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Show r ! Reader's Courtroom Pestiferous Suitor Motor Matter Mower Trouble By Will Bernard, LL.B State laws vary. For personal guidance, see your local attorney. Is it a Crime to Pester ' A Woman For a Kiss? A bachelor got a little drunk one night, and decided to pay a visit to a certain young widow friend. As she opened the door, he asked for a kiss. She refused. He stepped inside in-side and repeated his request. Again she said no. Then he got down on his knees, beside her chair, and begged for a kiss. She said no once more, and moved to the couch. He followed her there, asked again, and was turned down again. Then they returned to the chair and went through the same routine. In despair at last, the man left. The widow later had him arrested ar-rested on an assault charge, but the court found him not guilty. Pointing out that the poor fellow hadn't even touched the woman, the judge decided that he had already al-ready been punished enough! Does the Dictionary Have the Final "Say" As to What a Word Means? A motorcyclist was killed in a crack-up. His family tried to collect col-lect on his accident insurance, but the company flatly refused to pay. It seems that the policy covered accidents in automobiles, but said nothing about motorcycles. The family sued. They argued that the dictionary definition of an automobile automo-bile was a self-propelled vehicle" and that included motorcycles. But the court denied their claim anyhow. any-how. The judge said that, while dictionaries are helpful, they don't always have the final "say" in a court of law. The judge pointed out that "automobile" and "motorcycle" "motorcy-cle" mean two very different things in the everyday language of everyday people. - When Pushing a Lawn Mower Along the Street, Must You Obey Traffic Rules? A man borrowed a lawn mower and shears from a friend. He tied the shears onto the handle of the machine, wheeled it onto the left side of the street, and headed for home. Soon a youth drew near on a bicycle, coming from the opposite direction. Both parties swerved toward the curb at the same time, and as a result the mower and bicycle bi-cycle collided. The man was cut by the shears, and later sued the cyclist cyc-list for damages. But the court rejected re-jected his claim, saying that he should have been pushing the mower mow-er on the right side of the street. The judge said that a lawn mower is enough of a "vehicle" to have to obey the laws of the road. Does the Law Ever Encourage "Back Seat Driving?" A man took an out-of-town friena for a ride one Sunday morning to show him the sights of the city. Soon they came to a busy intersection. intersec-tion. The motorist, not noticing the red signal on the corner, kept right on driving at full speed. His passenger realized the situation, but didn't say a word. Sure enough, the car crashed into another automobile auto-mobile that was just emerging from the side street. The friend was injured in the collision, and later sued his host for damages on grounds of careless driving. However, How-ever, the court ruled that the friend had been equally at fault for not speaking up. The judge said that, under the circumstances, a little "back seat driving" was definitely called for! A man sued his wife for divorce on grounds of adultery. At the trial, a private detective took the witness stand and testified as to the wife's misconduct. But he didn't stop there. He added that he had discovered, dis-covered, in the course of his investigation, in-vestigation, that the husband was guilty of the same thing! The court thereupon refused to grant a divorce di-vorce to either party, saying: "The divorce laws were intended for the relief of injured innocence not tc encourage persons of loose morplf to live in scandalous way." |