The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-03-22
THE NEW CODE.
What the Leader of the New York Bnr
Says About 1t.
LETTER FROM CHARLES o'coNoR.

The Columbia Guardian publishes a very
interesting letter from Charles O'Conor, the
acknowledged head of the New York bar, on
the new Code. Messrs. Pope L Haskell, OF
Columbia, to whom the letter was addressed,
in a note to the Guardian say:
In our trouble about 1.-THE new. code" ol
practice which has so completely upturned all
of our previous habits Of thought, and with II
the wisdom and learning of ages, we took
the liberty of writing short letter to Mr.
O'Conor, of New York, asking the advice OF
him, as a gentleman Of great learning anu
ability, what books of practice under the New
York Code (of which ours is mere copy ne
would recommend to US for use. We could
not rely upon the recommendations oil pub,
lishers and we were profoundly Ignorant OF
the first step and the first requisite 10 tne
commencement Of sllit,we peg pardon, an
action" Mr.. O'Conor has kindly sent US q
us o letter. which is 30 suggestive to the
to the profession throughout the State, that
we submit it ito you for publication.
Mr.. OConor's letter is as follows:
New YORK, March IA, 1870.
Gentlemen: Your letter Of tke 9th instant
reached me in my chamber, just recovering
from spell of illness. ] am obliged to answer
through an amanuenSis, and without recourse
to any books 1t is probable, however, that
memory will suffice as well as If could have
recourse to books.
Our Code was adopted in the year ls4S. 1t
has been added to and amended or varied at
nearly every session Of our Legislature since
that time One natural consequence OF this
continual fuctuation is, that in looking at de-
cisions OF our courts, giving construction 20
any part of 1t, close attention must be paid TO
chronology and the state of the Code at the
time the decision was made, or that the ql!es-
ton arose must be closely attended to, else
the comment may be source of error instead
of useful guide. l say this, because ! pre-.
sumo your copyist copied the last edition ot
our Code, though, indeed. this may be an un-
warrantable presumption, and your first step
in the pursuit of exact knowledge on the COM
plicated subject referred to should be to ascer-
tain precisely what edition he did transcribe.
We have thirty-three judges, each authoriz-
ed to hold Supreme Court Of original jurisdic-
ton. We have eight District Supreme Courts,
called General Terms, sitting. for larger sec
tions of territory, having appellant jurisdiction
from the single judge courts sitting IN tnelr re-
spective districts; hence, Of course, multi
tnde of iarring decisions on points OF practice.
No intcrlocutOry appeals are allowed to the
court of last resort, and consequently mere
questions of pleading aud practice rarely come
in review in that court. So we have no COM
mon arbiter to reconcile conflicting detcrm-
nations in the General Terms.
mrst add to this that we have three c0tcm-
poraneous sets of reports; the same case Is
therefore often reported twice, or even thrice:
Two OF these series of reports are called
practice Reports" and profess to devote
themselves to reporting decisions on practice
only. The third is regarded as our General
State Reports" and as giving oil decisions OF
the Supreme Court deemed proper to be re-
ported. think this only means all the dec-
sions of the Supreme Court that this particu-
lar reporter happens to have got hold or
These three series are: Barbour's. supreme
Court Reports, "a volumes; Abbotts Practice
Reports, l9 volumes, n. S. G; Howard's Prac-
tice Reports, 81 volumes.
Besides these courts and reporters. We nave
had in New York city court, OF much respec-
liability. consisting of three Judges, called the
Court of Common Pleas, and another, OF equal
respectabity, consisting Of six judges, called
the Superior Court Strictly speaking, there
is no appeal from either OF these Two courts on
points OF practice; each has its own reporter,
and do not know that the decisions OF elCner
are less respected or respectable than those OF
the Supreme Court. Should you desire the
volumes containing their decisions, IL Woula
extend your purchase alone twenty-five vol
umeS.
The books that may be called books of prac-
tice under the Code, or rather the only ones
ever have used, are Ahbott's Annotated Edl-
ton OF the Code, and Howard's Annotated Edi-
ton of the Code.
In ordering them, or either OF them, you