Not All Judges Are Good Writers

You'd think good writing skills would be a prerequisite for a judge. I've certainly read my share of well-reasoned, well-written court decisions, but there are always exceptions to the rule. Take, for instance, Justice Carlin of the City Court of New York, New York County who wrote a decision for Cordas v. Peerless Transp. Co. in 1941.

It appears that a man whose identity it would be indelicate to divulge was feloniously relieved of his portable goods by two nondescript highwaymen in an alley near 26th Street and Third Avenue, Manhattan; they induced him to relinguish his possessions by a strong argument ad hominem couched in the convincing cant of the criminal and presses at the point of a most persuasive pistol.

Justice Carlin was obviously a man who liked to hear himself talk. Wouldn't judicial economy be better served by simply saying "This guy was robbed at gun point." Don't judges ever think about us poor law students who have to read their long winded decisions.

Unfortunately, the decision doesn't get any better. It spans a page and a half and consists of a single paragraph. The jest of the case is that a robber jumbed into a cab after holding somebody up. The cabi slammed on the brakes, throwing the driver off balance, and hoped out of the cab leaving it in drive. The cab slowly moved forward hitting a family of pedestrains. The court said the cabi wasn't responsible because he was placed in an emergency situations.

It took me less than a paragraph to say what took Justice Carlin a page and a half.