168 court of appeals of maryland

Miller offered a motion that the committee on
judiciary be instructed to consider a requirement
that an opinion in each case decided by the Court
of Appeals be filed within three months after ar-
gument; and it was so ordered. This would effect
a considerable change in the practice of the judges,
for instead of carrying over to the succeeding
terms cases which had been argued and held under
advisement, it would be necessary under this re-
quirement that the judges remain in Annapolis, or
return there during the same term, until all cases
were disposed of. The committee on judiciary, of
which Henry Stockbridge, of Baltimore, father
of Judge Henry Stockbridge of the Court of Ap-
peals (1911-1924), was chairman, reported a plan
for a court of a chief justice and four associate
justices, to be appointed from five judicial dis-
tricts; and it was proposed that opinions be filed
within a maximum limit of six months, which
would still permit carrying cases over for opinions
at succeeding terms.

The report opened the debate on the methods
of selection. Judge Ezekiel F. Chambers again
urged the method of executive appointment, and
in the course of his argument expressed the
opinion that there had been a loss to the bench by
the abandonment of that method in 1851;⁵ but
there was much testimony given to the contrary,
amounting to a substantial preponderance of
proof, indeed, that the judges of the state since
1851 had at least been men of integrity and of
ability that commanded the respect of the people.

5. This opinion had been expressed frequently during the interven-
ing years. Cf. Semmes, Latrobe, 214.