Gray v. Gardner Limerick:
Corey Bean, a student in my Contracts II case this semester, submits a limerick in honor of the old Massachusetts case Gray v. Gardner, which turns on the issue of whether the "arrival" of a ship of whale oil by a certain date was a condition precednet or condition subsequent under the contract:
There once was a man from Nantucket
Who bought sperm oil by the bucket,
And tried to evade
A contract he made
But the court did not let him duck it.
Lady Adams's arrival just might
Not have provoked such a fight
But the parties did wrestle
Over whether the vessel
Must be anchored or only in sight.
Update:
Whoops--sorry, I didn't realize that the line formatting was originally off. I've tried to fix it.