Case of the $5 Bill

The grey-haired Harvard law professor asked his class: "Does anyone have a $5 bill?" When a student waved one aloft, Professor William Lloyd Prosser beckoned him down front, transferred the money with a flourish to his own wallet. Then he folded his hands across his belly and smiled broadly at Second-Year Student William Poindexter. The class snickered. Poindexter blushed.

Said Prosser: "Now, Mr. Poindexter, what are your rights?" Poindexter and his classmates, pondering legal recourses for the rest of the hour, disagreed. Remarked the professor: "Since we have not reached a conclusion, I expect I'd better keep the $5." But, after class, Student Poindexter made up his mind.

Next day a burly constable took the seat next to Poindexter. Amid student applause, he marched down front and served a summons on the nonplussed professor. Admitted Prosser: "This seems to be in order." He handed Poindexter $5. Then, pointing to the summons, he asked: "Now, what do you want me to do with this?" Replied Poindexter: "Keep it. That is for another $5. Thank you for the gift of this one."

The incident was no put-up job between professor and student. To "teach Professor Prosser some law," Poindexter had brought suit in the Cambridge (Mass.) courts for the return of the pocketed $5, plus $5 damages for mental anguish. Then he reconsidered. By mutual consent, the action was transferred to a mock court in the Harvard Law School. This week, before a courtroom of Harvardmen, District Judge Frederick A. Crafts of Waltham will hear the case of Poindexter v. Prosser. Professor Prosser has retained Professor Edmund M. Morgan, Harvard's expert on evidence, to defend him. Poindexter will have six other students and two recent Harvard Law School graduates among his battery of legal talent. In the preliminary pleadings, Plaintiff Poindexter cited as one of his legal authorities a textbook known as Prosser on Torts. Pooh-poohed Defendant Prosser: "A very inadequate book I once wrote."

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