ok, this is a court case from 1933. and while it is Public Record, i have redacted the names so as not to embarrass the heirs of the deceased plaintiff. the text of the page explains the gist of the suit, but i will answer any questions in the comments below. i was reading thru this instrument for work today, and came upon the paragraph in red, and it made me totally lol in the middle of the Court Clerk’s Office.
“The plaintiff further alleges that he is an ignorant uneducated colored man and that his wife is an ignorant and uneducated”
the defendants won the case, and the Mineral Grant was adjudged to be valid, and not a “Mineral Grant Lease”.
Aw man, people used to be held responsible for their own grasp of understanding on how the world worked. How did we get from this to warning labels on coffee cups about how hot coffee is?
in the case that you’re referring to, she girl spilled the coffee on her lap and immediately received 3rd degree burns. that’s when your flesh starts to fall off of your bones.
“The sweatpants Liebeck was wearing absorbed the coffee and held it next to her skin. A vascular surgeon determined that Liebeck suffered full thickness burns (or third-degree burns) over 6 percent of her body, including her inner thighs, perineum, buttocks, and genital and groin areas. She was hospitalized for eight days, during which time she underwent skin grafting. Liebeck, who also underwent debridement treatments, sought to settle her claim for $20,000, but McDonalds refused. ”
www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm
I respectfully withdraw my comment that was made completely in jest.
yeah, i read through the rest of the case, and the guy was suing like 10 different people. he was saying there were all in an agreement and working together to get his land.
but legal documents can be pretty daunting to read. however, the mineral grant that the plaintiff signed was pretty much a one page document, and it was pretty cut and dry that it was a mineral grant. that is assuming the guy even knew how to read.
the thing is, it was only covering an undivided half of what the guy owned, so he didnt lose all of his land, just 1/2 of it.
I’d be interesting in knowing the literacy rates for blacks in 1933. according to pbs, the national illiteracy rate was around 10% at the time.
Literacy was extremely low. Black people, at the time, barely went to school or even had organized school system. Segregation was still in full force at the time and keeping blacks illiterate was a method to remove them from post and parcel of land. Have them sign a contract they can’t read and remove them from the land. Blacks were still dependent on whites for grange products.
On the other end of the spectrum, when whites could not legally take the land, false charges were brought up against black men (i.e. whistling or raping a white woman) and the land was forcibly taken. Read about Forsyth County Georgia for an example.
another thing to note is that the guy did get paid for his mineral grant