I’ve come down with a bad cold and I’m helping out with Professional Development Day, so I don’t have much time for blogging today!
Here are a couple of interesting blogs covering mobile devices in law practice I’ve found recently. Both have a lot of great ideas for using your smartphone or tablet in your law practice.
These two are on the road to an annulment
Here’s another look at the weird laws of Delaware. Another commonly cited weird law is:
In Delaware getting married on a dare is grounds for an annulment. Status: True
This is sometimes given as “In Delaware it’s illegal to get married on a dare,” which is not true.
Among the grounds for annulment of a marriage given in 13 Del.C. § 1506 is: “One or both parties entered into the marriage as a jest or dare.” Go to the Delaware Courts’ website, download the Petition For Divorce/Annulment Form and there it is on page 4, “describe how and when you learned of the jest or dare.”
This is actually not an unusual law. There is only one other state, Colorado, (Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 14-10-111) that specifically mentions “jest or dare” as grounds for annulment in its statutes. However many states have case law allowing jest or dare as grounds for an annulment: New Jersey, McClurg v. Terry, 21 N.J. Eq. 225 (Ch. 1870); West Virginia, Meredith v. Shakespeare, 96 W. Va. 229, 122 S.E. 520 (1924); Connecticut, Davis v. Davis, 119 Conn. 194, 175 A. 574 (1934) It was common enough at one time that there was an ALR article about it published in 1950. (Validity of Marriage As Affected By Intention of the Parties That It Should Be Only a Matter of Form or Jest. 14 A.L.R.2d 624)
The facts in Davis v. Davis seem to be typical, including the automobile ride:
The plaintiff and the defendant went on an automobile ride with several young people. It was a joyous occasion, and to add to the excitement the defendant dared the plaintiff to marry her. The plaintiff accepted the dare, a license for the marriage was procured in New York state, and the ceremony was at once performed by a justice of the peace there. Neither party intended at the time to enter into the marriage status. They returned to their respective homes after the ceremony and have never cohabited. Each was nineteen years old at the time. Davis v. Davis, 119 Conn. 194, 175 A. 574, 574-75 (1934)
With the lessening of the stigma and increased ease of divorce, these laws have mostly become superfluous. Nowadays, people who wake up after a joyous automobile ride, and realize they’ve married someone on a dare, probably just get divorced.
Photo from Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has started announcing it’s recent decisions on Twitter. Follow the Court at http://twitter.com/#!/SupremeCtofPA
The Court also has a Twitter feed for press releases and announcements at http://twitter.com/#!/PACourts
Charles Lindbergh took 5 sandwiches and water on his 1927 flight, thus meeting Delaware’s “adequate supply of food and potable water” requirement
Reading this recent blog post on weird English laws at the Law Library Congress blog got me thinking about some of the weird Delaware laws commonly posted on websites like www.dumblaws.com or www.bored.com (Warning: obnoxious pop up ads!) Do these laws really exist in Delaware or are they just endlessly cut and pasted filler for content farm websites? I set out to do a little research to find out if any of them are true. Here is the first of my results.
It is illegal to fly over any body of water, unless one is carrying sufficient supplies of food and drink. Status: Once mostly true. Repealed.
This is the most commonly given example of a “weird law” in Delaware and yes, it really did exist. Originally passed in 1929, 2 Del. Code § 506, 36 Del. Laws Ch. 248, § 6 actually read: Aircraft flying over large bodies of water shall be provided with an adequate supply of food and potable water and if engaged in carrying passengers for hire, must be equipped with a Very’s pistol or a signal device the equivalent thereof, and life preservers or other flotation devices of the nature and character approved by the Secretary of Commerce of the United States.
The “large” part is usually not quoted making it sound as though Delaware had banned foodless flights over Lums Pond. In 1929 it perhaps didn’t seem unlikely for the passengers of a hypothetical Ford Trimotor that ditched in the Delaware Bay to survive by bobbing in their flotation devices, eating their adequate supply of food, and firing their Very’s pistol until help arrived.
The language of the law was taken from the then current “Air Commerce Regulations” of the United States. (7 Information Bulletin. Dept of Commerce. Aeronautics Branch 17 (eff. June 1, 1928)) At the time it was passed it was neither weird nor unusual and was in fact the regulation in effect everywhere in the United States. But as early as 1939 the Delaware law was mocked in the Minnesota Law Review as “a fine example of a superfluous effort…” (Newman F. Baker, Legislative Crimes, 23 Minn. L. Rev. 135 at 162 (1938-1939)) The food and drink provision was no longer a federal requirement by the time of the first Code of Federal Regulations in 1938. The law lingered on in Delaware until it was finally eliminated in a revision of the state’s aviation laws in 1996. (70 Del. Laws ch. 575 § 16)
Photograph from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
The Jacob Broom House in 1975
Jacob Broom, a modest and hardworking businessman, is one of the least known signers of the United States Constitution. There is not even a contemporary portrait available of him.
