The Longest Week

OK, so my last post may have been prematurely cheerful. When I posted it Tuesday afternoon, I was still fresh. That evening I read Pennoyer v. Neff and that case really started grinding me down. My eyes are tired from the reading and I'm exhausted from the effort. My back is tired of lugging my laptop and heavy case book between school and the parking lot. Yesterday felt it should've been a Friday.

Hers said that Intro to Lawyering was going to be the bane of her semester. After reading Pennoyer v. Neff, I thought Civil Procedure was going to be mine. The case is ridiculous. Not only is it long, but the language is so convulated you have to really, really concentrate to figure out what the decision is trying to say. For example, here's one sentence from the case:

In all the case brought in the State and Federal courts, where attempts have been made under the act of Congress to give effect in one State to personal judgments rendered in another State against non-residents, without service upon them, or upon substituted service by publication, or in some other form, it has been held, without an exception, so far as we are aware, that such judgments were without any binding force, except as to property, or interests in property, within the State, to reach and affect which was the object of the action in which the judgment was rendered, and which property was brought under control of the court in connection with the process against the person.

Can you get any more clauses in one sentence? You can imagine entire paragraphs of this kind of stuff going on for four pages (luckily, our case book gave us a condensed version of the case; it could've been much more painful).

Luckily, Professor Mayer is a good tracher and I left my first Civ Pro class with a good understanding of Pennoyer v. Neff. Of course, as we're learning now, the courts have pretty much torn Pennoyer apart, so in a way, I read that case for nothing. Some people have suggested that the case amounts to nothing more than hazing for first year Civ Pro students.

As tiring as its been, I do think it has been a good week in many respects. I feel like I've learned alot already. Most cases (with Pennoyer being the exception) are becoming easier to read and understand and I feel like it's getting easier to brief the individual cases. The good news is that it's an early day for us. Hers is in class as I write this and my Civ Pro class starts at 9:00. As soon as I'm done (11:00), we're getting out of here for the weekend.