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Show MEAN TRICK ON OPPONENT How a Western Lawyer Won a Case by Making the Court Think It Had Been Insulted. Joseph H. Choate, at a dinner at the Lawyers' club in New York, said of a piece of legal chicanery: "It was mean; too mean. It reminded remind-ed me of a sneak of a lawyer in practice prac-tice In the far wcaL This chap was defending a man In a promissory note case, and he knew he was going to lose. Dut In the lunch hour, In his tricky way he changed the markers In all the prosocutlng counsel's reference refer-ence books. Tho Judge, after consulting consult-ing all thejo reference books two hours later, pronounced, sternly: "I should cortalnly havo decreed for tho plaintiff, but, on referring to tho citations quoted byplalntlff's coun sel, I find that they nono or inem uoar even romotely on tho case before us, and I decline to think that a gross Insult has been perpotrated on this court. Counsol, with Idiotic lovlty, has roferred mo to tho action of a Fronehmnn who suod a zoological society so-ciety for having been bitten by a boar. Tho second reference Is to a case of slander. Next, I am directed to an Infantlcldo, a forged will and a safo-robblng. safo-robblng. What havo these things to do with an action to recover on a promissory nolo? Hut, perhaps, tho most shameless Insult to this court lies In couusol'a final reference to the notorious Lippman vs. Henshaw case tho silliest and most ribald breach of promise suit In nil tho annals of western Jurlsprudonco. Judgment for defendants, with costs.' " |