Broom was the only one of the five Delaware delegates to the Constitutional Convention who was not a lawyer. Born in Wilmington in 1752, Broom was a surveyor and conveyor of title. He also dealt in real estate and operated a number of business ventures, including a machine shop and served as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Delaware Bank.
Being a delegate to the Constitutional Convention was his only venture into national politics, but he held a number of local offices, including chief Burgess of Wilmington, Justice of the Peace of New Castle County and member of the Delaware state legislature.
He married Rachel Pierce and had eight children. He was a member of Old Swedes Church. He lived originally in the city of Wilmington until 1795 when he built a house for his family near his cotton mills on the banks of the Brandywine. In 1802 he sold the house and mills to Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, who founded his gunpowder mills there. These mills were the beginning of the DuPont Company. Jacob Broom died in 1810 in Philadelphia and is buried in Christ Church Burial Ground.
The Jacob Broom house, also known as Hagley, is privately owned and not open to the public.
Photo by: Jack E. Boucher [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Sources:
Jacob Broom genealogy page: http://www.mccullough.nl/Jacob_Broom.htm
Nomination form of Jacob Broom House for National Register of Historic Places
Signers of the Constitution Biographical Sketches
Campbell, William W. “Life and Character of Jacob Broom,” Historical and Biographical Papers of the State of Delaware, v. 5 (1909)
Drescher, Nuala M. Jacob Broom: A Biographical Sketch. Hagley Museum, 1959
Map of the Delaware Coastal Zone
This year is the 40th anniversary of the Delaware Coastal Zone Act. Originally signed into law by Gov. Russell Peterson in 1971, the Act prohibited new heavy industry uses in Delaware’s coastal area and regulates other uses. Widener Law will present a program on September 30th on the Coastal Zone Act highlighting it’s history, controversies, and challenges.
Delaware Coastal Zone Act sources:
Delaware Coastal Zone Act regulations
Delaware Coastal Zone Act Program
For more information on the Delaware Coastal Zone Act see:
Joel M. Goodman. The Delaware Coastal Zone Experience. 5 Envtl. L. 727 (1974-1975)
Kenneth T. Kristl. Keeping the Coast Clear: Lessons about Protecting the Natural Environment by Controlling Industrial Development under Delaware’s Coastal Zone Act. 25 Pace Envtl. L. Rev. 37 (2008)
Lombardy Hall, country home of Gunning Bedford Jr.
Three miles south of the Widener Law campus, just off route 202, is Lombardy Hall, farm and country home of Gunning Bedford, Jr., Delaware attorney, judge and signer of the United States Constitution. Bedford was born in 1747 in Philadelphia and attended what is now Princeton University where he roomed with James Madison. He studied law with Joseph Reed and eventually moved to Delaware, first to Dover and then to Wilmington. He represented Delaware at the Continental Congress, was a member of the Delaware legislature and was Delaware’s attorney general. Bedford had a cousin, confusingly also named Gunning Bedford, who was also an attorney, an officer in the Continental Army and governor of Delaware.
Gunning Bedford, Jr.
At the Constitutional Convention, Bedford spoke strongly for the rights of small states like Delaware. Another delegate, William Pearce, described him as “… a bold and nervous Speaker, and has a very commanding and striking manner; -but he is warm and impetuous in his temper, and precipitate in his judgment. Mr. Bedford is about 32 years old, and very corpulant.”
Bedford was selected by George Washington to be federal district judge for Delaware. He held this position until he died in 1812.
Lombardy Hall was Bedford’s country home; he also had a town house in Wilmington at 606 Market St. After his death Lombardy Hall went through several owners and eventually became vacant. In 1967 it was purchased by the local Masonic Lodge (Bedford was the first Masonic Grand Master of Delaware) and restored. It is open to the public by appointment only.
Photos from: Wikimedia Commons
For more information: Conrad, Henry C. Gunning Bedford Junior. Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware, vol 26, 1900.
September 17th is Constitution Day. In honor of Constitution Day Widener professor Alan Garfield assembles an annual collection of essays on the Constitution. This year’s essays on “The Constitution and the Economy” are by Orrin G. Hatch, Erwin Chemerinsky, and others.
