sembly, and paid by the said counties and
city respectively," and insert "shall receive
such compensation, to be paid by the said
counties and city respectively, as is now or
may hereafter be fixed by the general assem-
bly. "
Mr. HEBB. I accept that amendment.
The amendment of Mr. HEBB, as modified,
was as follows: strike out all after the word
" Baltimore " where it first occur" in section
twenty-four, and insert "the qualified voters
of the city of Baltimore and of the several
counties of the State shall, on Tuesday next
after the first Monday in the month of No-
vember, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven,
elect three men to be judges of the orphans'
court of said city and counties respectively ;
one of the said judges first elected shall hold
his office for two years, one for four years and
the other for six years; and at the first meet-
ing after their election and qualification, or as
soon thereafter as practicable, they shall deter-
mine by lot, which one of their number shall
hold his office for two, four, and six years
respectively, and thereafter there shall be
elected as aforesaid, at each general election
for county officers, one judge to serve for the
term of six years. No person shall be elected
judge of the orphans' court unless he be a cit-
izen of the United States, and resident for
twelve months in the city or county for which
he may be elected at the time of his election ;
each of said judges shall receive such compen-
sation, to be paid by the said counties and
city respectively, as is now or may hereafter
be fixed by the general assembly."
The question was taken upon the amend-
ment and it was adopted.
The substitute for the section, offered by
Mr. THOMAS, was withdrawn.
No further amendment was offered to the
section.
Section twenty-five was then read as follows:
Sec 25. The said orphans' courts shall have
all the powers now vested in the orphans'
courts of this State, subject to such changes
therein as the legislature may prescribe; and
in addition to the jurisdiction now exercised
by the said courts, they shall have and exer-
cise in relation to the real estate of deceased
persons concurrent jurisdiction with the cir-
cuit courts sitting as courts of equity, and it
shall be the duty of the legislature to make
such modifications of existing laws as may be
requisite to give full power and effect to this
provision.
Mr. STIRLING. I move to strike out the
words "and in addition to the jurisdiction
now exercised by said courts," &c., to the
end of the section. I think this was based
upon a different idea from that which we have
adopted. The committee, in framing this
section, had in view a small number of cir-
cuits, with three judges to each circuit, and a
different system of orphans' court. We have |
provided a large number of circuits, and left
the old system of orphans' court to stand.
The reasons, therefore, for putting this pro-
vision in the section do not now exist.
The question was upon the amendment of
Mr. STIRLING.
Upon this question Mr. WICKARD called for
the yeas and nays, which were ordered.
The question was then taken, by yeas and
nays, and resulted—yeas 34, nays 37—as
follows:
Yeas—Messrs. Goldsborough, President ;
Billingsley, Blackiston, Bond, Briscoe, Cham-
bers, Crawford, Cushing, Daniel, Dennis,
Dent, Duvall. Edelen, Farrow, Gale, Greene,
Hodson, Hollyday, Hopkins, Horsey, Ken-
nard, Lansdale, Mitchell,' Miller, Morgan,
Murray, Parker, Parran, Peter, Purnell,
Ridgely, Sands, Stirling, Thomas—34.
Nays—Messrs. Abbott, Annan, Audoun,
Brown, Carter, Cunningham Davis, of Wash-
ington, Dellinger, Ecker, Galloway, Hatch,
Hoffman, Hopper, Johnson, Keefer, King,
Larsh, Lee, Markey, Mayhugh, McComas,
Negley, Nyman, Pugh, Robinette, Russell,
Schley, Schlosser, Smith, of Carroll, Smith,
of Dorchester, Sneary, Swope, Sykes, Todd,
Wickard, Wilmer, Wooden—37.
The amendment was accordingly rejected.
Mr. SANDS, when his name was called, said :
1 shall vote "aye" because this provision
would require the judge of the orphans' court
to be a man versed in equity law and practice,
and that he cannot be without study and ex-
perience. No man taken from among the
people is fit to exercise the equity jurisdiction
of the State. I therefore vote " aye."
Mr. THOMAS. I move to amend by insert-
ing after the words "real estate of deceased
persons" the words " not to exceed the value
of one thousand dollars.." That would give
the orphans' court jurisdiction in relation to
the real estate of deceased persons not to ex-
ceed the value of one thousand dollars. It
appears tome that if we give any jurisdiction
to the orphans' court in relation to the real
estate of deceased persons, it should not ex-
ceed the sum of one thousand dollars. That
sum would cover the real estate of nine-tenths
of the persons whose estates would go into
the orphans' court. Those interested in the
estates of poor men. of men who die with
only a thousand dollars worth of real estate,
would go there But those interested in other
estates of larger amount would take the other
horn of the dilemma and go into the equity
courts. This does not deprive the equity
court of concurrent jurisdiction. And 1
would much rather go to an equity court to
wind up a large estate.
Mr. PUGH. My objection to the amendment
is this; it seems to me it would defeat the
very object for which this section was drawn.
Persons with very large estates have the priv-
ilege of going into the equity courts. |
