Another Star (Trek) turn
As reported here some years back, an historic event occurred back in 2000 in an otherwise forgettable court decision involving a dispute over a car wash in Fresno, California. (Actually, few things are more forgettable that a dispute over a car wash in Fresno.)
The opponents of the car wash claimed that city hadn't complied with California's strict environmental laws when it approved the project. The owner of the car wash went ahead and built the establishment, ignoring the ongoing court challenge to the project.
And then, when the court of appeal was ready to hear the case, the city and the business' owner asked that the case be dismissed because, well, the car wash had already been built — so they argued the environmental issues were moot.
Well — not in California. The court responded by quoting not a famous judge but someone . . . a bit more contemporary: “Apparently the City and buy into the philosophy of the mythical captain of the Starship Enterprise, James T. Kirk, who said: `May fortune favor the foolish.' We do not.” The court then pointed out that car washes can be torn down just as easily as, or even more easily than, they can be built.
Long time Trekkies (or Trekkers, as they seem to prefer) doubtless immediately recognized the line from a scene in the movie, “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,” when the Enterprise's crew is about to embark on a voyage back in time to try to save a car wash in Fresno. (Um, no, actually, they were trying — literally — to save the whales.) But while this was the first mention of “Star Trek” in an appellate court opinion, it was not the last. There have been at least a dozen, including one lengthy one in a Texas case.
That case involved a complicated series of events relating to asbestos exposure. A Texas corporation named Crown that makes bottle caps (“crowns”) — which had never used or manufactured asbestos — bought out another company, which had manufactured asbestos insulation. A former employee of the defunct company came down with a fatal lung disease caused by asbestos, and he sued Crown, arguing that the costs of asbestos exposure was now Crown's responsibility.
As many businesses do, Crown asked the Texas Legislature to pass a law limiting its liability for wrongdoing by its predecessor. The Texas Legislature promptly passed such a law. So then the survivors of the man who had become ill (he had died by this time) asked the Texas Supreme Court to strike down the law limiting Crown's liability, pointing to a provision of the Texas Constitution prohibiting retroactive legislation.
A majority of the Court agreed with the worker's family that the law was indeed unconstitutional, because it retroactively wiped out liability that already existed. One justice even wrote a separate opinion in which he explained that, “weighty principles guide our course . . . . e recognize that police power draws from the credo that `the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,'” and that that maxim `utilitarian and Dickensian (not to mention Vulcan) . . . . ”
In a footnote, he then explained that “Vulcan” reference: “See STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN (Paramount Pictures 1982). The film references several works of classic literature, none more prominently than A Tale of Two Cities. Spock gives Admiral Kirk an antique copy as a birthday present, and the film itself is bookended with the book's opening and closing passages. Most memorable, of course, is Spock's famous line from his moment of sacrifice: `Don't grieve, Admiral. It is logical. The needs of the many outweigh . . .' to which Kirk replies, `the needs of the few.'”
It's always helpful to have an appellate judge take the time to re-enact a scene from a Star Trek film.
Of course, the quotation made sense — the court effectively chose the needs of the many sick workers and their families over the needs of the one company (even though that company itself had done nothing to make those workers sick). It is, actually a surprising principle to be asserted by a Texas court, where corporate interests usually outweigh the needs of individuals.
Still, there's something a bit jarring when a judge begins by saying “weighty principles” guide his decision and then walks through a scene from a movie. But that's how it is in the judging business . . . you get tired of quoting only other judges.
Yes — sometimes, a touch of the Vulcan is just the right thing.