Chapter 3 — Marbury’s

Our lawyer’s name was Ellis Nwachukwu and he was thirty-four and he was expensive and he was worth it.

He came to the house on a Sunday and spread the file on our dining table and told us, in order, the things we were not going to enjoy hearing.

One: Kesler was good. Two: on the narrow question, Paige was probably right — a deed of gift induced by a knowingly false statement of fact is voidable in Missouri, and a notary confirms that you signed, not that the man across the table was honest.

Three: the winning argument was not going to be *the lie wasn’t a lie*.

“Then what is it?” Gavin asked.

“Unclean hands,” Ellis said. “And duress. Rescission is equitable relief. She’s asking a judge to be fair to her. So we’re going to spend our time on what she was doing while your wife was in that house, because a court can decline to hand a remedy to a plaintiff who is asking for fairness with that on her record.”