Robert J. Mangler of Wilmette, chair of the annual Illinois Traffic Court Conference, received the Charles S. Rhyne Award for Lifetime Achievement in Municipal Law during the annual conference of the International Municipal Lawyers Association in New Orleans.
A past president of the Illinois Institute for Local Government Law, Mangler has been village attorney for Wilmette and Orland Park, Evanston municipal prosecutor and an assistant Chicago corporation counsel.
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Cook County Associate Judge John A. Wasilewski, a member of the ISBA Assembly and Criminal Justice Section Council, has received an Outstanding Alumni Award from the Northern Illinois University College of Law.
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Alton attorney Thomas E. Kennedy III has received the ninth annual Clarence Darrow Award from the St. Louis University Public Interest Law Group for his efforts on behalf of children, the disabled and individuals subject to unlawful discrimination.
Previously a staff attorney for Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, Kennedy now handles education law cases pro bono for the LLLAF East St. Louis office and for the Civil Law Clinic at St. Louis University.
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Cook County Judge Michael J. Hogan was honored March 15 by the Celtic Legal Society of Chicago as Celtic Man of the Year.
Law enforcement honoree combats child sex abuse
An ISBA Law Enforcement Award was presented April 24 to Chicago Police Lt. Robert Hargesheimer, commanding officer of the Youth Special Investigations Unit (YSIU), as a highlight of National Crime Victims' Rights Week.
ISBA President Timothy Eaton made the presentation during the fourth annual Victim Service Awards ceremony, along with Cook County State's Attorney Richard A. Devine, who nominated Hargesheimer for the honor (see photo on page 1).
A 29-year career law enforcement officer, Hargesheimer had headed the YSIU since 1991, coordinating investigation of cases involving sexually abused or exploited children.
Eaton said the officer "took the lead in developing innovative investigative protocols, establishing an Internet crime unit to combat computer crimes that target children and providing enhanced training for his personnel."
Hargesheimer has a close working relationship with the state's attorney's Sex Crimes Division, a collaboration that has resulted in the arrest and successful prosecution of hundreds of child sex offenders.
He developed the Chicago Children's Advocacy Center, a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to supporting child abuse victims and their families. Procedures he helped draft have eliminated further traumatizing abused children during the process and have preserved the integrity of investigations.
"Because the after-effects of child sexual abuse also impact the child's family and neighborhood, he pushed for the inclusion of crisis intervention and long-term treatment programs at the center," Eaton said.
Q: The following term "monies" seems odd to me. One sees it in statements like, "The California State Parks have received monies for land purchases and maintenance." Is the word monies grammatically correct? Isn't "money" a plural form? Is there any circumstance where, for clarity and precision, the word monies is necessary?
A:Professor Glenn Blair, who teaches at Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, Ohio, sent this first-time question, the one-word answer to all three parts being "yes," "yes," and "no."
Those who want a longer answer, read on. Most lay and legal dictionaries list only money, ignoring both plurals, moneys and monies. The prestigious Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) does take note of the existence of monies, saying only that it is "the irregular plural of Money" (at p.1010). Ignoring the word monies, Ballentine's Law Dictionary (4th edition) acknowledges that moneys exists, but disposes of the matter with the comment, "Moneys: The plural of money and nothing more." (Mann v Mann (NY) 14 Johns 1)
That categorical definition corresponds with the one in Statute 11 of the U.S.C.A. bankruptcy code. Section 326(a) states: "The term moneys is synonymous with sums of money, i.e., with something generally accepted as a medium of exchange."
In all the dictionaries that list the terms, the spellings, monies or moneys, seem interchangeable. But in Words and Phrases' listing of court decisions, the plural moneys is much more frequent than the plural monies, the term monies appearing in only one decision, Kayell Dev. Co.v. Carney, 480 P.2d 857, which states that "monies due on account. . . [means] that a creditor shall be allowed to recover interest. . .on money due on account."
