"I, O, do hereby brynde Blackacre to A & A's heirs."
This statement was up on the board at the beginning of our Property class today, and our professor immediately asked for volunteers to tell the class what it meant.
Five people raised their hands and failed before someone had the good sense to ask "what does 'brynde' mean?" Which, of course, gets to the real point: "brynde" is a made-up word, and thus it (and the sentence) mean nothing. But five law students attempting to skirt that and pretend like they "knew" the word and thus the sentence.
I shouldn't be too harsh. Not only is there a lot of pressure in law school not to admit you don't know something, but this particular professor "speaks middle ages" as he would say (he has a Ph.D. in medieval history) and thus might very well have dropped in some obscure old English phrase on our unaware heads.
Even still: Professor 1, pompous law students, -5.
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I had the same professor several years back. Enjoyable. Here are some choice quotes (probably only amusing to those who have taken his class):
“What is Sarah’s mother’s name? It’s not in the opinion so you won’t find it in there. I’d like to suggest a name for her: Jezebel.”
“I feel that if I held a rally for testamentary freedom there would be poor attendance. So I won’t do it, though if you encourage me I might, so long as you promise to attend.”
“Critics of lawyers call us evil. Well, evil’s not the right word, but the feeling is that we add nothing to the happiness of the world.”
“More litigation is caused by remarriage than any other event. Mark that....It can be upsetting to see your mom remarry and think about the distribution of assets to that gigolo she married.”
“There are no prizes here for originality. In fact, we frown upon originality. It’s a greatly overvalued virtue.”
And finally: “Bailments stir my blood.”
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