Man 1: $3… COME ONE COME ALL TO SEE AN ACTUAL HUMAN LEG SEVERED FROM ITS BODY!
Man 2: Ummm… that’s mine… can I have that back?
Man 1: NO! I FOUND IT, IT IS MINE!
Did you ever think a conversation like this could happen? Well, turns out this did happen। A South Carolina man, John Wood, who stored his severed leg in a barbecue smoker that was later auctioned off is locked in a custody dispute with the North Carolina man, Shannon Whisnant, who found it. As farfetched as this sounds, it is a big issue. This could set a precedent for future cases of the same sort (as weird as that also sounds). No one can argue that the leg is not John Wood’s, but is it possible that since he lost the property where it was stored, the leg no longer belongs to him? Could this case be ruled by a kindergarten saying, “Finders keepers losers weepers?” Interestingly enough, I am learning about this in one of my Jewish studies class. According to Jewish sources, if a man does not specifically tell the fiduciary to take care of the valuable object, the fiduciary should morally take care of it, knowing it is important, but is not required by law to take care of it. The fiduciary should now steal the object he is safekeeping. If a fiduciary gives away the item he is looking after, and the man it was given to knows it was not the person’s to sell, he is at fault for accepting it. So according to Jewish law, Mr. Whisnant is at fault and must return the item! Case closed.
In a completely unrelated story, a chimp wants to become an Austrian citizen. Although chimpanzees may be smarter than many humans I know, they are not humans. This is just weird. Can dolphins be humans? Can spiders be humans too then? This would set a precedent that could open a can of worms. But in the end, this would never happen. (If i
t happens, I will go to Carolina and try to buy that leg off of John Wood.)
The tort of slander and libel are unclear to me. Where is the line of free speech and defamation? What if there is no way of proving the falsehood or truth of a statement? What if the line between opinion and fact is too blurry? The idea of qualified privilege seems to be too easily taken for granted. Who judges whether the public NEEDS to know a certain piece of information? Absolute privilege is completely hypocritical to the anti-defamation idea. Just because you are in court, does that mean that if the court allows you to say falsehoods, you can? Doesn’t make much sense. What about rumors? Is spreading rumors slander? Wouldn’t many of us be serving time in the pen at this point? West Bloomfield would probably be wiped off the map. Think about that. ‘Till next time… Fat Al
Man 2: Ummm… that’s mine… can I have that back?
Man 1: NO! I FOUND IT, IT IS MINE!
Did you ever think a conversation like this could happen? Well, turns out this did happen। A South Carolina man, John Wood, who stored his severed leg in a barbecue smoker that was later auctioned off is locked in a custody dispute with the North Carolina man, Shannon Whisnant, who found it. As farfetched as this sounds, it is a big issue. This could set a precedent for future cases of the same sort (as weird as that also sounds). No one can argue that the leg is not John Wood’s, but is it possible that since he lost the property where it was stored, the leg no longer belongs to him? Could this case be ruled by a kindergarten saying, “Finders keepers losers weepers?” Interestingly enough, I am learning about this in one of my Jewish studies class. According to Jewish sources, if a man does not specifically tell the fiduciary to take care of the valuable object, the fiduciary should morally take care of it, knowing it is important, but is not required by law to take care of it. The fiduciary should now steal the object he is safekeeping. If a fiduciary gives away the item he is looking after, and the man it was given to knows it was not the person’s to sell, he is at fault for accepting it. So according to Jewish law, Mr. Whisnant is at fault and must return the item! Case closed.
In a completely unrelated story, a chimp wants to become an Austrian citizen. Although chimpanzees may be smarter than many humans I know, they are not humans. This is just weird. Can dolphins be humans? Can spiders be humans too then? This would set a precedent that could open a can of worms. But in the end, this would never happen. (If i
t happens, I will go to Carolina and try to buy that leg off of John Wood.)The tort of slander and libel are unclear to me. Where is the line of free speech and defamation? What if there is no way of proving the falsehood or truth of a statement? What if the line between opinion and fact is too blurry? The idea of qualified privilege seems to be too easily taken for granted. Who judges whether the public NEEDS to know a certain piece of information? Absolute privilege is completely hypocritical to the anti-defamation idea. Just because you are in court, does that mean that if the court allows you to say falsehoods, you can? Doesn’t make much sense. What about rumors? Is spreading rumors slander? Wouldn’t many of us be serving time in the pen at this point? West Bloomfield would probably be wiped off the map. Think about that. ‘Till next time… Fat Al
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