"I'll feel better when it's all over," said Knight, "no matter how it comes out."
"So will I," Lee admitted.
The trial opened with a minimum of notice. It was just another case on the calendar.
But it flared into the headlines when Lee and Knight walked into court followed by a squad of robots.
The spectators began to gabble loudly. The How-2 Kits attorneys gaped and jumped to their feet. The judge pounded furiously with his gavel.
"Mr. Lee," he roared, "what is the meaning of this?"
"These, Your Honor," Lee said calmly, "are my valued assistants."
"Those are robots!"
"Quite so, Your Honor."
"They have no standing in this court."
"If Your Honor will excuse me, they need no standing. I am the sole representative of the defendant in this courtroom. My client-" looking at the formidable array of legal talent representing How-2 Kits-"is a poor man, Your Honor. Surely the court cannot deny me whatever assistance I have been able to muster."
"It is highly irregular, sir."
"If it please Your Honor, I should like to point out that we live in a mechanized age. Almost all industries and businesses rely in large part upon computers-machines that can do a job quicker and better, more precisely and more efficiently than can a human being. That is why, Your Honor, we have a fifteen-hour week today when, only a hundred years ago, it was a thirty-hour week, and, a hundred years before that, a forty-hour week. Our entire society is based upon the ability of machines to lift from men the labors which in the past they were called upon to perform.
"This tendency to rely upon intelligent machines and to make wide use of them is evident in every branch of human endeavor. It has brought great benefit to the human race. Even in such sensitive areas as drug houses, where prescriptions must be precisely mixed without the remotest possibility of error, reliance is placed, and rightly so, Your Honor, upon the precision of machines.
"If, Your Honor, such machines are used and accepted in the production of medicines and drugs, an industry, need I point out, where public confidence is the greatest asset of the company-if such be the case, then surely you must agree that in courts of law where justice, a product in an area surely as sensitive as medicine, is dispensed-"
"Just a moment, Mr. Lee," said the judge. "Are you trying to tell me that the use of-ah-machines might bring about improvement of the law?"
Lee replied, "The law, Your Honor, is a striving for an orderliness of relationships within a society of human beings. It rests upon logic and reason. Need I point out that it is in the intelligent machines that one is most likely to find a deep appreciation of logic and reason? A machine is not heir to the emotions of human beings, is not swayed by prejudices, has no preconceived convictions. It is concerned only with the orderly progression of certain facts and laws.
"I do not ask that these robot assistants of mine be recognized in any official capacity. I do not intend that they shall engage directly in any of the proceedings which are involved in the case here to be tried. But I do ask, and I think rightly, that I not be deprived of an assistance which they may afford me. The plaintiff in this action has a score of attorneys, all good and able men. I am one against many. I shall do the best I can. But in view of the disparity of numbers, I plead that the court put me at no greater inequality."
Lee sat down.
"Is it all you have to say, Mr. Lee?" asked the judge. "You are sure you are quite finished before giving my ruling?"
"Only one thing further," Lee said. "If Your Honor can point out to me anything in the law specifically stating I may not use a robot-"
"That is ridiculous, sir. Of course there is no such provision. At no time anywhere did anyone ever dream that such a contingency would arise. Therefore there was, quite naturally, no reason to place within the law a direct prohibition of it."
"Or any citation," said Lee, "which implies such is the case."
The judge reached for his gavel, rapped it sharply. "The court finds itself in a quandary. It will rule tomorrow morning."
In the morning, the How-2 Kits' attorneys tried to help the judge. Inasmuch, they said, as the robots in question must be among those whose status was involved in the litigation, it seemed improper that they should be used by the defendant in trying the case at issue. Such procedure, they pointed out, would be equivalent to forcing the plaintiff to contribute to an action against his interest.
The judge nodded gravely, but Lee was on his feet at once.
"To give any validity to that argument, Your Honor, it must first be proved that these robots are, in fact, the property of the plaintiff. That is the issue at trial in this litigation. It would seem, Your Honor, that the gentlemen across the room are putting the cart very much before the horse."
His Honor sighed. "The court regrets the ruling it must make, being well aware that it may start a controversy for which no equitable settlement may be found in a long, long time. But in the absence of any specific ban against the use of-ah-robots in the legal profession, the court must rule that it is permissible for the defense to avail itself of their services."
He fixed Lee with a glare. "But the court also warns the defense attorney that it will watch his procedure carefully. If, sir, you overstep for a single instant what I deem appropriate rules of legal conduct, I shall forthwith eject you and your pack of machines from my courtroom."
"Thank you, Your Honor," said Lee. "I shall be most careful."
"The plaintiff now will state its case."
How-2 Kits' chief counsel rose.
The defendant, one Gordon Knight, he said, had ordered from How-2 Kits, Inc., one mechanobiologic dog kit at the cost of two hundred and fifty dollars. Then, through an error in shipping, the defendant had been sent not the dog kit he had ordered, but a robot named Albert.
"Your Honor," Lee broke in, "I should like to point out at this juncture that the shipping of the kit was handled by a human being and thus was subject to error. Should How-2 Kits use machines to handle such details, no such error could occur."
The judge banged his gavel. "Mr. Lee, you are no stranger to court procedure. You know you are out of order." He nodded at the How-2 Kits attorney. "Continue, please."
The robot Albert, said the attorney, was not an ordinary robot. It was an experimental model that had been developed by How-2 Kits and then, once its abilities were determined, packed away, with no intention of ever marketing it. How it could have been sent to a customer was beyond his comprehension. The company had investigated and could not find the answer. But that it had been sent was self-evident.
The average robot, he explained, retailed at ten thousand dollars. Albert's value was far greater-it was, in fact, inestimable.
Once the robot had been received, the buyer, Gordon Knight, should instantly have notified the company and arranged for its return. But, instead, he had retained it wrongly and with intent to defraud and had used it for his profit.
The company prayed the court that the defendant be ordered to return to it not only the robot Albert, but the products of Albert's labor-to wit, an unknown number of robots that Albert had manufactured.
The attorney sat down.
Lee rose. "Your Honor, we agree with everything the plaintiff has said. He has stated the case exactly and I compliment him upon his admirable restraint."
"Do I understand, sir," asked the judge, "that this is tantamount to a plea of guilty? Are you, by any chance, throwing yourself upon the mercy of the court?"
"Not at all, Your Honor."
"I confess," said the judge, "that I am unable to follow your reasoning. If you concur in the accusations brought against your client, I fail to see what I can do other than to enter a judgment in behalf of the plaintiff."