a judicial psychoanalysis of a drafter’s heart of hearts

December 13, 2013 5:13 AM

Westlaw's Headnote of the Day. From wrong wives to published dog heights to suing yourself to Lardashe to talking cats to pompous expert witnesses to defendants as "suppressible fruit" to "animals ferae naturae" to corporate agents of Satan to riding atop of doghouses to the torture of words to "Queen for a Day" agreements to the shockingness of prosecutorial rhymes and to the unsurprising boringness of closing statements. "IMPORTANT: We offer the Headnote of the Day as a diversion; the point of law it contains may no longer be good law."
posted by Sticherbeast (4 comments total)

"Generally, no person may sue himself. Council for Tribal Employment Rights v. United States, 112 Fed.Cl. 231 (Fed. Cl. 2013)."

Generally, sure. But see Dawson v. Dawson, 710 F.3d 1347 (Fed. Cir. 2013). In that case, not only did the Chandler Dawson sue himself, he did so posthumously.

(Okay, technically it was an appeal of a patent interference case involving patents and applications listing Dawson as the inventor, so the name of the case is based on the inventor rather than the owners of the patents and applications. The real parties in interest were UCSF and a company called InSite. But still, suing yourself after you're dead is quite the feat.)
posted by jedicus at 6:51 AM on December 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

No matter who sues themselves posthumously, everyone loses.
posted by blue_beetle at 7:23 AM on December 13, 2013

"Queen for a day" agreements are pretty common, though perhaps more commonly call "proffers".
posted by mikeand1 at 4:53 PM on December 13, 2013

Well, I had to look up the talking cat. Turns out, there's a Wikipedia page.
posted by eye of newt at 4:33 PM on December 14, 2013