The Verdict
(by
Mother’s Service Society)
An American film starring Paul Newman depicts a
discredited and impoverished lawyer, Frank Galvin, who had fallen from
prosperity, high status and high principles, and now struggles to regain his former
stature, self-respect and values.
A decade earlier Frank had discovered that a senior partner in the top law firm owned by his father-in-law was illegally influencing members of the jury to win a case. When Frank threatened to expose the crime to authorities, the law partners reported to the police that Frank was the one guilty of jury tampering. Jailed, divorced by his wife and about to be disbarred, Frank retracted his threat to the partners and they in turn arranged for his release from prison.
Publicly disgraced, Frank took to alcohol and
struggled to find clients. In the last two years he handled only four cases and
lost them all. His former law professor,
Mick, brings him an important and potentially very remunerative case of a women
who suffered brain injury while undergoing childbirth and now lives in
permanent coma like a vegetable. Evidence suggests that the well-known doctors
who handled the case at a prestigious
With Mick's aid, Frank arranges for another
leading physician to testify as expert witness that the attending physicians
committed criminal negligence in their handling of the patient. Frank gives up
drinking and strikes up a relationship with a young, sympathetic woman named
Laura. He feels his life is finally turning around after years of degradation
and failure.
Five days before trial, the hospital authorities
call Frank and offer an out-of-court settlement for $210,000. He is sorely
tempted to accept the money, which would give him a much needed success and
substantial income, but he sees that the defendants are simply trying to buy
him off for a cheap price. Out of higher principle, he refuses the money and
decides to fight the case in court.
The hospital and physicians engage the services
of one of the top law firms headed by a ruthless lawyer who insists on victory
regardless of the methods. That firm puts its senior partner and 12 other
lawyers on the case against Frank and Mick. They arrange for articles in the
local newspapers and a TV program extolling the virtues of both the hospital
and these particular doctors.
The judge himself, who has a reputation for
siding with the establishment, urges Frank to accept the settlement and
displays a strong bias in favor of the hospital and other law firm. Still Frank
refuses to compromise.
The day before the trial begins, Frank’s client
is told by the opposing attorney that Frank refused the $210,000 and the
husband is so furious that he punches Frank in public. Later that day Frank
discovers that his expert witness has disappeared, obviously having been bribed
by the defendants. Somehow the defendants seem to know every step Frank takes
and are able to undermine all his efforts.
The power of the establishment and the pressure
it exerts becomes too much for Frank. He panics at the sudden reversal of
fortunes and concludes that he has no chance of winning the case, so he calls
the defense attorney and offers to accept their settlement offer. Knowing
Frank’s case is now weak, they refuse and the case comes to trial. When Frank
turns to Laura for sympathy, she abuses him for giving up even before the
trial.
Frank arranges a last minute replacement for
his expert witness, but that physician lacks the necessary credentials and his
testimony is discredited by the judge himself. The case is lost before the
defense even begins its presentation. Desperate, Frank re-examines all the
facts and rightly surmises that one obstetrics nurse present during the
patient’s operation refused to testify because she is trying to protect the
admitting nurse who had filled out the report when the patient came to the
hospital.
With great energy and resourcefulness, Frank
tracks down the admittance nurse and discovers the truth before the next trial
date. One of the physicians had failed to read the admittance report and,
therefore, failed to note that the patient had eaten one hour before admittance.
As a result, the doctor had administered an anesthetic to the patient that
caused her to vomit into the oxygen mask, resulting in suffocation and brain
damage. Afterwards the physician forced the admittance nurse to alter her
report to state that the patient had eaten nine hours earlier instead of one
hour.
The same day, Mick discovers that Laura is
secretly working for the opposing lawyers and is the source of the leaked
information that had undermined Frank’s case. Laura, who by now has fully regretted
her betrayal and become very fond of Frank, tries to confess, but finds no
opportunity to speak with him. Meanwhile Mick alerts Frank to prevent him from
telling Laura the admittance nurse. In a fury, Frank slaps Laura and then
refuses to have any further contact with her.
Back in court the defense presents a very
strong case. In cross examination, Frank gets the physician to admit that if
anesthesia had been given to a patient an hour after eating, it would
constitute criminal negligence. He then calls the admittance nurse as a
surprise witness along with a photocopy of the original report that shows the
one hour had been altered to nine. Despite the effort of the judge to discredit
the witness, the jury is fully convinced and decides to award Frank’s clients
even more than the $600,000 they sued for.
In the last scene, Laura desperately tries to
speak with Frank on the phone to reconcile with him, but Frank refuses to pick
up the phone despite a strong inclination to do so.
A man who had fallen from grace and renounced
values recovers them both through an intense struggle against incredible odds.
Both his inherent goodness and his weakness are apparent throughout. His final
act of manliness in refusing to take back the woman who had betrayed him express
the inner sense of self-respect and self-restraint that were crucial for his
resurrection.
Appa's comments:
— When a power is born in the
society, the previously established powers fully appropriate it.
— Money, education, trade,
communication, banking, transport are such social powers which are appropriated
by the society for its own purposes of survival and growth. Anything new has
to meet the entire opposition of those powers.
