Word: plaintiffs
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Operation Madeleine. Ferré's songs evoke a complex feeling. Their mood is an absorbing compromise between optimism and disgust, and they have an ironic strength that makes their message as clear as a scream in the street. Though Ferré is a natural-born plaintiff, his songs never argue that life is absurd. "Despair," he says, "is a way of hiding things from one's self." Life is not pointless, just outrageously wrong...
...Wolf was one more victim of Alabama's "quickie" divorce racket, which the state legislature itself created in 1945. Until then, Alabama required one year's residence for plaintiffs seeking divorce from outside-the-state spouses. But under a brief amendment, the residence requirement was waived if "the court has jurisdiction of both parties." As Alabama lawyers saw it, this allowed even a single day's residence to serve for purposes of divorce so long as the plaintiff claimed "intent" to live in Alabama. All a lawyer needed in addition was the defendant's signed agreement...
...trouble. The U.S. Constitution's "full faith and credit" clause (Article IV, Section 1) requires all states to honor the court decisions of other states unless the "foreign" courts are shown to lack jurisdiction. In legalese, an Alabama quickie is open to attack if the plaintiff was not a bona fide resident, or if the defendant's signature was obtained by threat or forgery. In one recent New York case, a wife sued her second husband for separation. He counter-claimed for annulment, saying that she had married him on the strength of a shaky Alabama quickie...
...Florida Supreme Court ruled that a price may be put on human anguish over a dog's death. In West Hollywood, a privately employed garbage man laughingly hurled an empty can at Phyllis La Forte's pet dachshund, Heidi. When the blow killed the dog, Plaintiff La Forte's "marked hysteria" won her a $3,000 jury verdict against the garbage company. An appellate court reversed the verdict, hewing to the general rule that a dog owner may collect only his pet's market value. The state Supreme Court disagreed and set a new precedent...
...Room, she got a bone in her throat that required hospital extraction. Miss Webster sued, won a jury verdict of $1,800. On reversing it, the Supreme Court absolved the restaurant of responsibility for the damage done by "the bone of contention," even though "we sympathize with the plaintiff, who suffered a peculiarly New England injury." The court's reasoning: to force all restaurants to grind up chowder chunks would destroy "a hallowed tradition." Said the court: New Englanders "should be prepared to cope with the hazards of fish bones...