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Proceedings and Debates of the 1850 Constitutional Convention
Volume 101, Volume 2, Debates 562   View pdf image
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562
ports have been received. The reports received
were made up in different forms, and some of
them by no means clear; and it is therefore
quite possible that errors may be found in the
foregoing statement.
Mr. C. proceeded. In addition to the business
now done in the County Courts, the proposition
under consideration proposes to throw upon the
judge of the county, the performance of the pro-
bate jurisdiction. In most of the counties of the
State already, almost, the entire amount of chan-
cery business is performed by the County Court.
In some of the counties, for instance in Frederick
county, where the average number of bills in
equity has been 60 per annum, the whole chan-
cery business, or nearly the whole, is performed
by the County Court. There will be in each
county some increase of chancery business, but it
will not be very important, because when you
take the business of the Court of Chancery, and
subdivide it into 22 parts, there will be a very
small portion to each county; and, of course, the
addition will require in each county a very small
portion of the time of the judge. I think the only
material increase thrown upon the judge will be
the Orphans' Court duty. I do not propose to
leave the Orphans' Courts in their present pos-
ture. I think it is one of the most important
courts of the State, and I would give it to the
charge of a legal man. We all know that it is
now filled with laymen—with men who have no
connection with law. I would enlarge the power
of the Register of Wills; and give him the power
to do all the formal duty of the court, subject to
the ratification and approval of the judge
With such a system, which is incorporated in
this plan of a judiciary which I have presented,
there will be a very small increase of business on
account of the orphans' court. What service do
they now perform, sitting day after day? They
pass claims; but their examination generally goes
no further than to see that the probate is in ac-
cordance with the act of assembly; they pass for-
mal orders of sale, and ratify sales; in each case
a mere matter of course. I think that these du-
ties can as well be performed by the register of
wills, subject to the revision and ratification of
the judge. If, then, the proper system is adopt-
ed, the whole probate jurisdiction, except in a
case of occasional controversy, will be performed
in such a way that it will require; but a few days
per annum for the judge to pass upon it. Occa-
sionally, it is true, litigations will arise, which it
will take time to determine; but these cases, so
far as my experience goes, are of very rare oc-
currence. As it now is, you have three judges
in your orphans' court, who are not capable of
decidng a controversy involving legal questions;
but, who sit simply to perform format duties,
which the register of wills can just as well per
form.
The proposition to throw the formal duty of
the Orphans' Court upon the Register of Wills,
subject to the ratification of the judge, who shall
make stated visits, and who can perform the
duty in a few days, will increase the judicial
labor very little. It will not amount to an in-
crease of twenty days in the whole year. What
is the result? I have a slight increase of judicial
duty by means of the jurisdiction of the Chan-
cery Court, and an increase not exceeding
twenty days upon the average in each judicial
district, from the jurisdiction of the Orphans'
Court; and then the common law labor will re-
main precisely the same as it is now.
Let us take, for instance, Charles county.
The number of days now employed in the dis-
charge of these functions is about thirty. Sup-
pose you double or triple that number What
does it amount to? It will leave the judge to per-
form a duty of only sixty or ninety days in the
year. But no one believes that the duty will be
any thing like doubled. No one believes that
the addition of the business of the Orphans' and
Chancery Courts will double the amount of bu-
siness in the County Court. A Judge may sit
in these courts dallying away day after day, but
the business does not require it. If you add, in
Charles county, twenty days for the Orphans'
Court jurisdiction, and ten days for the increase
for the Chancery jurisdiction, you have still
but sixty days in the year. Under the system
which I propose, in none of the districts, except
Frederick and Baltimore, would more than one
hundred days be required to perform all the
labor now performed, and the addition which
would be made by transferring to the District
Courts the entire equity jurisdiction and Or-
phans' Court service, cannot be very great.
Certainly there will be ample time to discharge
it all. For Baltimore city I would propose an
additional number of judges, sufficient to meet
liberally the wants of 'that city. In Frederick
the number of days which the court sits is out of
proportion to the business transacted. In that
county he thought more time was consumed
than was necessary. The judicial business of
Frederick was not much greater than it was in
Prince George's, and yet the courts of that
county sit six times as long as they do in Prince
George's.
I do not mean to cast any imputation upon
the judges of that district. All that I know of
their proceedings is what I find in the returns.
But I must be permitted to say that they occupy
a great deal more time in the discharge of the
same functions than is required in other conn-
ties. Now, sir, I think we are entitled to at
least three-fourths of the judge's time. If we
give a salary for a whole year, we ought at least
to require a service for nine months in the year,
In St. Mary's county, you cannot employ a judge
more than forty or fifty days in the year; and it
will he a waste of time if he occupies a longer
time than that. And so with other counties?
Now would any reasonable man employ a law-
yer to try a cause for him who was attending to
his professional duties but forty or fifty days in
the year? No, sir; he would go to the man
who—
[Here the hammer fell, the thirty minutes
having expired.]
Mr, MERRICK moved to suspend the rule for
one hour, in order to allow Mr. C. to proceed.


 
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Proceedings and Debates of the 1850 Constitutional Convention
Volume 101, Volume 2, Debates 562   View pdf image
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