Page:Struggle for Law (1915).djvu/178

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The Struggle for Law


judicial authority has ever made use of to prevent injustice. The plaintiff is required to prove to a farthing the money-value which he has at stake in the suit. What becomes of the protection of the law where there is no such pecuniary interest? A lessor excludes a lessee from a garden which the latter had contracted to enjoy together with the former. How can the lessee prove the money-value of a sojourn of a few hours in a garden? Or the former lets the dwelling before the lessee has taken actual possession of it to another, and the lessee is compelled to put up with the most miserable accommodation for six months, until he finds another dwelling. An inn-keeper shows a guest to the door to whom he had promised a room by telegraph, and the latter may wander about for hours in the night, in search of the most wretched quarters. Try to estimate this in money, or rather, see what compensation the court will mete out for it. In France, thousands of francs; in Germany nothing at all; for the German judge will reply that inconvenience, no matter

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