'Typee' was dedicated to Chief Justice
Lemuel Shaw of Massachusetts, an old friendship between the author's family and that of Justice Shaw having been renewed about this time.
Chief Justice
Lemuel Shaw presided and his jury instructions became standard instructions in Massachusetts until 2015.
Duca's notes leave open the slight possibility that LS stands for
Lemuel Shaw, a Supreme Judicial Court justice, instead of, or in addition to, Lemuel Shattuck.
He leads off with Massachusetts Chief Justice
Lemuel Shaw's pivotal decision in Farwell v.
Judge
Lemuel Shaw's jury instructions in the 1850 murder trial of John White Webster included a definition of "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" that the state Supreme Judicial Court has all but insisted Massachusetts judges continue to use to this day.
The decision of
Lemuel Shaw in the Farwell case, which firmly established the fellow-servant rule, made it clear that the reason why workers could not sue their employers for the negligence of fellow servants was that workers were presumed in law to have assumed the risk of being injured by their co-workers.