The Jealous Mistress: Part I

“Of litigation, like war, there is no end.”

­- Robert Traver    

When the Hermit Philosopher was in college studying English and history while nominally majoring in political science, he ran across a delightful little book: The Jealous Mistress, by Robert Traver.  In real life Traver — who also wrote Anatomy of a Murder, among other things — was John D. Voelker (1903-1991), a Michigan attorney, prosecutor, and judge. The Jealous Mistress is his anthology of fourteen short, well-written essays about interesting court decision.

“Interesting court decisions” is not an oxymoron. Although rare, they do exist, and in his book Traver/Voelker charmed readers with the human-interest stories behind his chosen cases. Every lawsuit, after all, begins with real people and a real situation. That situation might involve the terms of a will, damages from an auto accident, or the violation of somebody’s civil rights. It might entail an allegation of medical malpractice, or a copyright violation, or a perceived injury to one’s reputation.

Whatever its occasion, each case is the story of a dispute resolved without vigilantism, the triumph of the rule of law over anarchy, and “the difference between a debate and an alley fight,” as Traver put it more colloquially.

The judicial decision is the denouement of the story, a brief chapter in the endless saga that is the common law. Unfortunately, decisions that the general public know about are rare. Roe v. Wade, Brown v. Board of Education, and Bush v. Gore, might fall in that category. And history buffs will recognize Marbury v. Madison, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Dred Scott v. Sandford. But most judicial decisions go unnoticed by everyone but the parties involved.

When the HP recently found his copy of Traver’s book — now more than 50 years old, yellowed and dog-eared — he decided to chronicle a few more interesting cases in the way Traver did. “Certainly,” he thought, “in the mountains of judicial ore I can find some nuggets that will interest the lay reader.”

So, what will follow in future posts are essays on interesting but little-known cases, each of which prompted some musings, tangents and flights of fancy. Such diversions are reminiscent of after-hours conversations a few of us had with Professor Elmer Hilpert at Washington University School of Law years ago.

Although somewhat crusty in class — he was “shocked, shocked!” that there were female lawyers — Hilpert was a sweetheart inside and would occasionally meet with us at a favorite watering hold at the end of the day. Wearing his signature three-piece suit and sipping his gin on the rocks from a silver goblet kept for him on ice behind the bar, he would expound on various subjects: a constitutional principle or a development in labor law, perhaps.

One topic would lead to another as we tyros offered our sophomoric viewpoints. It might start with a major case, but like the steel balls in a pachinko machine the conversation could bounce anywhere … from Miranda v. Arizona … to criminal justice … to Curt Flood’s challenge of baseball’s reserve clause. In all of this we were egged on each time Professor Hilpert leaned in and said, “Now that reminds me ….”

The stories that will follow are like that. One case leads to another, which in turn recalls another topic, which … well, you get the point. I thank Elmer Hilpert for encouraging us to ruminate that way. May he rest in peace.

And, by the way, I wonder what happened to the silver goblet engraved “From the Class of 1971” that we gave him when we graduated.