Legal Judgement

[jrs]

One evening, after attending the theatre, two gentlemen were walking down the avenue when they observed a rather well-dressed and attractive lady walking just ahead of them. "I'd give $1000.00 to spend the night with that woman." To their surprise, the young lady overheard the remark and turning around, she said, "I'll take you up on that." She had a neat appearance and a pleasant voice, so after bidding his companion goodnight, the man accompanied the lady to her apartment, where they immediately went to bed.

The following morning, he presented her with $500.00 as he prepared to leave. She demanded the rest of the money, stating, "If you don't give me the other $500.00, I'll sue you for it." He laughed, saying, "I'd like to see you get it on these grounds."

The next day, he was surprised when he received a summons ordering his presence in court as defendant in a lawsuit. He hurried to his lawyer and explained the details of the case. His lawyer said, "She can't possibly get a judgement against you on such grounds. but it will be interesting to see how her case is presented."

After the usual preliminaries, the lady's lawyer addressed the court as follows:

"Your Honor, my client, this lady, is the owner of a piece of property - a garden spot surrounded by a profuse growth of shrubbery, which she agreed to rent to the defendant for a specified length of time, for the sum of $1000.00. The defendant took possession of the property, used it extensively for the purpose for which it was rented; but upon evacuating the premises, he paid only $500.00, one-half of the amount agreed upon. The rent was not expensive, since this restricted property was not available to all, and we ask judgement be granted the plaintiff to assure payment of the balance."

The defendant's lawyer was impressed and amused at the way his opponent had presented the case. His defense, therefore, was somewhat altered from the way he originally planned it.

"Your Honor", he said, "My client agrees that the young lady has a fine piece of property, that he did rent such property from her for a time and did derive a degree of pleasure from the transaction. However, my client found a well on the property, around which he placed his own stones, sank a shaft and erected a pump, all labor being performed personally by him. We claim these improvements to the property were sufficient to offset the rental of said property. We, therefore, ask that judgement not be granted."

The young lady's lawyer's comeback was thus:

"Your Honor, my client agrees that the defendant did find a well on the property and that he did make improvements, such as my opponent has described. however, had the defendant not known the well existed he would never have rented the property. Also, upon evacuating the premises, the defendant removed the stones, pulled out the shaft and took the pump with him. In doing so he not only dragged his equipment through the shrubbery but left a hole much larger than it was prior to his occupancy, making it easily accessible to little children. We, therefore, ask judgement be granted."

--- AND SHE GOT IT!