Reference to legal terminology itself has the ability to create a smile. In a Canadian case (Joly v Pelletier), the judge ruled that Mr Joly could not be a 'plaintiff' as the entire basis of his actions was that he was a Martian, not a human being and, as such, had no status before the court. And when a Yorkshire miner put in a very late claim for compensation, the judge told his barrister: 'Your client is no doubt aware of vigilantibus, et non dormientibus, jura subveniunt?'The barrister replied: 'Why, in Barnsley, m'lud, they speak of little else'.
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