11/29/2004

Taking adulation of the Beatles a little too far.


"A US judge has delivered a unique ruling that parodies a George Harrison song in the case of a New York doctor who treated the late Beatle for cancer.

The doctor, Gil Lederman, is the subject of a wrongful death suit by the family of a female colon cancer patient. The family says Dr Lederman gave her too much radiation.

Staten Island Supreme Court Justice Robert Gigante
ruled this week on Dr Lederman's request for a change of trial venue.

The defendant's lawyers had argued that the jury pool in Staten Island had been tainted by the negative publicity surrounding a separate case in which Lederman was accused of forcing Harrison to autograph a guitar on his deathbed.

Justice Gigante ruled in Dr Lederman's favour but chose to do so in a lyrical parody of Harrison's classic song Something.


"Something in the folks he treats," Justice Gigante wrote. "Attracts press like no other doctor."

"He's in our jurisdiction now/ He gets Beatle autographs somehow," Gigante continued before concluding with a reference to another Harrison song, "If this case I were to keep/ Defendant would gently weep."

Steven North, a lawyer for the family of the colon cancer victim, said his clients were incensed by the style of the ruling.

"I think it's an insulting decision. It's very offensive," he said."

I am all for a reference here or there in a judgment which can brighten an otherwise tedious reading task, however this Judge's judgment has left him in favour of poor taste.

Though I could imagine it being an atypical situation which Seinfeld might have parodied.


1 Comments:

At 6:45 pm, Blogger DeAnn said...

That's funny, but also completely frightening, kind of like the doctor who is obsessed with the Fonz on "Friends."

 

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