— In this story, a Catholic
hospital, served by eminent doctors, had an occasion to lapse. Normally one
expects the hospital and the doctors acknowledging the lapse and appropriately
compensating the victim's family. That may happen when Truth emerges in the
society stronger than the establishment.
— In the absence of the rule of Truth,
STRENGTH rules. Life is resourceful and creative. Man's thoughtfulness has
access to it. The determinant is the ruling force, here it is false prestige
tyrannizing over hapless victims through the power of money, organisation,
modern communication, treacherous spying and ultimately the hero's capacity to
bite the bait each time.
— The fallen victim takes to
alcohol. Had he been a strong idealist and used to normal drinking, he might
have vowed not to touch alcohol until he won, as Henchard did in the Mayor of
Casterbridge by Hardy. He has ruined himself, his wife left him. Mick is the
only person who evinces sympathy towards him. It means in that society, Truth
is NOT dead. Had it died or not yet been born, that one friend too would have
deserted him. The wife, had she been a GOOD woman, would have stood by him.
Neither her own conscience, nor social opinion is helpful to truth. Society is
mercenary as she could marry again. Some man would marry her. Obviously, she
had no compunction. It is a mercenary society where individual ethics is
unborn. Such a goodness survived in individual human beings of the
profession. Mick was its representation. It is society where a big law firm was
not shy of spying. A qualified lawyer was a willing spy. The goal is
success. The judge is a blatant version of career success. Compunction was
NOT in evidence anywhere except in the SPY at a later stage. The client himself
was mercenary. The repentance of Laura was enough to get slapped and thrown
away, an exact parallel to Frank's going to jail.
— The
— The black doctor was no help to
Frank. It means the reputed layer of the profession is corrupt. Only those without
name or skill are not corrupt. The ruling idea is to get rich quick.
Corruption is an acceptable, welcome means to all organised sectors.
— Laura's withholding her sympathy,
egging him to fight is an occasion where the negative motive issues positive
results. In the society it means the social conscience is thinly present to
overrule corrupt judge, deceitful doctors and lawyers and even corrupt victims.
— That Frank successfully reached
the admitting nurse indicates that justice is not totally dead in the society
or the initial flickering birth of justice is witnessed.
— Mick, Laura's repentance, the
availability of the nurse for witnessing, the fairness of the jury all, though
feebly, are determined indications of possible future justice. Or, justice is determined
to be born.
— In this story, a spy was
consciously planted. In a more corrupt society, LIFE will consciously or
unconsciously introduce a spy. Note, such events are a measuring tool for
the society' maturity in Truth.
— Frank's work took off after he
broke with Laura. It is great he has NOT gone back to her. Everyone will have a
Laura in a partner, a brother, a wife, a friend, etc. There lies the key to
man's existence in consciousness.
— A man can be precisely evaluated
for his accomplishment in his behaviour towards that person. Love of a
gravedigger is the outstanding virtue of falsehood. A far greater
misfortune is the human capacity to avoid the source of luck, as its appearance
is unacceptable or unintelligible.
o
Love of a gravedigger and the conscious avoidance of a bringer of luck
remains the bane of human nature.
o
Worse than that is the capacity to happily repeat previous errors. The
architect of Ignorance prides in his loyalty to the past inherited ways. It is physical mind enjoying its ideals of
tradition.
o
The same ideal in consciousness is falsehood organised. It has a further
capacity to "follow" Truth ardently. At the most crucial moments,
such people will be creative in destruction. The more alert innovate ahead of
time ways that can neutralize the entire work.
o
Stinginess is a perfect vehicle to preserve ways of life that are
directly detrimental to TRUTH. Such people always swear by Truth. At crucial
times, they have an urge to do the very opposite.
o
In analysing low consciousness, one can see all these ways ingrained in
the personality.
o
Money is a powerful preservative of low consciousness.
o
Prestige outdoes Money in this mission.
o
Selfishness is a more organised centripetal force than money or
prestige.
o
Self-giving from the depths of consciousness can neutralize all these
tendencies.
o
Knowing Mother is to know Mother's self-giving to us.
o
Every such theme is explained in the Agenda as an experiment of the
universal vibration in Her material consciousness.
(Roy Posner of Growth Online adds:)
Life Response in 'The Verdict'
I saw the film The Verdict again. I saw something new. At one point his partner says that things looked bleak and hopeless regarding the current case -- and indeed -- they did. His partner also suggested that there would be other court cases in the future. However, Frank insisted that no, THIS was the case. THIS was the case, which he repeated over and over. The power of intention was so great that shortly thereafter he discovered the missing witness in the form of the former nurse that would win him the case. Also, the betrayal by the woman who was his lover was suddenly revealed. It was double good fortune for Frank; i.e. it was life responding to the release of powerful energies emanating from Frank's Will. His power of intention (and his decisions and actions that followed it) was so great that it overwhelmed and overtook every other obstacle. His whole existence, which until that point had been a failure in his own mind, was now tied to that staggering intention. He then attracted Truth to his side, which nearly everyone recognized, including the crooked judge.
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