got bastardy? (fiege v. boehm)

I have a new favorite contracts case Fiege v. Boehm

Fiege v. Boehm
Appelate Court of Maryland
1956

Boehm (the unwed woman) alleged that Fiege (the nice guy) and Boehm (the ho) had consensual, premarital sex which resulted in the Boehm (the floosy) becoming pregnant, and that Fiege (the nice guy) acknowledged responsibility and paternity. Boehm (the 35 year old single mother who slept around) gave birth to a female child and Fiege (the guy that got screwed) agreed to pay all her medical, and miscellaneous expenses related to the birth, and to compensate pl for the loss of salary and $10 per week until his daughter reached 21, for child support, in exchange for Boehm filing public bastardy charges against him because he did not want his mother to know that he slept with this chick on the first date and made her prego (it is the south in 1950's afterall) thus resulting in a bastard child (no good).

Fiege finds out that the baby wasn't actually his baby through blood test (new tech at the time). So he stops paying child support (it remindsme of a familiar song..holler we want prenup) so she files a case against him in criminal court for making her child a bastard. Naturally the case was dismissed because you can't make a child that isn't yours a bastard. However, in the civil arena, because she orginally witheld from filing bastardy charges, her forbearance (witholding from something of which you are legally entitled) acted as consideration to the contract, and so this poor guy was humiliated in front of his momma and force to pay child support and hosptial bills for somebody elses baby's daddy.

Why You Say?

Public policy. It's more important for the nice guy to have to pay than to compromise contract law. Indeed.

My Apartment

I live with another first year law student named Erica. She is from LA and went to UC Northridge. Erica is jewish so we keep a kosher kitchen. I was nervous at first because I wasn't sure what to expect, but it's been really easy to manage. We get our meat from the kosher butcher in LA, and luckly stores like Trader Joes and Whole Foods have such a vast array of kosher food that I haven't found my life style cramped. Erica and I always say that I am now jewish by association and she is now republican by association (Sean doesn't like talking politics with me!) We live in a cute apartment complex about two minutes from the law school, which has turned out to be the biggest blessing. Our apartment is a work in progress, but Dad and Paula really helped us along when they came out a few weekends ago. My next project is working on my room, but I seemed to be hard pressed to find time to decorate. I have to laugh when I think about how two months ago we were picking out our decor over email and trying to get everything situated from a mass of ikea boxes and black trash bags filled with my stuff in the back of my car. Some people say they are in law school to save the world. I am in law school so I can make enough money to never have to build anything from ikea again. Until then Erica and I will be a two woman ikea assembly line.

My new blog

I finally gave into the blog. Everyone has one, so here I am on the blogger bandwagon. I thought it would be fun to post pictures and stories from law school and my new little life in orange county.