Legal Juice

As reported in the City News:

It is a tale that could only happen in the age of the Internet and it’s become the focus of worldwide attention. A German woman has won a court battle to force an Internet service provider to reveal the names of the men who may have gotten her pregnant. That’s unusual enough, but the circumstances surrounding this case are even more bizarre.

She doesn’t know who the guy is because the six men on the ‘possibility list’ all won the chance to have intimate relations with her as part of an Internet auction. The Stuttgart woman offered up her services to the highest bidders in April and May of last year. She only knew the ‘winners’ by their screen names.

When she found out she was expecting, she decided she had to know the father’s name. But when the ISP refused to provide their identities, the reluctant mother-to-be took legal action. “The woman wanted to discover which one of the men had made her pregnant,” a court spokesman explains. “So she needed their contact details.”

After hashing out the arguments, a judge has now ruled that it’s the child’s right to know who the real dad is and that the Internet provider must give her the names of the men involved.

But this legal battle is far from over. Once she learns their I.D.s, there’s no indication whether the men involved will cooperate with her search. And that may take her back before yet another judge. “If they’re not willing to go along with the gene test, she’ll have to take them to court,” the spokesman admits.

Sixty-one-year-old Janusz Nowak of Sosnowiec, Poland was sick and tired of people vandalizing his bus stop. So, he pasted the following notice on the pavement:

“Dear Vandals – please stop destroying the bus-stop.”

And guess what happened? He was arrested for vandalism!

A police spokesman said: “Although the man had good intentions and wanted to express his indignation towards hooligans’ behaviour in the neighbourhood he unfortunately broke the law himself.”

What a brilliant use of police resources. Here’s the story.

Ah yes, the happy couple. James McManus and Corina McCarthy became engaged in December 2005, and they lived… Actually, she dumped him, and returned the “relatively expensive” engagement ring. She changed her mind, again, and they got engaged, again, with the same ring. Then she dumped him, again. Mr. McManus took quite a hit [$!] when he sold the ring.

Ms. McCarthy changed her mind (altogether now) again, leading to their third engagement. This time, though, Mr. McManus ended it. As reported in The Leader-Post, “he cancelled the engagement and ring [while it was being made] and had to pay for the work already done.” Okay. You took another hit, Jimmy, but it’s only money. You can move on, right?

Nope. They became engaged, again! (Nooooooooo!) And they actually got married! And lived happily ever after? No, they were married for nine days! What about the ring? Ms. McCarthy wouldn’t give it back. So Mr. McManus sued her – and the testimony?

McManus said McCarthy would not marry him unless he purchased another ring. He said he made it clear on at least three occasions that the ring was to be returned to him in the event their relationship ended. She denied any such discussion took place.

What did Justice Kenny think?

“While this would seem to be a very unusual conversation for engaged parties to have leading up to their marriage, it does not at all strike me as strange in the circumstances of this case and given the history of this very volatile up-and-down relationship.”

And then they found out they were twins, separated at birth. [Just kidding. You can read about that one here.]