Zibbell v. Southern Pacific Railroad

116 P.513, 520 (Cal. 1911)

HENSHAW, J. No rational being would change places with the injured man for an amount of gold that would fill the room of the court, yet no lawyer would contend that such is the legal measure of damages.

Fuller v. Lloyd

714 S.W.2d 698 (Mo.App. 1986)

"Soon after their marriage, the Lloyds started a used car business in Albany. Louise supplied the capital and Darrell was responsible for operating the business. [...]
In August of 1980 Darrell became upset because Louise's daughter was driving one of the automobiles and fired a gun at the car while the daughter was in it. No one was injured but the bullet hit the fender of the car. Thereafter, the Lloyds separated and Darrell was charged
with assault."

The court seems to envision the past-incident conversation going like this:
"Hello, husband, dear. You seem to have fired your projectile weapon at my daughter."
"Why yes, I suppose I did. How about that?"
"You know, I don't know that I really feel safe around you any more. I think we should take some time off."
"Whatever you need, shnookums."

Thereafter the Lloyds separated and, oh yeah, Darrell was charged with assault because he is one crazy mofo.

Law School Term of the Day: exiguous

exiguous
adj. Extremely scanty; meager.

I wanted to use exiguous as the Law School Term of the Day but other than the word itself inked across the margin of my Civil Procedure notes, I don't remember the context in which it occurred.

Law School Term of the Day: vituperative

vituperative
adj. Using, containing, or marked by harshly abusive censure.


Encountered in Contracts, quoting Wilson v. Brett, 152 Eng. Rep. 737 (Ex. 1843):

"Gross negligence [is] the same thing as ordinary negligence 'with the addition of a vituperative epithet.'"

Law School Term of the Day: mucilage

mucilage
n.

1. A sticky substance used as an adhesive.
2. A gummy substance obtained from certain plants.


Encountered in Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville, 405 U.S. 156 (1972):

"The rule of law, evenly applied to minorities as well as majorities, to the poor as well as the rich, is the great mucilage that holds society together."

On brevity:

"According to the court, counsel were lucky that the discipline [for writing an excessively lengthy complaint] was not akin to that meted out by the chancellor in 1596 who 'decided to make an example of a particularly prolix document filed in his court. The chancellor first ordered a hole cut through the center of the document, all 120 pages of it. Then he ordered that the person who wrote it should have his head stuffed through the hole, and the unfortunate fellow was lead around to be exhibited to all those attending court at Westminster Hall.'"

Meetings and Memories

I inexplicably thought today of some people I worked with a few years ago. This was back when I pulled shots at Starbucks, and like other businesses, it was not uncommon for us to cover a shift at another store. This was the first and so far the only time I'd been to this store, so I didn't know any of the employees there. I'm sure it says something of the human experience that we were able to work an entire day without having known each other before, interact comfortably and at times enjoy laughs, and at the end of it, likely be able to pass each other on the street and not ever know it. I remember the experience, can picture the store, the shopping center, where I parked, but I don't have anything but the scantest of details about my co-workers. I think I worked with another guy and a girl, the guy might have been Asian and the girl white, but beyond that I really don't remember.
I seem to remember more about the environment than the people there. Or do I? The more I return to what I remember, the more it seems that I just remember categories or associations. The layout of the shopping center because it was similar to other shopping centers. The fact that I had Subway for dinner because I often had Subway for dinner when I was working. The arrangement of the store because it fit the decorating theme that all Starbucks stores had at that time.
Perhaps I merely have an expectation that I should remember more about people than places and so anything less than perfect memory feels like a failing.