Louis Redding confers with Thurgood Marshall
Louis L. Redding was the first, and for twenty six years the only, African-American attorney in the state of Delaware. Born in 1901, Redding grew up in Wilmington and attended Howard High School, at that time the only high school in the state of Delaware open to black students. He graduated from Brown University and Harvard Law School.
In 1929 Redding passed the Delaware Bar Exam. His most difficult challenge had been finding a preceptorship, or clerkship, at that time a requirement for Delaware bar admission. No white attorney would offer Redding a clerkship, until Judge Daniel O. Hastings reluctantly agreed to serve as Reddings preceptor. Hastings encouraged Redding to never enter his office, so Redding did his studying at home or in the library.
Redding started a general practice in Wilmington, taking on criminal and family cases, but he also practiced in all three counties in Delaware. He was legal counsel for the Wilmington NAACP. Some of the many civil rights cases he handled were Parker v. Univ. of Delaware, 31 Del. Ch. 381, 75 A.2d 225 (Del. Ch. 1950) (which integrated the University of Delaware), Gebhart v. Belton, 33 Del. Ch. 144, 87 A.2d 862 (Del. Ch. 1952), aff’d, 91 A.2d 137 (Del. 1952) (which eventually became part of Brown v. Board of Education, integrating the public schools) and Burton v. Wilmington Parking Authority, 365 U.S. 715 (1961) (ending segregation in publicly owned properties).
Louis L. Redding died in 1998. His many contributions were eventually acknowledged by the state of Delaware. The University of Delaware established the Louis L. Redding Chair for the Study of Law and Public Policy and the City/County building in Wilmington was named after him. There is also a Louis L. Redding Middle School.
For more information on Louis L. Redding see:
Woolard-Provine, Annette. Integrating Delaware: The Reddings of Wilmington. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2003. F174.W79 N4 2003
Williams, Leonard L., Louis L. Redding 16 Del. Law. 10 (1998-1999)
The Delaware Trial Practice Forum has just started a new blog www.delawaretrialpracticeforum.com providing advice and news to Delaware lawyers. They are also looking for volunteers to write for the blog so here’s your chance to write and share information with other attorneys.
Originally created in 1988 by Judge Vincent A. Bifferato, the Delaware Trial Practice Forum describe its goals as “… to provide free continuing legal education (CLE) credits to those who are just starting out and to offer those young attorneys a chance to become acquainted with each other as well as with more experienced attorneys.” They have traditionally offered a series of free seminars for young attorneys.
There’s still a little bit of summer left so you have time for some summer reading. The ABA Journal cover story for this month is 30 Lawyers 30 Books. Here’s a direct link to the list of books. The Journal asked 30 top lawyers to recommend a book that other lawyers should read. You’ll find a lot of good selections in the last.
The University of Washington law library has created a handy list of all the books on WorldCat so you can find them quickly in your library.
Follow the latest US Supreme Court cases on your iPhone or other mobile device with OyezToday. OyezToday has easy-to-grasp abstracts for every case granted review, timely and searchable audio of oral arguments + transcripts, and up-to-date summaries of the Court’s most recent decisions including the Court’s full opinions.
The app was created by IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law and is available for both iPhone, iPad and Android devices FREE.
Loyalty’s Core Demand: The Defining Role of Good Faith in Corporation Law 98 Geo. L.J. 629 (2010), an article co-authored by Widener professor Lawrence Hamermesh, along with Leo E. Strine, Vice Chancellor of Delaware’s Court of Chancery, R. Franklin Balotti, of Richards, Layton and Finger, and Jeffrey M. Gorris, of Bouchard Margules & Friedlander, has been named one of the top 10 corporate and securities articles of 2010.
The Top 10 Corporate and Securities Articles poll is conducted annually by Corporate Practice Commentator. Teachers of corporate and securities law chose the winners from a list of over 440 articles that were published in 2010.
HeinOnline is back up. Please contact the reference desk if you have any problems.
Need some ideas for summer reading? One of my favorite websites, The Browser, has a great section called Five Books, where they interview people about five books they would recommend on their subject area. Recently they interviewed Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer on his intellectual influences. Other law related book lists include Scott Turow on legal novels, FBI agent Kevin Slotter on the FBI and crime, and Jack Rakove on the Constitution. Plus their special Five Books coverage of American Conservatism, featuring Karl Rove, Mitch Daniels, David Frum and more.
OK, while you all read the law books, I’m going with Simon Kernick on thrillers.
