Dear Colleagues,
Thanks to all who wrote with information on decisions in verse.
This list is a WONDERFUL resource!! Here is the summary of the answers I
got. I tried to send each e-mail correspondent an immediate Thank You;
if I missed anyone, please accept my hearfelt thanks now.
Fed. Courts:
Anderson Greenwood & Co. v. NLRB, 604 F2d 322 (CA5, 1979)
Mackensworth v. American Trading Transp. Co., 367 F.Supp. 373
[this was the admiralty case I remembered]
U.S. v. Sproed, 628 F.Supp. 1234 (D Ct. OR, 1986)
Joe Hand Promotions v. Sports Page Cafe, at 5 NJL 1803 (D NJ, 1996) [this
was faxed to me; I haven't tried to find a better cite on Wexis yet;
thanks to the kind New Jersey librarian who faxed it!]
Reuther v. Sourthern Cross Club, 783 F.Supp 1339 [based on Gilligan's
Island song]
Lev Preble refers me to volume 55 F. Supp. I suppose, I'll flip through.
61 BR 558 [don't have the style]
47 TCM (CCH) 238 [don't have the style]
States
17 Kansas 266 (1877)
Irvin v. Smith, 654 NE2d 189 (OH Ct. Com. Pleas, 1993) [headnotes in verse
as well]
Fisher v. Lowe, 333 NW2d 67, Mich. App., 1983) [this is probably the
best-known decision in verse, being a rather well done take-off on Trees;
several correspondents indicated that this was used in Cohen, Berring &
Olsen's Finding the Law; one instructor has his students brief it in
verse. The headnotes are in verse as well]
542 P2d 676 [no style]
55 Pa.C.C. 588 [no style]
Wheat v. Fraker, 130 SE2d 251, 107 Ga.App. 318
Brown v. State, 216 SE2d 356 (Ga., 1975) [includes references to other
decisions in verse as well as other judicial levities]
372 SE2d 445 [no style]
Helton v. State of Florida, 311 S2d 381 (Fl., 1975) [Night before
Christmas theme)
1991 wl 59608 (unpublished opinion)
I have not read these yet; there were a number of references given me to
articles and one web site that deal with decisions in verse and other
judicial levities:
Michael Saint-Onge, "Legal Levity," Law Library Lights vol. 35, no. 3,
(Jan/Feb., 1992) [THANK YOU, Michael; it arrived on a day when I needed
a little levity!! He discusses not only decisions in verse, but also
strange plaintiffs and claims and extraordinary circumstances, and
decisions containing puns and veiled references. Read it, if only for
Blackie, the talking cat!]
Rodney R. Jones & Gerald F. Uelmen, _Supreme Folly_ (W.W. Norton, 1990).
Has a chapter titled "Poetic Justice," which cites several decisions in
verse.
George Rose Smith, "A Critique of Judicial Humor," 43 Ark.L.R. 1 (1990)
"Law Student Web" as a list of offbeat court opinions, including 4 in
rhyme: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~ddunn/cases.htm [I have not been able
to access this, but I think it must have been a temporary glitch; This is
Don Dunn's son, I think)
And lastly, Michelle Wu suggests a Lexis search in the News library,
arcnews file: judge /20 verse
Thanks to all who contributed to this search!!!
****************************************************************************
Betsy McKenzie Tel: 617-573-8705
Director Fax: 617-723-3164
Suffolk University Law Library I-Net: emckenzi@acad.suffolk.edu
41 Temple St.
Boston, MA 02114
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