In many court decisions both terms, moneys and money, denote plurality. Typical is the holding in State v. Dishman, 68 S.W.2d 797, 334 Mo.874, which states in part:
* The statute. . .uses the term "moneys" so that the clerk could not be convicted thereunder for retaining money received in payment of a fine, the use of the word "moneys" not broadening the scope of the statute." (Emphasis added.)
Thus the answer to Professor Blair's first two questions, is that, because the term monies is in frequent use by educated persons, it is now acceptable; but because the term money has traditionally been a non-count noun indicating both singularity and plurality, there is no need to add plural indicators to it. Money, and other non-count nouns (like rice, contentment, information, and happiness) is sliding into the count-noun category and "s" is added to indicate its plurality. This pattern occurs because most English nouns are count-nouns (like apple, book, elbow, and desk), so English speakers tend to add "s" to all nouns. Thus, psychiatrists now speak of behaviors, creating a count-noun from a previously non-count noun, and lawyers now talk about the best interests of a person, when interest was traditionally sufficient. (And how about that monster criterias, in which an "s" is added to a noun that is already a plural form?) So you will find more "moneys" than "money" especially in formal writing.
Count-nouns differ from non-count nouns in several ways. For one, non-count nouns cannot be counted: you say "one apple," and "two apples"; but you do not say "one rice" and "two rices." Non-count nouns do not require a definite or indefinite article (the or a/an) preceding the singular form. You would say "Feedback is expected," but not "Book is interesting." Count- nouns require adjectives different from those that modify non-count nouns: we say "much grief" but "many sorrows"; "much happiness" but "many joys."
To further complicate matters, the same nouns may be either count or non-count, depending on their context. You might say, "The patient suffered from depression ("depression" as a non-count noun), or "The depressions of the 30's and of the 70's differed" ("depression" as a count-noun).
FROM THE MAILBAG:
A Chicago reader objects to the use of the word healthy to mean "healthful." She pointed out, correctly, that healthy traditionally meant "possessing health," and healthful meant "good for you." She's right, but almost nobody observes that distinction any more, so the word healthful is now virtually lost from our language. Other distinctions no longer observed are between the pairs famous and notorious, unique and unusual, disinterested and uninterested, prevalent and common.
While famous continues to mean "widely known," notorious, which used to mean "infamous" is now often used as a synonym of famous. Similarly notoriety is frequently as a synonym of fame. The adjective prevalent used to have the pejorative meaning of "rife"; that is it indicated something both common and undesirable, as in "Cholera is prevalent in north Africa." Now dictionaries define it as "widespread," its changed meaning probably due to its relationship with the adjective prevailing, which never had a pejorative sense.
It seems a shame to lose useful distinctions like those above and like the loss of the term uninterested, which means "having no interest." The term disinterested, which formerly meant "objective, unbiased" is now used with the meaning of uninterested, so that the distinction between "uninterested parties" and "disinterested parties" is lost. And unique no longer retains its uniqueness. Because unique now often merely means "unusual," we now must add an adverb like absolutely or completely to give it the meaning unique once had.
Sometimes it seems that English speakers are constantly adding words they don't need, like moneys, and discarding words they do need.
Gertrude Block is Lecturer Emerita at the University of Florida College of Law. Her book, "Effective Legal Writing" (Foundation Press), is now available in a 5th edition (1999), with an accompanying instructor's manual. Ms. Block is also co-author of the "Judicial Opinion Writing Manual" (published by the American Bar Association, 1991). Send questions to the ISBA Bar News -- Language Tips, Illinois State Bar Association, Illinois Bar Center, Springfield, IL 62701, or e-mail her at block@law.ufl.edu.
Patient safety, medical errors to be reviewed in SIU program
The Southern Illinois University School Law is a co-sponsor of the program, "Patient Safety and Medical Errors: Reporting and Disclosure Issues," that will take place Thursday and Friday, May 30-31, at Giant City State Park Lodge, Makanda.
