Writing case

“ In any case in the Court of Claims where both parties request in writing, at the time the case is submitted, that the facts be specially found, it shall be the duty of that court to make and enter special findings of fact as part of its judgment. ”

“ Those sustaining indictments in cases similar to this hold that the term 'writing' comprehends 'letters,' and insist that, even if the general phrase 'other publication' is allowed to apply to the word, the sending or mailing a letter by one person to another is a sufficient publication to bring a letter within the statute, as is held to be the case in an action of slander and libel. ”

“ Such, for instance, would be the case where a fact was attested by one witness only, when the law required two;o r when the alleged agreement was proven to be verbal when the law required it to be in writing. ”

“ In the statute under consideration, the word 'writing' is used as one of a group or class of words, book, pamphlet, picture, paper, writing, print,-each of which is ordinarily and prima facie understood to be a publication ”

“ MISCELLANEOUS ADDRESS—LEGAL—DELIBERATE—POPULAR—CONTROVERSIAL. The speech adapted to the bench and bar presents some peculiar features. The lawyer deals with facts and living issues. He works for immediate results, and therefore uses the means best adapted to secure them. The use of manuscript, which increases in proportion as we remove from the sphere of passion, finds no place when life and property are at stake. The lawyer who would read his appeal to the jury in an exciting case, would have few others to make. ”

“ No one can be tried either by civil or criminal process for written, printed, or published facts, unless it has been recognized and declared by a jury: 1st, whether there is an offence in the writing denounced ”

“ After you have attracted attention and stimulated the interest of the reader, you have made a good beginning, but only a beginning; you then have the hard task of holding that interest, explaining your proposition, pointing out the superiority of the goods or the service that you are trying to sell and making an inducement that will bring in the orders. Your case is in court, the jury has been drawn, the judge is attentive and the opposing counsel is alert—it is up to you to prove your case. ”

“ What confidence can you put in that kind of testimony? I would like to have you, gentlemen, some time, or I would like to have anybody who has the slightest interest in the thing, read this affidavit and see whether it is the work of two or the work of one. You let two men write, one writing one paragraph and the other another paragraph, and then you read it; there is no man in the world accustomed to read books that cannot instantly detect the difference in style, the different mode of expression, the different use of language. ”

“ A reference to the actual condition of things at the time, as they appeared to the parties themselves, is often necessary to prevent the court, in construing their language, from falling into mistakes and even absurdities. On this subject Professor Greenleaf says: 'The writing, it is true, may be read by the light of surrounding circumstances, in order more perfectly to understand the intent and meaning of the parties; but, as they have constituted the writing to be the only outward and visible expression of their meaning, no other words are to be added to it, or substituted in its stead. ”

“ I could explain to you much better by seeing you than by writing. Just please see if you understand me this time. It is so difficult for me to explain by letter. I wish I could see you.'
'I am not positive that what you make will be just what I want when finished. ”

“ They abound in capital anecdotes, but a few of which we have been able to give—possess passages of very effective writing—and form a work which ought to be in the library of every lawyer, statesman, and English gentleman. ”

“ Different forms of expression are employed in later enactments, but all which are applicable to the case before the court are, except as to time, substantially to the same effect. 13 id. 214, sect. 14. ”

“ I must have my paper and pen or pencil before me to set my thoughts flowing in such form that they can be written continuously. There have been lawyers who could think out their whole argument in connected order without a single note. There are authors,—and I think there are many,—who can compose and finish off a poem or a story without writing a word of it until, when the proper time comes, they copy what they carry in their heads. ”

“ But I am anticipating, I fear, my defence, and introducing too early observations, which will better be urged in a subsequent part of my address to you. I will, therefore, pass at once to the paper charged as a libel in the indictment, and examine, under what circumstances it has come before you. And in the first place, as to the publication, without which (whatever the nature of the writing may be, there can be no crime) who are morally the publishers of this pamphlet? ”

“ The inquiry upon this application, therefore, is whether the matter is of sufficient importance in itself, and sufficiently open to controversy, to make it the duty of this court to issue the writ applied for in order that the case may be reviewed and determined as if brought here on appeal or writ of error. ”

“ By collecting (but not editing1) all reports of all the cases and publishing them verbatim in a series of volumes. This saves mechanical labour, and is the most that can be done for the legal historian; for excision of any portion of a case might involve the omission of matter which he ought to examine, however worthless it might be from a modern point of view. ”

“ A great part is played in English law by what are called legal fictions. Lawyers have been able in many most important cases to alter the law by ingenious devices for applying to one case rules primarily and ostensibly intended for others. ”

“ If we find, in the act of its creation, an enumeration of duties and powers which are to be performed and exercised by writing, it is evidence that the creator considered it as certain that the creature would write, and that the evidence of its conformity to the will of the creator would be found in writing. ”

“ All the exceptions that were argued in the court below or here relate only to questions of fact, depending on the weight of evidence. The court omitted to find the facts, and the case comes here on the evidence. ”

“ A writ of error is, indeed, but a process, which removes the record of one court to the possession of another court, and enables the latter to inspect the proceedings, and give such judgment, as its own opinion of the law and justice of the case may warrant. ”

“ When we try to play up the most interesting feature of a court report we find that we must fall back upon the same beginnings that we used in reporting speeches and interviews. There are several possible ways of beginning such a story, depending upon the phase of the case or its testimony that is of greatest importance.
1. Name Beginning.—The proper name beginning is very common. It is always used when any one of prominence is involved in the story or when the name, although unknown, can be made interesting in itself—as in a human interest story. ”

