T. Scott Offutt (1872-1943) 
MSA SC 3520-14462 
Judge, Court of Appeals, 1920-1942 
President, Maryland State Bar Association, 1923-1924

Biography:

Born Thiemann Scott Offutt, June 12, 1872, Montgomery County, Maryland.  Son of William Scott and Henrietta (Baker) Offutt.  Attended local public schools; University of Virginia; St. John's College.  Admitted to the bar, 1898.  Married to Lydia Trail Yellott.  Died December 24, 1943, in Baltimore, Maryland.  Buried at Prospect Hill Cemetery, Towson, Maryland.

Studied law with cousin, Milton W. Offutt.  Worked as a correspondent of the Baltimore Morning Herald while studying the law. Practiced in partnership with John I. Yellott and Osborne I. Yellott.  Appointed Chief Judge, Third Judicial Circuit, and  Associate Judge, Maryland Court of Appeals, March 1920. Served until reaching mandatory retirement age of seventy, 1942. President, Maryland State Bar Association, 1923-1924. Delivered oration at the Maryland Tercentenary celebration at St. Mary's City in 1934.

 

OffuttÕs memorial from the Maryland State Bar Association noted he excelled in constitutional law and questions surrounding the use of police powers by the state.  In 1924 Judge Offutt wrote a remarkable piece for the MD State Bar Association named Contempt of Law.  He gave this address as the current president of the MD State Bar Association and felt it necessary to defend and address criticisms leveled at the courts and police systems concerning a lack of respect for law.  He made criticisms of his own about current laws and the process in which laws are created.  The problem was not the judicial system or the police.  Courts are there to interpret the laws and the police are there to administer it.  The problem lies within the legislative branch, which creates laws without future considerations.

 

Sources:

 

http://www.msa.md.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/014400/014462/html/14462bio.html

Memorial Minute to Thiemann Scott Offutt 1872-1943 (1944).  MD State Bar Association. 

Contempt of Law (1924). Address by Judge T. Scott Offutt.  MD State Bar Association.