Other sponsors are the Health Policy Institute of Southern Illinois Healthcare, the Hiram H. Lesar Distinguished Lecture Series, and the Department of Medical Humanities at the SIU School of Medicine.
The program will begin at 12:45 p.m. May 30 with a welcome from Thomas J. Firestone, president of Southern Illinois Healthcare, and four presentations will precede a 5:30 p.m. reception.
Afternoon topics are The Patient First: A Surgeon's Perspective on a Service Line's Approach to both Efficiency and Safety; Benefiting from the Gift of Failure: Essentials of an Event Reporting System; CRM: The Aviation Model of an Error-tolerant System, and Improving Healthcare Organizational Reliability: A Model for Voluntary, State-level Confidential Learning Systems.
Beginning May 31 with a continental breakfast at 7:30 a.m., the program will continue with four morning presentations before early afternoon adjournment.
The topics are Resident Safety and Medical Errors in Nursing Homes: Reporting and Disclosure in a Culture of Mutual Distrust; Legal Responses to Medical Error: Lessons from an Emerging Field of Theoretical Jurisprudence; Not Just Marketing: Using a Medical Error Disclosure System to Promote Quality, and Lessons Learned from the Patient Safety Movement: The End of the Beginning.
The faculty includes legal professionals Edward A. Dauer, dean emeritus and professor at the Denver School of Law; Prof. Marshall Kapp of the Wright State University School of Medicine, and Prof. Bryan A. Liang of the SIU School of Law and School of Medicine.
The registration fee is $110. For more information, call (618) 536-7711 or e-mail lawcal@siu.edu.
CLE Institute
Call (800) 252-8062 for registration details and a schedule of Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education programs. Among them are:
Drafting Illinois Business Documents: Basic Forms and How to Use Them Monday and Tuesday, May 20-21, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Chicago.
Employment Termination 2002: Developments, Trends and Practice Guidelines Friday, June 7, at The John Marshall Law School Conference Center. Speakers include Michael R. Lied, newsletter editor of the ISBA Labor and Employment Law Section Council, and L. Steven Platt, president of the Illinois chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association.
Estate Planning for Retirement Benefits 2002 Friday, June 21, at the Park Inn, Urbana, and Thursday, June 27, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Chicago.
Decalogue Society
The Decalogue Society's continuing legal education series at 12:30 p.m. Wednesdays will conclude with the May 22 presentation by Kerry Peck on Contested Estates. Call (312) 263-6493.
Lake County Bar
Two committees of the Lake County Bar Association will sponsor a combination seminar and golf outing Thursday, May 23, at the Steeplechase Golf Course, Mundelein. They are the Civil Trial and Appeals and the Legal-Medical Committees.
The seminar from 8:30 to 11:45 a.m. will cover trial issues such as use of expert witnesses, jury consultants, the Internet, motions in limine, sex and age discrimination, pet peeves, and updates on Rule 213 and arbitration procedures.
The golf outing begins with a 12 noon shotgun start and ends with festivities at 5 p.m. Seminar participants are not required to play golf, but golfers must attend the seminar. Call (847) 244-3143.
John Marshall Law
The John Marshall Law School Center for Real Estate Law will present the program, "Analyzing Real Estate Loan Defaults in the Era of Securitization," from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Thursday, May 23. Call Kevin Farrell, (312) 987-1420.
Valparaiso Law
A Midwest Solo and Small Firm Success Conference will be conducted Thursday to Saturday, May 30-June 1, at the Valparaiso University School of Law. Sponsors are the state bar associations of Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Registration forms may be accessed at www.inbar.org. For more information, call Stephen M. Terrell, (317) 236-1040.
State Appellate Defender Theodore A. Gottfried, a member of the ISBA Special Committee on Appellate Practice, will discuss the report of the governor's Commission on Capital Punishment at the spring seminar of the Illinois Public Defender Association.