Law ammusement
Law Hodgepodge
Legal cases against animals were quite popular in ancient French law.
In 1445, there was a case brought against certain beetles which had destroyed crop. The beetles failed to obey the summons against them to appear in court and the proceedings were abandoned.
Again, in the late 1500s, a case was brought against certain rats which had infested homes in a certain village. The local defence lawyer argued that the rats of the entire village should be summoned. This bought some time as a plea was issued summoning all the rats in the village to attend upon the court on the day named in the summons. Again, the rats failed to appear and the lawyer explained that this was a matter requiring great preparation and that his clients would need more time. When the rats failed to appear the third time, the lawyer said that his clients were more then prepared to come but that they were fearful that local cats might not allow them to make it all the way to the courthouse. The case was struck from the court's agenda.
There are also many tales of animal trials in American history. In 1924, a dog was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Pike County, Pennsylvania court, for killing a cat.
In Erwin, Tennessee, 1916, a circus elephant went berserk and attacked her trainer. A hastily arranged court sentenced her to die and she was literally hung from a chain hoisted from a derrick. See also The Trial of the Hartlepool Monkey.
National sumptuary laws, or laws which try to control personal behaviour such as what people eat and drink, are rare. But this was not always the case.
Some Roman and the Greek laws prohibited kissing in public and decorated ceilings or doors. An English law in 1336 prohibited anyone from having more than two courses at any meal.
In 1363, the British faced the Statute of Diet which said that the servants of Lords should eat meat or fish once a day (a subsequent amendment to that law, to help a struggling fishery industry, prohibited the eating of red meat on Fridays or Saturdays). The 1363 law also regulated the wearing of silk and purple; the poor (families of servants) were prohibited from wearing silk or fur. Only lords were allowed to wear a jacket that did not cover the knees. Only the Royal Family was allowed to wear purple.
A man was being sentenced with death for having stolen some horses. The prisoner replied to the judge that he was being too severely punished for "only" stealing a horse.
The judge replied: "Man, thou art not hanged only for stealing a horse, but that horses may not be stolen."
This reply was used for centuries to defend the harsh sentences of British law (and the principle of deterrence) which obviously had yet no concept of proportionality.
According to the Book of Lists #3 (Amy Wallace: Bantam Books, 1983), Gloria Sykes had only been in San Fransisco for two weeks when, in 1964, she was involved in a serious cable car accident.
According to court papers, the accident had the effect of turning her into a nymphomaniac. She had even had sex 50 times in one five day period. She sued the cable car company and won an award of $50,000.
Source: www.duhaime.org.
