Legal Quotations
Part of the Crouch
& Crouch law firm's Family Law Materials
Quotations selected and presented as "Legal Quotation of the Quarter"
in their state bar's family law newsletter by Richard
E. Crouch and John Crouch
Spring 2002-- "This is the
Nineties."
- A Virginia judge on Feb. 14, 2002, explaining a custody award of three
girls to their mother, who was romantically involved with her husband's
20-year-old nephew (the children's cousin) and had illegitimate twins by
him.
Winter 2001-- "We have got to stop having our profession ruined
by the people who can afford to take five days off and fly to San Francisco,
rather than practice law."
That's F. Bosley Crowther III of Palmyra asking us all to cheer for Virginia
State Bar President Mike Glasser, in a letter to the editor in the Oct.
8 Virginia Lawyers Weekly. Those of you who have been to Palmyra
to litigate know that is one of those lonely little places where the court
house hasn't got much else around it. Mr. Crowther commended Mr. Glasser
for standing up to the American Bar Association and working successfully
for the rejection of an "oppressive and unworkable 'ethical' standard"
that would have required a written contract for any and all attorney-client
relationships. But as Mr. Crowther sagely observes, this unwise proposal
will soon be back, because "dumb ideas never die."
Fall 2001
"Perhaps the adage that hard cases make bad law should be revised to
cover easy cases."
Justice John Paul Stevens, concurring with and commenting on his eight
colleagues' lengthy concurring plurality opinions in the "easy case"
of Burnham v. Supreme Court, 110 S.Ct. 2105 (1990)
Summer,
2001
We talked of the practice of the Law. Sir William Forbes said he thought
an honest lawyer should never undertake a cause which he was satisfied was
not a just one. "Sir," said Mr. Johnson, "a lawyer has no
business with the justice or injustice of the cause which he undertakes,
unless his client asks his opinion, and then he is bound to give it honestly.
The justice or injustice of the cause is to be decided by the judge. If
lawyers were to undertake no causes till they were sure they were just,
a man might be precluded altogether from a trial of his claim, though, were
it judicially examined, it might be found a very just claim."
-- Boswell, Tour to the Hebrides.
Spring 2001
"As Doctors seldom take their own prescriptions and Divines do not
always practise what they preach, so Lawyers are very shy of meddling with
the Law on their own account, knowing it to be an edged tool of uncertain
application, very expensive in the working, and rather remarkable for its
properties of close shaving, than for its always shaving the right person."
-- Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop
Winter 2000
Quilp's Notes
Being A Selection Of Excerpts Intended to Bring the Perspective of Past
Ages to Bear Upon Such Matters As Marriage, Divorce, Custody, Relations
Between The Sexes Generally, The Courts And Law Practice
Judge Ingram recently reminisced about the changes that have occurred
in divorce proceedings since he first began the practice of law in 1952.
During the 1950's and early 60's, it was quite common for the husband to
have disabilities imposed upon him. The disabilities were in the form of
a court order prohibiting the Husband from remarrying until the Court by
subsequent order removed the disabilities thereby permitting him to remarry.
Judge Ingram related one true story of the convenience of having disabilities
placed on an incurably romantic lawyer who wanted to avoid the fate of remarriage.
A Cobb County lawyer insisted that Judge Ingram's predecessor, Judge Jim
Manning, impose disabilities upon him at the time of his divorce trial.
Judge Manning was not going to impose the disabilities, but the lawyer insisted
on it. Thereafter, the lawyer carried a certified copy of the order with
him at all times. The lawyer was quite romantically inclined and invariably
the subject of marriage would arise with the ladies he was courting. He
would explain that nothing would make him happier than to marry them, but
that he was as a matter of law not able to marry. However, the fact that
they were not going to be able to marry should not prevent them from enjoying
connubial bliss.
From "A Candid Interview with The Honorable G. Conley Ingram",
Georgia State Bar Family Law Newsletter July/August 2000. Judge Ingram,
Senior Judge of the Superior Courts of Georgia, has served on the Cobb County
Juvenile Court, the Superior Court, and the Georgia Supreme Court, and chaired
the Georgia State Bar Family Law Section.
Summer 2000
Quilp's Notes
Being A Selection Of Excerpts Intended to Bring the Perspective of
Past Ages to Bear Upon Such Matters As Marriage, Divorce, Custody, Relations
Between The Sexes Generally, The Courts And Law Practice
"Now, the ladies being together under these circumstances,
it was extremely natural that this discourse should turn upon the propensity
of mankind to tyrannize over the weaker sex, and the duty that devolved
upon the weaker sex to resist that tyranny and assert their rights and dignity.
