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Show I THE READER'S COURTROOM . Rude Friend Better Than None By Will Bernard, LL.B 1 Could a Person Be Fined . Just For Being Rude? A youth was working on a construction con-struction job one afternoon when he suddenly felt sick. His cousin, who happened to be working with him, started to walk the young man toward his house. When the youth faltered, the cousin grabbed his hand and half-dragged him along A man noticed that the T5-foot pine tree on his neighbor's front lawn had become badly decayed. Fearful of trouble, he asked the neighbor to cut the tree down. But the neighbor refused, saying: "If s not my responsibility. I didn't plant it. It was there when I moved inl" One day, during a windstorm, the tree toppled down on to the first man's house. Luckily no one was hurt, but the damage to the building build-ing amounted to $1,000. The neighbor neigh-bor disclaimed liability, but a court ordered him to foot the bilL Is it Unlawful to Enjoy Somebody Else's Troubles? A petty politician had a longstanding long-standing grudge against a certain city clerk. One day the clerk got into an argument with two other employees, and the men gave him a sound thrashing. As it happened, the politician witnessed the whole thing and enjoyed it immensely. Later the clerk tried to collect damages not only from the two the sidewalk until they got home. After the young man recovered, he had his cousin arrested for handling hand-ling him so rudely. However, the court refused to find the cousin guilty "even though he was not as gentle as one more humane and tender might have been." The judge said rudeness alone was not a crime so long as there was no . intent-to-injure. At the set hour, a condemned murderer was strapped into the chair and the current was turned on. To everyone's astonishment, the man survived! It seems that something had gone wrong with the electrical mechanism. When prison officials announced their intention to "try again," the convict appealed to the United States Supreme Court. He claimed that going through the same ordeal twice was a "cruel and unusual punishment" and was unconstitutional. However, the court refused the man's plea. men but also from the politician (on the ground that he had "approved" "ap-proved" the attack). However, the court ruled that the politician was not liable for anything. Said the judge: "An onlooker isn't responsible respon-sible for a beating, just because in his heart he is secretly pleased to see it happen. He is only responsible respon-sible when be Incites or aids in its commission." |