More Fun with the Law

One of the fun things about being a law student is you get to read cases that involve people with genuine issues of mental disturbance/delusion. Today, I bring you two examples of this, from the realm of trusts and estates law. First, the cat who has it made:

Margeret Layne, an elderly, childless widow who lived in London, took in a stray cat named Tinker. Soon Tinker becamse accustomed to life in his English manor, and Layne took measures to ensure that Tinker could continue this life of luxury after her death in 2003. Under Layne's will, Tinker was given run of the house, worth about $500,000, plus a trust fund of about $170,000. The trustees make a daily delivery of food and milk. "The sliding door to the green house-where Tinker likes to go 'for a bit of a lie-down'-is left open to save the indignity of him squeezing through the cat flap." Layne did put one condition on Tinker's bounty: "If Tinker abandons the property permanently the trustees shall at their discretion be entitled to bring the trust to an end." At last report Tinker was still living in the house, along with Lucy and Stardust, two other cats who had since befriended him, doubtless for his personality and not his money."

The editors of my case book are not without a sense of humor.

And this gem, concerning marital distress:

The facts of Newman v. Dore are unusual. The husband was 80 and his wife in her 30's when they married. After four years of marriage, the wife sued for separation, claiming her husband's perverted sexual habits made it impossible to live with him. The record does not make clear what the octogenarian's alleged perversions were, though he did receive monkey glands by surgical transplant. Indignant over his wife's charges, the husband instructed his lawyer to disinherit her. The separation action was still pending as his death.

No doubt the "monkey glands" failed to serve either purpose he might have intended.

Anwyay, that's fun with the law for today. Ta ta!