It was natural for four reasons; firstly because Mrs. Quilp, being a young
woman and notoriously under the dominion of her husband, ought to be excited
to rebel, secondly because Mrs. Quilp's parent was known to be laudably
shrewish in her disposition and inclined to resist male authority, thirdly
because each visitor wished to show for herself how superior she was in
this respect to the generality of her sex, and fourthly because the company
being accustomed to scandalize each other in pairs were deprived of their
usual subject of conversation now that they were all assembled in close
friendship and had consequently no better employment than to attack the
common enemy. ...
"'Ah!' said the spokeswoman. 'I wish you'd give her a little of your
advice, Mrs. Jiniwin' - Mrs. Quilp had been a Miss Jiniwin, it should be
observed - 'nobody knows better than you, ma'am, what us women owe to ourselves.'
"'Owe indeed, ma'am,' replied Mrs. Jiniwin. 'When my poor husband,
her dear father, was alive, if he had ever ventured a cross word to me,
I'd have - 'the good old lady did not finish the sentence, but twisted off
the head of a shrimp with a vindictiveness which seemed to imply that the
action was in some degree a substitute for words. ... The lady from the
Minories recounted a successful course of treatment under which she had
placed her own husband, who, from manifesting one month after marriage unequivocal
symptoms of the tiger, had by this means become subdued into a perfect lamb.
Another lady recounted her own personal struggle and final triumph, in
the course of which she had found it necessary to call in her mother and
two aunts, and to weep incessantly night and day for six weeks."
- Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, 1840.
And The Bench
(Spousal contributions to professional career development)
Sir John Aubrey corroborates at least the first half of this story,
which is related in the January 2000 issue of The Countryman by Peter
Wotton on page 93:
"Perhaps the most amazing story is that of Sir John Popham (1531-1607)
who, in his younger days, mixed with wild companions and took purses from
highway travelers. Later his wife persuaded him to give up a life of crime
saying that 'he could with application make as much money by the law as
by highway robbery!' She was proved to be right and he rose to be Lord Justice
of England. On one occasion Sir John sat in judgment on one of his former
companions and took the opportunity to inquire about their early associates.
'All the villains are hanged, my Lord' replied the prisoner, 'except you
and me!'"
Aubrey adds for our particular edification that it was Lord Chief Justice
Popham who "first ... sett-a-foote the Plantations, e.g., Virginia,
which he stockt or planted out of all the Gaoles of England."
Summer 2000
LEGAL QUOTATION OF THE QUARTER
"There are far too many lawyers who are entirely too accommodating
to judges on these [evidentiary] issues -- on the record, they appear to
be agreeing with the judge [who has just ruled against them on an objection]."
--The Hon. Donald W. Lemons of the Court of Appeals of Virginia, at the
October, 1999 VCLE advanced Guardian Ad Litem seminar.
Spring, 2000:
"Lawyers cannot remain empty of head and pure of heart.... A lawyer
has a duty to investigate or take some steps to inform himself in a situation
where he believes that there is client perjury."
Barry S. Alberts, Co-Chair of Ethics and Professionalism Committee, ABA
Litigation Section, at 25/2 Litigation News 5 (January 2000).
Fall, 1999
"[Defendant's] position rests on the unstated assumption that illicit
sexual intercourse consists solely of the normal act of consummation between
a man and a woman. We need not decide exactly what sex acts do and do not
constitute adultery. Suffice it to say that where, as here, a married woman,
with a history of having committed adultery, spends the night, undressed,
in the same bed with a man, with whom it appears she is romantically involved
and to whom she is not married, her actions warrant the finding that she
has committed adultery."
Panhorst v. Panhorst, 390 SE2d 376 (S.C. App. 1990)
If you
are looking for the most self-righteous people in America, go to divorce
court. Nobody's to blame, nobody's done anything wrong. We aren't happy
with the situation, but we don't know what to do. The people who suffer
the most are the children who are impoverished as a result of divorce --
impoverished not only financially but also emotionally. They are neglected
by the absentee parent and are caught for years in the free-fire zone of
post-divorce combat. The one thing we can probably all agree on is that
we haven't figured out a way to make most marriages work, or most divorces
work.
--Washington Post columnist Judy Mann, "Helping the Real
Victims of Divorce"
Every society requires a critical mass of
families that fit the traditional ideal, both to meet the needs of most
children and to serve as a model for other adults who are raising children
in difficult settings. We are at risk of losing that critical mass in America
today."
--Hillary R. Clinton, It Takes a Village to Raise A Child, p. 50
"I cannot conceive how any man can have brought himself to that
pitch of presumption, to consider his country as nothing but carte blanche
upon which he may scribble whatever he pleases."
--Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790).
Opra End edition (N.Y.1984) 266.
