Whose Monet?

by Humbach, John A.

• ISBN13: 9780735565579
• ISBN10: 0735565570
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-04-13
• Publisher: Wolters Kluwer

Summary

This extraordinary paperback provides a highly accessible and appealing orientation To The American legal system and presents basic concepts of civil litigation to first-year law students. Whose Monet? an Introduction To The American Legal System focuses on a lengthy dispute over the ownership of a painting as a vehicle for introducing students To The basic law school tasks of reading analytically, understanding legal materials, and working with the common law. the author and his colleagues have used these materials successfully in their classrooms for many years, ensuring their teachability and effectiveness: Whose Monet? can be used as primary course material in orientation courses or seminars, As well as collateral reading for in-semester Legal Process or Civil Procedure courses The organization is logical and straightforward And The accessible writing stylelucid, descriptive, and conversationalis ideal for incoming students The major events in a lawsuit are considered, And The text sheds light on how the law is applied in a civil dispute, introducing common law and statutory law And The various courts and their interrelationship (trial/appellate, state/federal) The author draws on judicial opinions, litigation papers, transcripts, and selections from commentators and various jurisprudential sources, thereby exposing the first-year student to as broad a spectrum of materials as possible Telling the story of a real lawsuit (DeWeerth v. Baldinger)from client intake through trial and various appealsdraws students into the legal process by means of an engaging narrative and makes for a truly enjoying teaching experience for professors The lawyer's role is examined in both its functional and moral dimensions: What do lawyers do? What does society legitimately expect lawyers to do? This book is suitable for both classroom and stand-alone assigned reading Professor Humbach, with over 30 years of experience teaching and writing articles and instruction programs for first-year property students, includes a separate Teacher's Manual. Drawing upon his own classroom experience with these materials, he: suggests "learning objectives" for each chapter offers different teaching approaches provides answers to questions in the book suggests sample syllabi

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
The Lawyer's Task: Facts and Law	p. 9
The Facts	p. 10
Facts of DeWeerth v. Baldinger as Summarized by the Trial Court	p. 17
The Law	p. 21
Deciding Whether to Sue	p. 27
Deciding Where to Sue: The Court System	p. 31
Federal Court System	p. 33
A Note on "Civil" and "Criminal" Cases	p. 37
District Courts	p. 39
United States Courts of Appeals	p. 42
Supreme Court of the United States	p. 44
Other Federal Courts	p. 45
State Court Systems	p. 45
Trial Courts	p. 47
State Courts of Appeals	p. 48
State Supreme Courts	p. 49
Other State Courts	p. 50
The Best Court for Mrs. DeWeerth?	p. 51
Commencing a Civil Action	p. 55
The Complaint	p. 63
The Content of Pleadings	p. 65
The Complaint's Legal Sufficiency-A Motion to Dismiss	p. 67
Decision on Motion to Dismiss	p. 74
DeWeerth v. Baldinger I	p. 74
A Note on "Briefing" Cases	p. 79
The Common Law	p. 83
The Emergence of American Common Law	p. 90
Kerwhacker v. Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati RR	p. 96
The Fluidity of the Common Law	p. 98
The Stability of the Common Law-Stare Decisis	p. 105
Hart v. Massanari	p. 116
The Answer	p. 121
"Discovery"	p. 125
A Motion for Summary Judgment	p. 131
O'Keeffe v. Snyder	p. 134
DeWeerth v. Baldinger II	p. 144
Statutory Law and Administrative Regulations	p. 153
What Statutes Are Supposed to Do	p. 155
How Statutes Get Enacted	p. 159
Administrative Regulations	p. 161
Interpreting Statutes	p. 164
Interpreting the Statute in DeWeerth	p. 168
The Trial	p. 171
Selecting the Jury (Voir Dire)	p. 174
Opening Statements	p. 176
Presenting the Testimony and Other Evidence	p. 177
Motions for Judgment as a Matter of Law or Judgment of Acquittal	p. 180
Closing Arguments	p. 181
Charge to the Jury	p. 182
The Judgment (and a Motion for a "Judgment N.O.V.")	p. 185
The Appeal	p. 189
DeWeerth v. Baldinger III	p. 193
The Aftermath	p. 207
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation v. Lubell	p. 208
DeWeerth v. Baldinger IV	p. 212
DeWeerth v. Baldinger V	p. 214
Postscript	p. 219
Extracts from Testimony of Gerda Dorothea DeWeerth	p. 223
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