker suspected that Rose was expecting sioner Sherwood had oversight responsibility for 90 state- a calf, and if so, she was worth as much as $1,000. chartered banks with combined assets of $47 million. Sherwood sued Walker in Justice of the Peace Sherwood died October 1, 1910, at the age of seventy- court seeking possession of Rose, and he won. For one thing, nothing about the case is Walker appealed to Wayne “ County Circuit Court. Following a quite as it appears. Neither the buyer nor the jury trial that December, Sherwood won again. Meanwhile, Rose de- seller was a true farmer. More importantly, the livered a calf in October, therefore cow turned out not to be barren after all. And proving that she was on the way to motherhood when the contract was although Walker won the appeal, Sherwood made. (The gestation period for a ended up with the cow. cow is nine months.) ” Determined not to lose his cow, www.micourthistory.org Page 2 Society update summer 2009 one. He is buried in Plymouth’s Riverside Cemetery, Legions of law students have made pilgrimages to the located on Plymouth Road west of Haggerty Road. site. You can get out here, but be back on the bus in You can see his family grave marker out of the right- one hour. hand window. An obituary referred to him as “a man Except for a few early years in Walkerville, Hiram of fine culture and pleasant address” and “the father of Walker continued to live in Detroit. He commuted to the state banking laws.” work by horse and buggy, and then a ferry, from his The cemetery is located directly behind the 35th home at the corner of Shelby and Fort Streets on the District Courthouse. District Courts replaced the old site now occupied by the Federal Reserve Bank Build- Justice of the Peace court system, in which Sherwood ing. began his famous lawsuit. 35th District Court Judge Hiram Walker died in 1899 at his home in Detroit. Ronald Lowe has installed a display commemorating He was 84. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery on Sherwood v. Walker on the third floor of the court- Detroit’s near east side. There’s his monument over house. Let’s go inside and take a look. there. Walker’s three surviving sons inherited the A toy store is now located on the site that Sher- business, which was sold in 1926 for $14 million. wood’s bank once occupied, at the corner of Main That’s not a bad return on Hiram’s initial $40,000 Street and Penniman in downtown Plymouth. The investment. State Bar of Michigan’s Legal Milestone marker Rose (1881- ?) stands across the street in Kellogg Park. Gather around Rose was born on January 8, 1881. She is called and I’ll tell you about a more fascinating character: Rose 2d of Aberlone in the contract and in court Hiram Walker. papers, but her name was Rose 2d of Aberlour, not Hiram Walker (1816-1899) Aberlone. She was foaled at the Mains of Aberlour in Hiram Walker, then age seventy, was at the time Scotland. one of the Detroit area’s most successful industrialists. Although no photo of Rose is known to exist, an Walker was born on the 4th of July, 1816, in East engraving was made of her sister, Elaine of Aberlour. Douglas, Massachusetts, near Boston. At age twenty- Rose herself became a “cover girl,” being depicted on two, he headed west to Detroit to seek his fortune. the cover of the Student Lawyer Journal. Attracted by lax liquor laws and cheap land across Records show that Walker paid $850 for Rose, so the Detroit River in Ontario, in 1856 Walker purchased parting with her for $80 can only be explained by his 468 acres of land 1½ miles upstream from Windsor for belief that she was unable to $40,000, and went into the liquor business.