The Spirit of the Law

In the spirit of the Halloween season, Harris County Law Library is exhibiting several spooky selections from our print collection. The sources we uncovered will be on display through the end of the month. Don't miss your chance to see them before they vanish! The following featured items are included in the exhibit. 

Burchill v. Hermsmeyer, 212 SW 767 (1919), is the case of the ghost who inspired a contract dispute and a fraud claim. Mr. Hermsmeyer sued to recover the $10,000 he invested in Mrs. Burchill's corporation. She claimed that ghosts, with whom she consulted via a medium, told her there was oil under her land. When no oil was discovered, Mr. Hermsmeyer argued that Ms. Burchill's claim was a fraudulent misrepresentation of facts. The court rejected his argument saying that the existence of ghosts is a matter of belief, not of fact. His claim was, therefore, "insufficient to form a basis for relief for the plaintiff."

Purtell v. Mason, 527 F.3d 615 (2008), involves Halloween yard decorations which caused a neighborhood dispute and raised questions about the right to insult every person on your block. Jeffrey and Vicki Purtell displayed six wooden tombstones in front of their Chicago home, each bearing unflattering references to their neighbors and the details of each person's fictitious demise. One of the neighbors identified on the tombstones argued with Mr. Purtell over the offensive decorations resulting in a call to the police. Officer Bruce Mason arrived at the scene. He arrested Mr. Purtell and ordered the removal of the tombstones. The Purtells asserted their free speech rights, but the Seventh Circuit found no loss of First Amendment Protection under the "fighting words" doctrine. 

The Law of Cadavers and of Burial and Burial Places by Percival E. Jackson is the "standard work on the subject of the law pertaining to the care and disposal of bodies of deceased human beings, and the establishment and maintenance of burial places." Included in this volume is a thorough treatment of the law regarding sepulture along with "approximately a hundred pages of forms pertaining to the regulation of cemeteries, the transfer of plots, graves, and monuments therein and the care, transportation, and burial of human corpses as well as some forms of legal proceedings in both tort and contract, germane to the general subject." (Book Review by Charles G. Coster, 2014) This title, 2nd edition, is available in the Harris County Law Library's print collection and also via HeinOnline's Legal Classics Library, which you can access at the Law Library.

In the early 1900s, three creative thinkers designed new and improved lanterns in the category of "decorative and grotesque illuminating devices commonly called jackolanterns." (Andrew B. Heard, Patent No. 715,379) Their patent drawings are featured in the exhibit and shown in in the graphics throughout this post.

To see the rest of the Halloween-themed legal materials on display, visit the Law Library before November 1st. Happy haunting!

Harris County Law Library's 102nd Anniversary

October 1 is a special day each year at the Harris County Law Library. On October 1, 1915, attorneys gathered in downtown Houston for our institution's official grand opening and each year that passes gives us a chance to reflect on the progress we've made in serving our patrons and fulfilling our mission. 

Two years ago, the Law Library marked the occasion by inviting the local legal community to join us for a Centennial Celebration featuring a keynote address from Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht. During his address, the chief justice noted that, throughout the centuries, great thinkers have reiterated the sentiment that "knowledge is power," including influential writers, from the drafters of the Texas Constitution to novelists George Orwell (Nineteen Eighty-Four) and Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451), who make the point that access to knowledge is essential in a free society. The chief justice connected these historical themes with the Centennial Celebration by noting that "[i]t is in opposition to a suppression of knowledge, and in support of its general diffusion, that we gather in celebration of this great public law library."

Inspired by Chief Justice Hecht's words and driven by a mission to promote access to justice through access to legal information, the Law Library continues to expand opportunities for our patrons to gain knowledge. We've launched our Legal Tech Institute, which provides free training opportunities to attorneys and members of the public who might otherwise be left behind by technological advancements in our justice system. In a short time, we will further expand available legal tech training opportunities to include experiential learning with our Hands-On Legal Tech Training program, thanks to a generous grant from the Texas Bar Foundation. A legal clinic from Houston Volunteer Lawyers is now available in the Law Library 5 days per week to connect individuals with limited means with legal information for a licensed volunteer attorney.

When disaster struck, the Law Library launched the Harvey Recovery Resources page to help connect Houstonians with information on available local, state, and federal aid. In each instance, the Law Library works to disseminate knowledge and empower our patrons to participate as informed citizens in our Harris County government.

For more on the Law Library's Centennial Celebration and to view Chief Justice Hecht's speech, visit our centennial page.