“ If the proofs were doubtful and unsatisfactory, if there is a failure to overcome this presumption by testimony enterely plain and convincing beyond reasonable controversy, the writing will be held to express correctly the intention of the parties. ”

“ When they write the place of documentation, they write, “this is what so and so told us and we wrote it in such and such place.” If, however, they are writing the place where the testimony was handed over, they write “so and so told us” or “we made a kinyan from so and so in such and such place and we wrote and signed it and handed it over to so and so.” ”

“ Not one of those tests of popularity, which appertain to the career of the most common of attorneys, seem to apply to the case of our learned Recorder, upon whose brow honor and glory have stumbled as it were by accident. ”

“ In such cases the witness is required to compare the admitted handwriting of the person whose writing is in question with the disputed document, and to state in detail the similarities or differences as to the formation of words and letters, on which he bases his opinion as to the genuineness or otherwise of the disputed document. ”

“ This will appear from an examination of a few of the strongest cases on each side of the question.'
He then goes into an examination of the decided cases, for which it is only necessary to refer to the case itself. ”

“ When any person enters his action against another, he sets down his claim in writing, and the defendant writes down his defence, which he signs, and holds between his fingers. These two writings are delivered in together, and being examined, sentence is pronounced in writing, and the parties have each his paper returned to him ”

“ It is not to be denied that in a writing descriptive of property to be transferred or assigned the more general words, which include all that is intended to be conveyed, are not to be frittered away by an attempt at a description of each particular thing fairly included in the more general language. ”

“ Where two signatures or two specimens of writing are in question and one exhibit is a forgery and the other is genuine, or where both are genuine, yet in question, the expert is in the position of making his proofs and demonstrations convincing to the layman—the hard headed citizen who insists that "you show me." Frequently this citizen is on a jury where he has had to admit that he is not particularly intelligent before he would be accepted for the place. ”

“ But what is 'form' and what is the 'tissue of the structure,' and when is a writ sought in fact as a substitute for an appeal in a practical view of the administration of justice, are questions to which our decisions give dubious and confused answers. ”

“ The questions to which we have given attention, and which are decisive of the case, are:--
First, Whether the plaintiff was bound to prove that two copies of the book had been deposited with the Librarian or in a post-office, according to the requirements of the law? ”

“ A recommendation in writing being looked for, who else ought to give it to me? As I says in the letter in my daughter's hand, with my mark put to it to make it good in law, Who but you, Lawyer Lightwood, ought to hand over this here stifficate, and who but you ought to go in for damages on my account agin the Steamer? ”

“ It is true, of course, that no two lawyers talk precisely alike, but it is also true that it is possible to suggest a lawyer speaking by a proper choice of words, and that is the thing to do, naturally and unobtrusively. ”

“ It begins to grow interesting and I believe it will bear watching. Make me, then, as your lawyer, the custodian of all pertinent and impertinent papers. They can go into the locker where I keep your immortal but impecunious Will. Some day I might have to appear in court, I with my shovel and five senses and no imagination, to plead une cause célèbre (a little more of my scant intimate French) .
The explanation I give of this gratuitously insulting letter is that at last you have run into a hostile human imagination in the person of an old literary polecat, an aged book-skunk. ”

“ Unless there is some special reason which appears to the Court, or on the request of the adverse counsel, questions are not commonly reduced to writing, but when there is a special reason in the mind of the Court, or it is required by the opposite counsel, questions may be directed to be committed to writing. ”

“ To determine whether the case which we have supposed in the case at bar we must consider whether we can see reasonable grounds for believing that the book was privileged, or that it was not,-it does not matter for our purposes in which form the question is put. ”

“ In construing letters like those on which this suit is based, the language employed is one, but not the only, element to be considered in arriving at the intention of the writers. In determining the sense in which the words were used, they should be considered in connection with the subject-matter of the correspondence, the situation of the parties, the thing to be done, and the surrounding circumstances. ”

“ I have seen six of the most distinguished literary men in England—popular men, too, as well as geniuses—give evidence in a Court of Law, and yet the calling out of name after name did not cause even one of the solicitors' clerks to raise his head from the paper which he was reading, and the jurymen chatted together without being in the smallest degree impressed by the prospect of hearing the great one's voice. ”

“ The transcript, upon which the case was heard in the supreme court, was stipulated by the attorneys for the respective parties to be 'a full, correct, true, and complete transcript of the proceedings in said cause on appeal, and of all the pleadings in said cause, of all orders on demurrer, of the findings of the court and conclusions therefrom, and of the judgment, and of notice of intention to move for a new trial, and of the notice of appeal, and of the bill of exceptions and statement of motion for new trial.' In short, this supplemental transcript is a mere excrescence. ”

“ All is dull, solemn, and dry—paper, paper, paper—a redundancy of paper, as if it were possible to transfer the blush of perjury to paper. Fifty people will make affidavits for one that will go into a witness-box and have the truth twisted out of them by cross-examination. ”

“ When a sentence—not a judicial one—presents any difficulty, he writes it out hastily on a small piece of paper before he puts it down in the manuscript. He is in the habit of revising and copying dramatic work at least three times before he submits it to a stage-manager. ”

“ The formal, legal-looking document which we today call an indenture gives us no hint of its humble origin, but the word when analyzed by the technique of philology tells the whole story, and throws much light upon the legal practices of our forbears. Having discovered one such valuable fact in philology, the student of law may be led to investigate the science still further and find many more. ”