Talk:Richard C. Atkinson

Untitled
moved from article:
 * A state court decision summarized Perry's account:


 * "Perry and Atkinson met in July 1976. Although Atkinson was married, he and Perry began having an intimate relationship which continued for more than a year. During that year, Perry and Atkinson developed a relationship of trust and confidence. In August 1977 Perry learned she was pregnant with Atkinson's child. When Perry told Atkinson, he became upset and urged her to have an abortion. Perry did not want to have an abortion, but Atkinson persisted. He told Perry that although he would like her to have his child, he wanted to postpone doing so for a year. He promised Perry that even if they were not together in a year, he would conceive a child with her by artificial insemination."

This needs a source at a minimum. If it is just one side of the case then the other side should be presented as well. Thanks -Willmcw 21:44, Apr 4, 2005 (UTC)

Just found it. I had no idea there was a reported opinion in this case until someone posted that text to the article.

The citation is Perry v. Atkinson, 195 Cal. App. 3d 14 (1987).

The pinpoint citation to that specific page from which that text came is as follows:

Perry v. Atkinson, 195 Cal. App. 3d 14, 16 (1987).

I'll modify the article to reflect the information from the reported case.

--Coolcaesar 07:51, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I just finished reading the case. The opinion presents only Perry's account because of the procedural posture of the appeal.

In civil procedure, when a claim is dismissed on demurrer, there is never an official finding of facts on the claim by the trial court --- that is, the court does not weigh each side's evidence and pick one side's version of the facts as more true, and the defendant has not conceded that any of those facts are true.

The entire point of demurrer is to say that even if one construes all the relevant facts alleged in the complaint in the plaintiff's favor, there is no way the law could grant relief to the plaintiff. It is designed to kick out frivolous de minimis claims. For example, if I accidentally cut you off on the freeway, but no accident occurs, and we both go safely on our way, there is no way you could sue me for emotional distress. Any lawsuit based on that would be kicked out on demurrer.

Anyway, only if the court denies the demurrer, then the defendant has to file an answer and admit or deny the alleged facts; the facts denied by the defendant are the ones which are "in controversy" and require an actual finding of fact by the court.

So the point is, the appellate court hearing the plaintiff's appeal from the demurrer reviews the facts in the same way as the trial court; it has to construe the facts in the complaint in the way most favorable to the plaintiff. Therefore, in its opinion, it tells only the plaintiff's story.

--Coolcaesar 08:08, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Wow - look at the development of this article from 3 days ago. Wikipedia works so well! Great job everyone. Lotsofissues 16:09, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the research, CC. Glad to have a legal eagle on the case. The new summary is terrific. Cheers, -Willmcw 16:11, Apr 5, 2005 (UTC)


 * It was so sharp and authoratative that I don't want to ruin it...and there's so much titillating tabloid drama to add: "This baby was very important to her, considering her age and time of life. She'd bargain for that. She'd drop her suit if he'd artificially inseminate her." :-( Lotsofissues 02:25, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

What is going on?
Looks like Mr. Atkinson himself or someone aligned with him has been doing a LOT of editing of this article over the past year or so. Looks like almost all of the Perry scandal was excised from the article. Not that I have the time to get involved in an edit war right now, but that omission is interesting. --Coolcaesar (talk) 06:45, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
 * It looks like it was deleted with this edit:.   Will Beback    talk    17:51, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks for tracing that. Perhaps it might be a good idea to restore the section on Lee Perry if no one objects.  --Coolcaesar (talk) 05:41, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Multi-store model of memory
It's weird that this article has nothing on the work that Atkinson is probably best known for i.e. the Multi-store model of memory, which he devised together with Richard Shiffrin in 1968. Lord Spring Onion (talk) 08:46, 20 June 2011 (UTC)