Legal Rites - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

Russell Harley travels to an isolated part of the American Mid-West to take possession of his inheritance, a ramshackle house known as Harley Hall, willed to him by his late uncle Sebulon Harley. Finding that the house is apparently haunted by a ghost, he flees in terror.

In a bar, he is accosted by a mysterious stranger known only as Nicholls, who persuades Harley to let him place magical paraphernalia in and around the house in an effort to control the ghost.

The ghost visits a lawyer, claiming to be the spectre of Henry (Hank) Jenkins who shared the house for many years and now claims squatters' rights. Despite attempts to mediate, the case comes to court.

Harley's lawyer disputes the claimed legal rights of the ghost and demands evidence that the ghost is actually who he claims to be. Under the pressure of the proceedings, Harley breaks down and admits that he did know of the presence of the ghost and therefore is willing to clear out of the house. The judge of course finds for the plaintiff.

At he conclusion of the case, Nicholls commiserates with Harley and his lawyer. He points out that the precedent now set means that ghosts in the state and the whole of the United States now have legal rights to haunt houses. Having said this, he simply vanishes - he was a ghost himself.


The Early Asimov by Isaac Asimov
  • "The Callistan Menace"
  • "Ring Around the Sun"
  • "The Magnificent Possession"
  • "Trends"
  • "The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use"
  • "Black Friar of the Flame"
  • "Half-Breed"
  • "The Secret Sense"
  • "Homo Sol"
  • "Half-Breeds on Venus"
  • "The Imaginary"
  • "Heredity"
  • "History"
  • "Christmas on Ganymede"
  • "The Little Man on the Subway"
  • "The Hazing"
  • "Super-Neutron"
  • "Not Final!"
  • "Legal Rites"
  • "Time Pussy"
  • "Author! Author!"
  • "Death Sentence"
  • "Blind Alley"
  • "No Connection"
  • "The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline"
  • "The Red Queen's Race"
  • "Mother Earth"

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