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MILITARY
BOOKS
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John J. Thomason
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John J. Thomason was “attended
the Memphis public schools, Rhodes College and graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1952. Upon graduation
he was commissioned first lieutenant in the Army of the United States, Judge Advocate General's Corps, and served as assistant
staff judge advocate, VII U.S. Army Corps in Germany, from 1953 to 1955. Following military service, Thomason was a public
defender in the criminal courts of Memphis, Tennessee, then a trial lawyer, frequently defending physicians accused of medical
malpractice and representing corporations in commercial litigation. In 1967 he founded a law firm, and in 2002, after fifty
years at the bar, retired from the practice of law. By then his firm had grown to thirty-five lawyers. John J. Thomason is
the author of Inadmissible Evidence and Lieutenant, Your Cap's on Backwards.
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According to the book description of
Inadmissible Evidence, it is “a work of fiction inspired by an actual controversy between
a German airframe manufacturer and an American defense contractor arising out of their efforts to win a US government contract
to build a remotely controlled drone aircraft. As a result of the dispute, the German company brought suit in the United States
District Court in Texas alleging breach of contract, breach of a duty of good faith, interference with a prospective business
opportunity and fraud. In 1997 the Texas jury found that the American company had been guilty of fraud and returned a verdict
in favor of the German plaintiff, awarding punitive damages in the amount of forty-five million dollars and compensatory damages
in the amount of one dollar. The trial judge, in vacating the punitive damage award, found that there was sufficient evidence
to sustain the verdict of fraud, but that the compensatory damage award would not support the punitive damage verdict, and
entered judgment for one dollar in favor of the German plaintiff. Both parties appealed and in 2001 the United States Court
of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the judgment of the district court in all respects. Although this story was inspired
by the federal court case and some of the locations described are real, none of the facts in the novel are true, no one was
killed, there was no "smoking gun" e-mail, and no romance. All the events described in the novel are fictitious
and all of the characters described in this story, their deeds and misdeeds are the product of the author's imagination.”
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One reader of Lieutenant,
Your Cap's on Backwards said, “The Uniform Code of Military Justice became law on July 31, l95l and for
the first time in the history of the U.S. accused military defendants were entitled to the assistance of lawyers in the conduct
of their defense. John Thomason and I, as well as several hundred others, went from law school to the Judge Advocate General's
Corp as newly commissioned First Lieutenants and to a unique opportunity to participate in the development
of a large and important body of law, all in a unique time and place. John, or Bud as we all new him, was an outstanding military
lawyer and has become an outstanding legal historian who has done a great job in capturing and describing the times and much
of the process in the start up of a very important branch of the law.”
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