Nice to see judges are having fun!

Thirdfox

Extracted from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060426/ap_on_fe_st/britain_da_vinci_code

"LONDON - The judge who presided at the "Da Vinci Code" copyright infringement trial has put a code of his own into his ruling, and he said Wednesday he would "probably" confirm it to the person who breaks it.

Since Judge Peter Smith delivered his ruling April 7 in favor of Dan Brown, the author of "The Da Vinci Code," lawyers in London and New York began noticing odd italicizations in the 71-page document.

In the weeks afterward, would-be code-breakers got to work on deciphering Smith's code.

"I can't discuss the judgment," Smith said in a brief conversation with The Associated Press, "but I don't see why a judgment should not be a matter of fun."

Italics are placed in strange spots: The first is found in the first paragraph of the 360-paragraph document. The letter "s" in the word "claimants" is italicized.

In the next paragraph, "claimant" is spelled with an italicized "m," and so on.

The italicized letters in the first seven paragraphs spell out "Smithy code," playing on the judge's name.

Lawyer Dan Tench, with the London firm Olswang, said he noticed the code when he spotted the striking italicized script in an online copy of the judgment.

"To encrypt a message in this manner, in a High Court judgment no less? It's out there," Tench said. "I think he was getting into the spirit of the thing. It doesn't take away from the validity of the judgment. He was just having a bit of fun."

Smith was arguably the highlight of the trial, with his acerbic questions and witty observations making the sometimes dry testimony more lively. Though Smith on Wednesday refused to discuss the judgment or acknowledge outright that he'd inserted a secret code in its pages, he said: "They don't look like typos, do they?"

When asked if someone would break the code, Smith said: "I don't know. It's not a difficult thing to do." And when asked if he would confirm a correct guess to an aspiring code-breaker, he said, "Probably."

Tench said the judge teasingly remarked that the code is a mixture of the italicized font code found in the "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" — whose authors Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh unsuccessfully sued Brown's publisher, Random House Inc., for copyright infringement — and the code found in Brown's "The Da Vinci Code."

.......

Since the judgment was handed down, Tench said it took several weeks — and several watchful eyes — to catch the code. Now, London and New York attorneys are scrambling to solve it.

"I think it has caught the particular imagination of Americans," Tench said. "To have a British, staid High Court judge encrypt a judgment in this manner, it's jolly fun."

After the "Smithy Code" series, there are an additional 25 jumbled letters contained in the first 14 pages of the document, Tench said, adding that he thinks the series can be decoded using an anagram or an alphabet-inspired code-breaking device. Known as a codex, the system is also found in Brown's novel.

A codex uses the letters of the alphabet and matches them with an additional set of letters placed in a different order, dubbed a substitution cipher. It is derived from a scene in the novel in which Harvard professor Robert Langdon and French cryptographer Sophie Neveu use the code to try to unravel the location of the Holy Grail, using a device invented by Leonardo Da Vinci for transporting secret messages.

"I'm definitely going to try to break the code," said attorney Mark Stephens, when learning of its existence.

"Judges have been known to write very sophisticated and amusing judgments," Stephens said. "This trend started long ago ... one did a judgment in rhyme, another in couplets. There has been precedent for this.

"It adds a bit of fun of what might have been a dusty text," he said."

---

A judge who is even cooler than Denning?

And which judge gave his judgment in rhyme? :eek:

dermot_sheehan

From the Michigan Court of Appeals:

122 Mich. App. 418

33 N.W.2d 67

William L. FISHER
v.

Karen LOWE, Larry Moffet and State Farm Insurance
Docket No. 60732
Court of Appeals of Michigan.
Decided Jan. 10, 1983.
Syllabus

A wayward Chevy struck a tree
Whose owner sued defendants three.
He sued car's owner, driver two,
And insurer for what was due
For his oak tree that now may bear
A lasting need for tender care.
The Oakland County Circuit Court,
John N. O'Brien, J., set forth
The judgment that defendants sought
And quickly an appeal was brought.
Court of Appeals, J.H. Gillis, J.,
Gave thought and then had this to say:
1) There is no liability
Since No-Fault grants immunity;
2) No jurisdiction can be found
Where process service is unsound;
And thus the judgment, as it's termed,
Is due to be, and is, Affirmed.

---

Opinion
Before BRONSON, P.J., and V.J. BRENNAN and J.H. GILLIS, JJ.

J.H. GILLIS, Judge.
We thought that we would never see
A suit to compensate a tree.
A suit whose claim in tort is prest
Upon a mangled tree's behest;
A tree whose battered trunk was prest
Against a Chevy's crumpled crest;
A tree that faces each new day
With bark and limb in disarray;
A tree that may forever bear
A lasting need for tender care.
Flora lovers though we three,
We must uphold the court's decree.
Affirmed.

http://members.aol.com/schwenkler/wcc/index.htm

NUTLEY BOY

The original judgment can be found at http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2006/719.html

The book itself was a great read.

It is a pity that the transcript of the trial cannot be published as that would probably be a good read too.

I hope that the film does justice to the book.

hullaballoo

That's a great idea. Denning was one to bring a bit of humour to his judgements as well. As far as I can see, Finnegan P does it too.

Thirdfox

Hmm in bailii they seem to have taken out the secret coding... here is where you can find the original judgment (with the clear typos/codes )

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/images/judgment-files/baigent_v_rhg_0406.pdf

maidhc

Thirdfox wrote:

Hmm in bailii they seem to have taken out the secret coding... here is where you can find the original judgment (with the clear typos/codes )

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/images/judgment-files/baigent_v_rhg_0406.pdf

or here: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2006/719.rtf

Thirdfox

So... who's worked out the code?

maidhc

Some guy in england with the help of the judge.

It refers to the HMS Dreadnought and an Admiral!

Thirdfox

Lol! Is that reported too?

Eru

I thought the book was a very bland B detective novel too be honest. Cant see how anyone would question any faith based on it. The fact that I read the book means I will rent the movie at some stage.

As for Judges having fun, spend a day in front of Coughlan and your in stitches! Even Dunne comes up with some classics!

Duffman

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/28/da_vinci_decrypt/

TheVan

A hero for our time!