the jury trials within the jurisdiction of the
county court. This division of labor occupies
the court almost the entire year, all it is now
organized. You have but one court of nisi prius,
and you must have a chancery court for the city
of Baltimore. If you establish a high court
here, as now organized, and have no chancery
court in the city of Baltimore, my word for it
the high court will not be able to transact the
business of the State. If you throw the entire
chancery business of that city into the high
court of chancery organized here, how can it
get on? It will be utterly impossible. It will
be overwhelmed. The question is not whether
you will have ahigh court of Chancery for the
the State or whether you will have a court of
chancery for the city of Baltimore, because if
you have a high court of chancery, you will
find that it will not be sufficient for the transac-
tion of the business brought before it. Baltimore
will still require one.
Mr. BUCHANAN. If the question was pro-
pounded to me as to whether I would dispense
with the chancery jurisdiction in the city of
Baltimore, or with the Chancery Court at An-
napolis, I would say without hesitation dispense
with the chancery jurisdiction in the city. I
agree with my friend from Baltimore that by far
the most valuable court in Maryland is the High
Court of Chancery of Annapolis.
I consider the present Chancellor of Maryland
one of the most prompt, independent and im-
partial judicial officers I have ever had the honor
to appear before. I transact nearly the whole
of the chancery business in which I am engaged
in the Chancery Court at Annapolis, rather than
on the equity side of Baltimore County Court.
I find it more economical and quite as expedi-
tious. It is thought by many that cases are de-
layed in the Court of Chancery, and that it is
much more expensive to prosecute a case there
than. in the other courts This is an error. I
will say to the lay members of the Convention,
if you wish to have your business economically
and expeditiously terminated, instruct your so-
licitors to institute your proceedings in the High
Court of Chancery rather than in the County
Courts. It by no means follows that your so-
licitors will have to attend the Chancery Court
in person in all cases. Your business may be
very often fully and satisfactorily closed without
his appearance in Annapolis at all. You need
be. under no apprehension, therefore, of being
called on to pay a fee, (which by the by should
always be liberal,) because your bill is filed in
Annapolis.
The Register in Chancery (Mr. Gassaway)
is a remarkably prompt business man, and he
will keep your solicitor at all limes fully ap-
prised of the condition of your case by letter
until the time for argument arrives, if argument
be necessary. If argument be not necessary,
your solicitor need not leave home, and you will
be subject to no extra fee merely because your
case is in the High Court of Chancery.
I have said that it is more economical and
quite as expeditious to prosecute cases in the
73 |
Court of Chancery as in the County Courts. In
Baltimore we pay, in addition to the tax of two
dollars on filing the bill, a tax of one per cent.
on the amount of all sales under decree, if I am
not mistaken. Besides this, I am of opinion that
the ordinary costs of suit are less in the Chancery
Court than in the County Courts sitting in
equity.
There are many and conclusive reasons, in
my judgment, why the High Court of Chancery
ought not to be abolished, hut under the rule I
have not time to go into them now. I wished
much to have been allowed the privilege of presenting
these reasons before the vote was taken
but it seems to be impossible; one only I have
time to present.
As the County Courts are now about to be
organized, if an injunction should be desired in
one of the counties whilst the judge is engaged
in his judicial duties in a remote part of the district,
the client will be put to the expense of
sending a special messenger after the judge, or
of going himself, or of sending his solicitor at
large cost, whilst under the present system, with
a Chancery Court in existence for the whole
State, the expense would be saved to him, and
the delay and inconvenience ascribed be gain
Suppose a judge in a particular district should
render a judgment in a case in which equity
would afford relief by an injunction. There
might be great difficulty in obtaining an injunction
from the judge who rendered the judgment,
and none whatever in obtaining an injunction
from the Court of Chancery. There should be
by all means an independent Court of Chancery
with jurisdiction co-extensive with the limits of
the State.
The hammer fell.
Mr. RANDALL. The position I occupy may
require some explanation of me upon this point
and with a view to introduce it, I make a motion
that the time of the continuance of the court be
extended for ten years, instead of one, the longest
time being put first under the rules.
I beg leave to call the attention of the Con-
vention to some facts. My friend from St, Mary's
spoke from memory; but I hold the record
in my hand; and the actual number of cases
undecided, now upon the docket, in the court of
chancery, is 1491.
We all know that suits instituted in this court
are, for the most part, cases of a very complica-
ted character, where, perhaps, the beginning of
the litigation is after a decree has passed for the
sale of the property, when creditors, inter se se,
litigate their respective claims.
We all know that there is much more litigation
after the sale of such estates than before it. Such
cases are not in this statement, containing, as I
understand, only cases where no decree has been
passed. This class of cases, then, is to be added.
Many of these cases thus pending after the decree
involve the most complicated questions. The
parties live in various localities in the State. The
interests are various and conflicting, and require
the constant attendance of the judge, register
and the auditor, to transact the business with facility
and efficiency. |
