Just Because It's Friday.

It's the Friday before a long weekend. Right now, I am in a 40 person office with only 3 other people. As you can imagine, the impetus to get right to work is pretty low right now. I imagine that none of you are very keen to spend the few hours of sunshine we are supposed to get today indoors. So, rather than hit you with a discussion of liability and the many forms it can assume to screw up your day and your life, I thought I would provide you with a summary from a case I recently found.

The law is full of reported decision and by that I mean that court rulings are compiled and published. There are federal publications and there are state publications. It is these published decisions that we rely as precedent when we lawyers argue your case to the courts. A lot of these cases are pretty dry stuff and are not the kind of thing that you would want to pick up as light reading unless you were looking for a cure to your insomnia.

But every now and again you find one that sounds funny or like it would be an old wive's tale. This one is a classic example of both:

1 Abandoned and Lost Property

1II Finding Lost Goods

1k11 k. Rights and Liabilities of Finder as to Owner.

Where recluse died at age of 82, and her mattress was sold for $2.50, and buyers sent mattress to mattress works for renovation, and air blast at mattress works blew $22,200 in gold certificates from mattress, gold certificates could be rightfully claimed by legal heirs of deceased recluse under either article of Louisiana Civil Code dealing with treasure or article dealing with lost property, and buyers of mattress had no right to gold certificates.
United States v. Peter, 178 F. Supp. 854 (E.D. La. 1959)

Have a great weekend everyone.