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The Editor’s Bag CASES ON JOKES
however, one of which was that his wife
(N0te.—The sittings of the Supreme Court of joke-idioture are scheduled for the last week of each month at Greenbag'ville, and if the inter est of the legal profession is sufiieient to pro mote litigation in this Court, as we hope it will be, we shall take pleasure in permitting the publication of ofiicial reports of our decisions.
PER C URIAM.) INSURANCE—-TRESPASS—_IUS NATURALE— JURISDICTION-DUE PROCESS OF LAW— STATE RIGHTS—INTERSTATE COMMERCE ——HABEAS CORPUS—FEDERAL
INCOR
PORATlON-—CONTRACTS. EX PARTE BLIFFINGTON“ Supreme Court of Joke-idioture April Term, 1910
TUSH, C.].—About eight years ago the peti tioner fell from a ferry-boat into the waters of New York Bay and was legally drowned, though not actually, in order that his legal widow but lawful wife might secure the pro ceeds of a life insurance policy of $10,000 to relieve the financial embarrassments of the petitioner's family at that time. There was litigation over payment of the policy, but judgment was given in favor of the putative widow, from which decision the insurance
company has lately appealed. Meantime, the petitioner has been residing in modest ob scurity in New York City, under another name, in company with Mr. Ellis Parker Butler, the author of “Pigs is Pigs." Now we come to the more important facts, from which this controversy has arisen. A few weeks ago the petitioner was sitting in his hall bedroom, when, under hypnotic sugges tion from Mr. Butler, he for the first time saw his own ghost. He was not frightened, for the ghost looked quite like his natural self, except that it was phosphorescent and a little less bald. The ghost being obtrusive and showing a disposition to reside permanently with Mr. Blit‘fington, the latter grew somewhat uneasy, and consulted a legal friend, who in formed him that as he was legally dead, the ghost was quite within his rights in haunting a legally dead man, and that the only way Mr. Bliffington could get rid of him was by going into court and having his legal death annulled. He had reasons for not doing this, ‘'51: gested b
255
Mr. Ellis Parker Butler's farcical
tale 0 “The ase of Horace Bliflington," in the Cosmopolitan for March.
wished him to produce the legal ghost as evi dence of his legal death, in order to establish his identity. A meeting between the husband and wife was arranged, which was to lead to their re-union, but Mr. Blifiington then dis
covered to his horror that the ghost had shn'veled out of sight, in consequence of which sad accident he has been unable to become reconciled to his wife, who considers him an impostor. Evidence has been adduced, how ever (in the Cosmopolitan Magazine) to show
that the disappearance of Mr. Bliffington’s ghost was due to the fact that the insurance company had just appealed, thereby putting the fact of Mr. Bliffington's legal death in doubt and divesting the ghost of all legal rights for the time being. Consequently Mr. Bliffington has now brought a writ of habeas corpus,
praying that a decree may issue from this court restoring the ghost to life and liberty, so that the petitioner may be re-united to his wife. This court does not consider that it has any jurisdiction of the subject-matter. It is well settled, however, that where a court is with- ~
out jurisdiction, it can give judgment exactly as if it had jurisdiction, entering into a dis cussion of every phase of the case. Dred Scott v. Sanford, 19 How. 393. There is nothing either in the common law or in the statute law applying to the lights of ghosts. It is certain, however, that a ghost cannot be deprived of its liberty without "due process of law." For interpre tation of the Constitution has settled the meaning of “due process of law" to be "due pity for the law." Hurtado v. California, 110 U. S. 516.
We do not think the liberty of ghosts should be restrained. We never heard of trespass committed by a ghost. One cannot conceive of a ghost doing any damage, beyond un balancing the minds of a few college professors, while ghosts have put money into the pockets of Mr. W. T. Stead, Professor Hyslop and Mme. Eusapia Palladino, and these and many others would suffer financial reverses were the legal rights of ghosts to be impaired. As a matter of natural right (jus naturale), ghosts are entitled to their freedom to go and come as they please, and an appeal from a decision that a man is legally dead cannot do proprio vigore deprive his legal ghost of its rights. This Court is powerless, however, to grant the relief sought, owing to circumstances
