The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-01-13
oUIRKS OF THE LAW.
SUNDRY ODDITIES oF LEGAL PRAC-
TICE CULLED FROM COURT
AND RECORD.

TICE CULLED FROM COURT
AND RECORD.
lawyers ms Jurymen-DeH nftiOn of n
BuiIding-Husband's Social Dom
inatiOn in Germany-"Cursing the
Court'-Appropriate Nomenclature
of Bond Advertisements In
toxication-As TO Kentucky Fire
arms-TO Enjoin Pulpit Dutch
Plain Words the Safest in Oregon
The Pleasant Occupation of the
Conner" Fallen Into Disuse.
Copyright by A H. Walker
The somewhat novel experiment of hav-
ing law suits decided by juries composed
of lawyers has, according to local reports.
resulted satisfactorily in at least two
cases in this country within the last year.
Just recently the case of a widow suing
on fire insurance policy on her house
was. by consent of the litigants and their
attorneys, submitted to be heard by a
jury of seven well-known lawyers in Col
Inns. Ga. After the evidence and the
charge by the Judge, the lawyer-jury re-
dict for the widow, which, it is said, was
"eminently just" Earlier in the year was
reported the case of American B. b. co.
VS. Pung, in Chicago, where both sides
were in court ready for trial, but enough
jurors could not be found. The judge
thereon called on twelve lawyers, VINO
happened to be in the court room, 10 serve.
H. cd
with satisfactory results. Here, possibly,
is new work for able lawyers, serving as
professional jurors.
What is a building?" is the apparent
Iy simple question the Queens Bench Di-
vision Court Qreland) has been trying to
solve. A church mission erected struc-
ture made up of wooden walls, canvas
roof and a chimney. This the city of Dub
lin argued was a building" for which
corporate permits were necessary. The
mission claimed that it was not build
ing, but rather something lin the ma
ture of a tent" To enforce his argu-
ment, Mr.. OSha ughnessy, solicitor for
the city, quoted the grave digger's ques-
ton in Hamlet: Who builds stronger
than mason, a shipwright, or a carpen-
ter?" and the reply thereto: When you
are asked this question next, say a grave
maker; the houses that he makes last TIL
doomsday." At last accounts the court
had not decided the question.
The new German code of civil proce-
dure makes the husband supreme in most
social matters. He may fix the hour for
dinner, the manner of serving 1t, the num-
Der of servants. and he may limit the
yearly supply of linen, but under no cir
cumstances may he open his wife's let
tiers without her permission. Though he
may fix the dinner hour, it is probably
1ust as well for him 10 be on hand at
the time when the dinner is actually
ready.
The lawyers inalienable and inestlma-
BILE privilege of "cursing the court when
the decision has gone against him IS
marred as most lawyers realize, by the
fact that the "cursing" must be done in
private This animadversion, however,
sometimes takes the form of communica-
ton of the lawyers opinion TO the pub
Usher of the law reports. Parts of some
of these communications have been
printed recently by a law publishing hrm.
One lawyer wrote: 1.-THE case is legal
curiosity. and seems TO have been decid-
a highway case, wrote of the court: They
do not know a highway. even when they
stumble over it," Another requests the
publisher to chastise the court, stating
that 1T will be of great benefit to the
profession that this case be thoroughly
aired and the fallacy and danger of it in
its far-reaching results exposed" An
other very prominent lawyer wrote:
1.-The opinion of our court is school-boy
HI Inc
ing rebuke and a review of it should run
In that line" Most seductive Of ell the
suggestions was the statement, Il should
be very willing to pay for such criti-
cism of the decision as herein above in
dictated by me-" This" comments the
publisher. "recalls the Quaker chasing
his hat in the wind, who hires an. urchin
to curse it.
The recent case of Skipwith VS.. Hurt,
a legal publication records, was an ac-
ton by county Judge on a county treas
urers bond The county treaturer was
Skipwith, who skipped with the funds,
and the county judge, who was Hurst,
brought the action"
What is "a reasonable state of intoxi-
cation apparently just missed precise
definition by a coroners jury in Missis-
1--WE, the jury, find that deceased came
20 his death by stroke of an east-bound
train, No 204, on 1. c. r. r., at Fem
tress, Miss, i'm Choctaw county, on the
9th day of November, 1898, he being in a
reasonable state of intoxication." A sim
liar indefiniteness of legal conclusion mars
a recent verdict of a neighboring Georgia
Jury, to the effect that, I'VE, the jury
find the defendant almost guilty" Equal
" as uncertain and ambiguous as these
statements by laymen is the opinion in
an early Maryland case. which "acknowl-
edges the corn by saying that an occur
renee referred to took place "at former
sitting when the court was full"
So careful are they in Kentucky and so
sensitive are their weapons that the Ken
lucky Legislature passed, some time ago,
according to legal authority, an act
reading as follows: 1T shall be unlaw-
ful for any person to fire or discharge
at random any deadly weapon, whether
said weapon be loaded or unloaded."
That a young woman who breaks her
engagement with one man in order to be-
come engaged to another cannot have that
loss of opportunity considered as an Gle
ment Of damage In a suit against her
second choice for breach of his promise