"Under such misconduct of either
of the parties, for it may exist on one side as well as the other, the suffering
party must bear, in some degree, the consequences of an injudicious connection;
must subdue, by decent resistance or prudent conciliation; and if this cannot
be done, both must suffer in silence. And, if it is complained that by this
inactivity of the courts much injustice may be suffered, and much misery
produced, the answer is that the courts of justice do not pretend to furnish
cures for all the miseries of human life. They punish or redress gross violations
of duty -- they cannot make men virtuous; and as the happiness of the world
depends upon virtue, there maybe much unhappiness which human laws cannot
undertake to remove."
--From Zinkhan v. Zinkhan , 2 Va. App. 200.
To
say . . . that a court should never consider whether a parent is willing
and able to expose children to and educate children on their heritage, is
to say that society is not interested in whether children ever learn who
they are. . . "
--South Dakota Supreme Court, in Jones v. Jones, 22 FLR 1153 (1/10/96),
explaining why awarding a half-Indian child to his Indian father did not
violate the rule of Palmore v. Sidoti, 466 U.S. 429 (1984).
Maybe
Nobody Else Thinks So, But They Do:
"The Court was unanimously of the view that 'the interest of parents
in their relationship with their children is sufficiently fundamental to
come within the finite class of liberty interests protected by the Fourteenth
Amendment'."
Justice Ginsburg, writing for the majority in M.L.B. v. S.L.J, ___ U.S.
___, 23 FLR 2013 (12/16/96), quoting from the dissent of Justice Rehnquist
(455 U.S. at 774) in Santosky v. Kramer, 455 U.S. 745 (1982).
"As
a profession we have become afraid of our clients, much like parents who
don't discipline their children. Senior lawyers no longer teach junior lawyers
to discriminate between things their clients want them to do."
Joe Condo, speaking on "The Idea of Professionalism" at the
Annual Meeting of the Virginia State Bar, June 20, 1997.
Sound familiar?
Maybe this person had a bad experience with the legal system.
"No one enters suit justly, no one goes to court honestly; they rely
on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and bring forth
iniquity. "Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does
not overtake us; we look for light, and behold obscurity, and for brightness,
but we walk in gloom. We grope for the wall like the blind, we grope like
those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight; among those
in full vigor we are like dead men. We all roar like bears, and mourn sore
like doves; we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but
it is far from us. "Judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands
afar off; for truth has fallen in the public squares, and uprightness cannot
enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey."
- Isaiah 59: 4, 9-11, 14-15
"Neither Iowa law, Michigan
law, nor federal law authorizes unrelated persons to retain custody of a
child whose natural parents have not been found to be unfit simply because
they may be better able to provide for her future and her education. As
the Iowa Supreme Court stated: 'Courts are not free to take children from
parents simply by deciding another home appears more advantageous.'"
-- U.S. Supreme Court Justice John P. Stevens, refusing a stay pending
appeal of the Michigan court decision in the "Jessica" case, July
26, 1993.
Fall, '93
JUDICIAL CONSISTENCY:
"The doctrine of the law then
is this: that precedents and rules must be followed, unless flatly absurd
or unjust; for though their reason be not obvious at first view, yet we
owe such a deference to former times as not to suppose that they acted wholly
without consideration."
-Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries Volume I, Section III *Page No.
7
BACK WHEN THEY KNEW HOW TO WRITE
STATUTES:
Once upon a time, in a kingdom far away, statutes were permitted to include
clear rules, simple tests, and one-syllable words:
"Concerning wrecks of the sea, it is agreed that where a man, a dog,
or a cat escape quick out of a ship, that such ship, nor barge, nor anything
within them shall be adjudged wreck, but the goods shall be saved and kept
by view of the sheriff ... and delivered into the hands of such as are of
the town where the goods are found; so that if any sue for those goods,
and after proof that they were his, or perished in his keeping, within a
year and a day, they shall be restored to him without delay; and if not,
they shall remain to the king ..."
--Statute of Westminster, 3 Edw. I. c. 4
Winter '96:
The real and difficult question in this case is whether the Court has
the authority to consent to life-saving medical treatment being withheld
from an infant. The Court holds that it does not. Petitioner argues that
the Court has the authority to grant the requested relief under its general
power to do whatever is in the best interest of a child. The Court is unaware
of any such general power.
In Re Infant C. (Johnson), 10 VLW 741 (Richmond Cir.,
11/17/95).
Summer '95
"Although it is not so as a matter of law, it will be a rare case where
the child will not be adversely affected when a relocation of the custodial
parent and child requires substantial alteration of a successful custody-visitation
arrangement in which both parents have substantial contact with the child."
-----(The North Carolina Court of Appeals in Ramirez-Barker v. Barker,
418 SE 2d 675, 680 (1992), explaining that although it is the non-custodial
parent's burden to prove that relocation will have an adverse effect on
the child's welfare in order to make the relocation a "change in circumstances,"
it was affirming a decision changing custody upon relocation.)
