The Law from the Lawbook Exchange

Item 107 is a piece from a long, sad personal battle: A Remonstrance Against the Testimony and Application of Mary Dyer, Requesting Legislative Interference Against the United Society, Commonly Called Shakers, from 1818. Mary Marshall Dyer moved into the Enfield, New Hampshire, Shaker community in 1813 with her husband and five children. She agreed to the communal upbringing of her children at the time. However, within a couple of years, she regretted losing the right to bring up her own children and left the community. Her husband stayed, keeping the five children with him. So began a long fight for Mary Dyer, one she would lose at virtually every turn. Her husband disowned her and she was unable to secure the release of her children, despite attempts to get legislation passed, once leading a mob, and publishing numerous virulent attacks on the group. For a while, she traveled with a group of others who had lost family members to the group, but in time, outsiders began to view the Shakers more as odd and quaint than threatening. Her cause was essentially lost. Her children never returned, four living out their lives in the community, the other never becoming close to her. She lived in anger until her death in 1867, by then a forgotten woman. However, the Shakers had already peaked by the middle of the century and were on a long, inevitable decline. Communities that don't allow procreation eventually meet this fate and the Shakers today are almost as extinct as Mary Dyer. $1,500.

Item 3 is an unusual piece – an oil portrait of famed lawyer Melvin Belli. It was likely created by a friend or client and hung in the office of the “King of Torts.” Belli, who died in 1996, reportedly won $600 million in verdicts back when a million dollars was a lot of money. In his most notable case, he was able to find the previously mentioned Coca-Cola liable for an exploding Coke bottle, a case that introduced the concept of imposing strict liability on manufacturers. He was also in the center of the news when he defended (unsuccessfully) Jack Ruby, who killed John F. Kennedy's killer, Lee Harvey Oswald. Belli was great at gathering publicity and was a regular on TV screens for several decades. Perhaps his portrait will serve as an inspiration. $850.

The Lawbook Exchange may be reached at 732-382-1800 or law@lawbookexchange.com. Their website is www.lawbookexchange.com.