"I was declutterring my house, and I figured, given that I bought the books over 50 years ago and that I was retired from practice, I may not have too much use for them. But I did feel invested in these tomes ,and my decision to decimate my stable of legal information was not a simple one. I thought about each book before giving it the ax."
"My first target was The Law of Contracts, by British authors Cheshire and Fifoot. It reported and analyzed iconic cases, such as Carlill v. Carbolic Smokeball, where the defendant in 1890s England advertised a 100-pound reward to anybody who used their smokeball and contracted the flu. They refused to pay up after Lily Carlill came down with the bug, arguing their gesture did not amount to a contract and their claim was mere "puffery." Unforgettable case."
"It also of course dealt with the seminal damages case of Hadley v. Baxendale. Huge stuff every law student had to know. But the case that most stood out in my mind was the 1860s Pearce v. Brooks, where a contract between a carriage owner and a prostitute was held to be unenforceable. The principle was that the carriage was going to be used to attract clients, thereby promoting immoral activities and being unenforceable as being contrary to public policy."
A retiree sorted and discarded McGill University law schoolbooks bought over fifty years earlier, weighing sentiment against usefulness. The books evoked strong memories of landmark cases encountered during study and practice. The Law of Contracts (Cheshire and Fifoot) recalled Carlill v. Carbolic Smokeball and debates over an advertised reward and alleged "puffery." The same reading brought to mind Hadley v. Baxendale and Pearce v. Brooks, the latter holding a carriage-prostitute contract unenforceable as contrary to public policy. After considering the personal investment and limited practical use, the decision was to toss the volumes.
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