"To
the extent, however, that a court can meaningfully control the custody of
older children, courts or legislatures should not set a fixed age at which
a child is given a near-absolute right to choose his custodial parent. One
court has observed, 'Were it otherwise, the law would encourage manipulation
by both children and parents and foster a breakdown in discipline, neither
of which is in the best interest of children.'"
Elkins v. Vanden Bosch, 433 So. 2d 1251, 1253 (Fla. App. 1983).
Jeff Atkinson, Modern Child Custody Practice (Michie, 1986)
"Dissolution
actions by their nature are a hindsight view of family economic relationships
engaged in when the marriage was functioning as a cohesive and loving unit.
We do not believe that hindsight view must be applied to such relationships
in the same legalistic fashion that it would be to arm's length business
transactions. Intrafamily activities are not, and should not be, conducted
as if the parties were adversaries each interested in protecting his or
her own interest. Marriage is a personal partnership based upon love, trust
and a mutuality of interest and benefit. When it comes apart courts must
assess the economic activities from the perspective of the parties as loving
partners, not from the perspective of adversaries as they are at trial of
the dissolution proceeding."
Milde v. Milde, 723 S.W. 2d 471, 473-474 (Mo. App. 1986).
Blackstone
on divorce:
Matrimonial causes, or injuries respecting the rights of marriage, are another,
and a much more undisturbed, branch of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction.Though
if we consider marriages in the light of mere civil contracts, they do not
seem to be properly of spiritual cognizance. But ... these causes,
indeed, partly from the nature of the injuries complained of, and
partly from the clerical method of treating them, soon became too gross
for the modesty of a lay tribunal.
[unexpurgated version, showing how this revolting development was engineered
by the popes as an awsomely effective way of controlling kings and nobles,
is found below as the Fall 1994 Quotation]:
Fall '94: A Somewhat-Less-Than-Impartial View of Divorce Practice
Matrimonial law practice is a subject which generates strong opinions,
and even the most respected legal commentators have tended to write upon
it in opinionated fashion at times. Even Blackstone was moved to let a few
of his prejudices show in Book III, Page *92-93:
"Matrimonial causes, or injuries respecting the rights
of marriage, are another, and a much more undisturbed, branch of the
ecclesiastical jurisdiction .Though if we consider marriages in the
light of mere civil contracts, they do not seem to be properly of
spiritual cognizance. (v) But the Romanists having very early converted
this contract into a holy sacramental ordinance, the church of course
took it under her protection, upon the division, of the two jurisdictions
and, in the hands of such able politicians, it soon be- came an engine
of great importance to the papal scheme of an universal monarchy over Christendom.
The numberless canonical impediments that were invented, and occasionally
dispensed with, by the holy see, not only enriched the coffers of
the church, but gave it a an ascendant over princes of all denominations;
whose marriages were sanctified or reprobated, their issue legitimated
or bastardized, and the succession to their thrones established or
rendered [*93] precarious, according *to the humor or interest of the reigning
pontiff; besides a thousand nice and difficult scruples, with which the
clergy of those ages puzzled the understandings and loaded the consciences
of the inferior orders of the laity; and which could only be unravelled
and removed by these their spiritual guides. Yet, abstracted from
this universal influence, which affords so good a reason for their
conduct, one might otherwise be led to wonder, that the same authority,
which enjoined the strictest celibacy to the priesthood, should think them
the proper judges in causes between man and wife. These causes, indeed,
partly from the nature of tbe injuries complained of, and partly from
tbe clerical method of treating them, soon became too gross for the
modesty of a lay tribunal.
Quilp's Notes
Being A Selection of Excerpts Intended to Bring the Perspective of Past
Ages to Bear Upon Such Matters as Marriage, Divorce, Custody, Relations
Between the Sexes Generally, the Courts and Law Practice
Little Work for Divorce Lawyers on the Riviera
"In the summer, about eight or nine at night, part of the noblesse
may be seen assembled in a place called the Parc: which is, indeed, a sort
of a street formed by a row of very paltry houses on one side, and on the
other, by part of the town-wall, which screens it from a prospect of the
sea, the only object that could render it agreeable. Here you may perceive
the noblesse stretched in pairs upon logs of wood, like so many seals upon
the rocks by moon-light, each dame with her cicisbeo: for, you must
understand, this Italian fashion prevails at Nice among all ranks of people;
and there is not such a passion as jealousy known. The husband and the cicisbeo
live together as sworn brothers; and the wife and the mistress embrace each
other with marks of the warmest affection. I do not choose to enter into
particulars, I cannot open the scandalous chronicle of Nice, without hazard
of contamination. With respect to delicacy and decorum, you may peruse Dean
Swift's description of the Yahoos, and then you will have some idea of the
porcheria, that distinguishes the gallantry of Nice." Tobias
Smollett, Travels through France and Italy, 1764
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