11.11.2011 – Pressemitteilung 10/11
Germans have been reminded this week of the Stella Liebeck case, or their memories of it, in which McDonalds eventually settled the case where a woman received third-degree burns from coffee spilt on her legs.

The Landgericht (Regional Court) in Munich did not award damages to a German woman, the passenger in a car at a drive-through restaurant. In this case she seems to have been contributorily negligent to a greater degree than Stella Liebeck, and had second-degree burns. Possibly the lid was put on the cup too loosely. The plaintiff sued for damages of about 1500 euros. The court thought she should have checked that the lid was on properly before she put the coffee between her thighs to hold it while she took the driver’s coffee too.

German article with photo of plaintiff and lawyer.

Court press report in German

LATER NOTE: mentioning Stella Liebeck always leads to discussions (see the German comments on law blog). The Wikipedia article says she spilt the coffee in her lap and it soaked into her sweatpants – she was burnt on her thighs, buttocks and groin.

In the list of the top 25 foreign law and international blogs at LexisNexis, Transblawg appears as Continental Law Transblawg, in a kind of pars pro toto effect. Here’s the announcement and list. It seems they are keen on link exchanges, which is something I don’t do – actually it’s rarely sought nowadays, as I assume most bloggers have realized it doesn’t work that way (another advocate of it is Jost Zetzsche, curiously enough, who is quite good on internet and software things and does regular newsletters for translators (see The Tool Box Newsletter).

I was pleased to see two familiar blogs on the list – Absolvitor on Scots Law and China Law Blog.

From A Week in the Life of a SOAS student:

9-10 : Grammar 10-11 : Practical

12.30 or thereabouts : I offer my custom to the great SOAS institution/legends who are the Hare Krishna guys. They come every day with a wagon of free vegetarian curry [but seriously, give them a donation, you skinflints] which is really really top quality stuff. They also boast the latest in trouser-related sartorial elegance ; you’ll know what I mean when you see them. Also, if you take the trouble to learn their names, they’ll give you massive portions, more than you can handle.

I realized it must be free after I took the photo and remembered Steve Jobs saying he used to go to Hare Krishna once a week for a free meal.

One of my favourite translation blogs, false friends, good and bad translation (I’m not sure about the capitalization) by Martin Crellin, has touched on legal terminology in recent weeks.

The first entry that caught my eye was one on the English legal term frustration, which is not the same as German Frustration. Crellin comments on how often internet searches show the translation frustrated expenses for frustrierte Aufwendungen. The Linguee site is given as an example of this.

Mit diesem Wissen kam meine australische Mitarbeiterin Lotta Ziegert (mit ihrem juristischen Hintergrund) schnell auf den passenden englischen Begriff (bzw. Begriffe):

Reliance loss
Wasted expenditure
Wasted expenditure loss

Alle sind wasserdichte Lösungen – die man durch zuverlässige Definitionen belegen kann.

I have a quibble here: if you read Linguee’s examples carefully, an EU one is given with futile expenditure. I like that best of all.

The second one was on Paragraphendschungel, which some benighted souls apparently translate as paragraph jungle.

Das vorgestellte Konzept hieß „paragraph jungle“. Das ist ungefähr so sinnvoll wie „Absatzurwald.“

Bei uns bestehen Gesetze nicht aus Paragraphen. Sondern aus sections oder articles. Und die Absätze auf der nächsten Ebene? Sind meist sub-sections.

Image searches reveal some pictures of one of these.

Most recently, there is a post by Ben Davidson, the trainee, on Der Rechtsweg ist ausgeschlossen: The judges’ decision is final.

Der Rechtsweg ist ausgeschlossen is a phrase that crops up regularly, especially in competition terms and conditions. And it causes problems.
“Why?” I hear you ask, “Doesn’t it translate as ‘the judges’ decision is final’?” Well yes, that is a perfectly acceptable translation, as proven by its inclusion in the rules of Britain’s Got Talent, and on the Illinois Legal Aid website.
You see, the problem doesn’t stem from our inability to find an adequate translation. The issue is “the judges’ decision is final” just doesn’t sound legal enough. Customers can’t believe that it is the equivalent term – it’s almost a case of “The translator’s decision is not final”.

I was surprised at this. I would use this expression only in connection with competitions. So I used to teach that there are two possible translations: either The judges’ decision is final in competitions, or something else in relation to a court of law. I seem to have opined on this on ProZ in the past. But I don’t believe that ousting the jurisdiction of the courts is often appropriate. Something like recourse to the courts is excluded is better, I think now. And there certainly are some ghits showing The judges’ decision is final in a legal context, but I don’t think it’s common.

Davidson settles on The judges’ decision is final and legally binding, for which he finds over 3,000 ghits, but this is only in the context of competitions – legal translators meet the German quite often in relation to the courts of law, which requires a different solution.

Three cabinets of deep-frozen Yorkshire pudding (Tesco, Lakeside):

Cupcake maker and stand:

This isn’t the first time a cleaner has destroyed a work of art. I remember one of Joseph Beuys’ fat corners – Fettecken – where he’d thrown some butter or something at a plastic shape and it was just left as it was. Here’s a machine translation account of that:

the famous end of the fat corner

a cleaning strength removed 1986 after Beuys death arbitrarily the fat, because it it not as work of art, but when dirt regarded. To 27. October 1987 came it therefore to a process. The country North Rhine-Westphalia paid at that time finally 40,000 DM payment of damages to the owner of the work. Because of this anecdote the fat corner ranks among the most popular, although also to few understood work of the artist.

Cleaning strength means a cleaner – Reinigungskraft.

When Beuys was shot down over the Crimea in WWII, he claimed he was rescued by Tatar nomads who smeared him with animal fat and wrapped him in felt, hence his obsession with fat.

The latest story concrns a work by Martin Kippenberger called Wenn’s anfängt durch die Decke zu tropfen (When it starts dripping through the ceiling).

Some papers have a picture of it e.g. Die Welt, but apparently only after the damage was done. The whitewash that had dripped into the basin underneath was thoroughly removed.

According to Prof. Dr. Markus Stoffels on beck-blog, the woman will not be sacked.

Die Frau habe in einem „unbedachten Moment“ gehandelt und sei anschließend selbst unter Tränen zu ihrem Chef gekommen, um das Missgeschick zu beichten. „Da ist einfach etwas über sie gekommen“, so Schwake. Das Personal hat die Anweisung, zu Kunstwerken einen Abstand von 20 Zentimetern zu halten – „Das wusste sie natürlich, darum ist sie ja so erschüttert.“ Eine Bestrafung durch den Arbeitgeber schließt der Chef denn auch aus: „Wir schätzen die Mitarbeiterin sehr. Sie ist genug gestraft, weil sie sich unendlich schämt.“

At least according to this version, the woman had been told to keep at a distance from works of art – other sources disagree – but she said ‘something came over me’. This is spoken like a true charwoman. It’s something that doesn’t come over me often enough.