Of Alimony, Embezzlers, Lifers & Immoral Pilots

Great U.S. constitutional decisions come down from the Supreme Court like Mosaic tablets--but the common law and administrative rules that affect everyone are created by hundreds of lesser courts and agencies in thousands of obscure human conflicts. A current sampler:

> A divorced woman's alimony slops when she remarries--and does not revive even if her new marriage turns out to be a nullity. New Yorker Harry Herscher happily quit paying his ex-wife Alice $125 a week when he discovered that she had been remarried for 68 weeks. Alice reclaimed alimony on a compelling ground: her second husband had not been divorced from a previous wife and her second marriage was void. Too bad, ruled New York Civil Court Judge Sidney H. Asch. Since Alice "intended to abrogate her right to support" when she remarried, Harry is off the hook for good.

> People who can see have a legal duty to protect the blind. In Upper Darby, Pa., James Argo, a blind broom peddler, entered an office building to hawk his wares for the 40th time in ten years. This time, workmen had removed the floor. Argo plunged 18 feet, suffered serious injuries, and won a jury verdict of $27,500. Rejecting the landlord's appeal, the Pennsylvania court ruled that henceforth landlords must foresee potential dangers to the state's 15,000 blind citizens. Argo, held the court, was entitled to the simplest imaginable safeguard: "The defendants could have locked the door."

> An airline captain may be the world's best pilot, but he may not fly without "good moral character." Captain "Richard Roe," father of four, had an unblemished 15-year record with a U.S. airline. He also had a young mistress whom he forced to pose for obscene photographs. When "Miss Doe" married another man, Roe vindictively sent at least 33 of the pictures to the couple's friends, relatives and employers. Not only did Miss Doe attempt suicide; her husband divorced her. Voiding his pilot's license, the Civil Aeronautics Board ruled that Roe has "a significant character deficiency," and "cannot be trusted with the duties and responsibilities of a pilot in command of an aircraft."

> The parents of an infant with suspicious injuries are presumed guilty of abuse--and must prove otherwise or lose custody of their child. Until now, many of the country's "battered children" (10,000 a year) lacked such protection because few can speak and their parents shield one another. Brooklyn Family Court Judge Harold Felix has attacked all that in the case of an infant whom a hospital found suffering from broken legs and ribs. Charged with abuse, the parents sought dismissal for lack of evidence against them. Judge Felix invoked the negligence-law principle of res ipsa loquitur (the thing speaks for itself). When he got no satisfactory explanation, he took the child away from its parents, setting a precedent that courts in other states may well find persuasive.

> Embezzlers may "average" their incomes for federal tax purposes--just like any other taxpayer who would otherwise face an unusually big bite for an unusually big year. According to the Supreme Court, an embezzler must pay taxes on what he steals. Apparently anticipating this situation, an embezzler of state sales taxes asked the Internal Revenue Service whether he could use the averaging provision that Congress enacted in 1964. Without revealing his identity, the IRS reported that the law bars averaging only for such specific items of income as bets, bequests, gifts and capital gains. Since the list fails to mention embezzled funds, ruled the IRS, embezzlers get a break--assuming, of course, that they pay taxes at all.

> A New Yorker sentenced to life imprisonment is "civilly dead"--his family can even dispense with his name. Mark Fein was a respectable Manhattan container manufacturer who secretly consorted with gamblers and prostitutes. Last year Fein received a 30-year-to-life sentence for murdering his bookie to avoid paying a $23,898 World Series bet. To shield her three children from the seamy publicity, Fein's wife Nancy sought to resume her maiden name of Nahon. Permission granted, ruled Judge George Starke last week. Not only has Fein lost all civil rights, from suing to voting to making contracts; any contract he ever made in the past is void, including his marriage. Indeed, Nancy Nahon is free to remarry, though not until the U.S. Supreme Court acts on Fein's appeal and his conviction becomes final.

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