Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-07-31
THE RUTLAND HERALD
TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1878.
EQUITABLE POWERS.


When we penned our leader last Fri
j,v. upon "The Court of Chancery,"
we expected to hear howl from the
members of the Barnacle family, who
are never happy unless they are meas
uripp red tape in some circumlocution
office, or seeing the business of the
world clouded in mystery and doubt,
but we had not anticipated that the very
first objection to our position would be
that the ridiculous aspect given to the
suDeryIsory power of .chancery over law
courls. was not such nonsense as we
would make it appear, for the reason
that the injunction of the chancellor
acted upon the law court indirectly
through the parties, and that by reason
Of its circuity of action, and additional
tediousncss and expense, it is changed
from ridiculous nonsense into a beauti-
rul system for administering Fright and
Justice freely without being obliged to
purchase it; completely and without
auv denial promptly and without de
n,y. conformably to the laws"
II has been claimed that the enjoiuing
Of suits of law in this State, is a juris-
diction very spanngly exercised. Now
we know, and any one can ascertain by
counting the number of cases on. the
docket Of the county court of any
county, that stand year after year with
the single entry of ''enjomed, that it is
a very prolific source Of litigation and
costs; and in those researches they may
note another fact, that the judges of
county court, have never yet allowed
Marty to proceed in case, in violation of
an order for which the presiding judge,
"a, chancellor, would feel bound to i'm
prison him for contempt. If the juris-
Fiction of chancery is that, while it acts
upon parties by enjoining suits ut law, it
efil leaves the court in which the en-
i,incI suit is pending at, perfect liberty
toprucpcd notwithstanding the injunc-
,.on. 10 places the ''chancery power" in
a more ridiculous light than we had
charged against it. The very objection
we made to the Court of Chancery was
that it WIS expensive. cumbersome and
Indirect in its operations, better suited to
the ecclesiastical disputes of the Romish
Church in the Dark Ages than to the
business affairs of the Nineteenth Cen
fury.
The very theory, "that an injunction
is issued to restrain individuals from in
voking and using the aid of courts 10
accomplish certain results which would
he against equity and a good conscience,
is what we complain of Our judicial
system should be so arranged that indi-
yduals could not procure unjust results
from any court. In other words, all
courts should have full equity powers.
so that it could not be said of them that
after they had exercised their full juris
dction, that their orders or judgments
were against equity and good conscience.
Doing equity according to the immutable
principles of natural right, is one of the
highest functions of any court, and
when a court is so tied up by law or
precedents, that it may be made an in
strument of injustice, it fails to perform
the grand duty for which courts are or
ganized. We want to see all the judi
cial tribunals of our State, courts of
equity, and we believe that it will be a
happy day for litigants in Vermont,
when all distinctions between courts of
law and courts of chancery, together
with the nice hair-splitting in reference
to forms of action, shall have been abol-
isbed, and the only subject to be dis
cussed in courts of justice, shall be the
rights of the parties to actions without
technical obstacles to doing equity be-
cause of a want of power in the court,
TO prevent itself being made an instru-
myut of injustice and wrong,
We remember talking with promin-
emit lawyer of this State, but few days
since, when he compared our chancery
system as standing in the same relation
TO the reasonable and just system that
we advocate, that the old methods of
securing crop hay with sythe and
hand rake, stand to the moving
machine and improved horse rales.
This comparison is not quite a
just one, for the old method of haying,
although it was tedious and expensive,
never could arrive at results which were
against. equity and good conscience. We
are aware that the arguments in favor Of
a reform in legal practice, will meet with
sturdy opposition, and we are gladitis so,
for every attempt to defeud the old
system, which is relic of a barbarOus
age, will only disclose its technical and
costly nonsense, and people of common
sense who control the policy OF our
State, will, sooner or later, see that they
cannot afford to support an artificial sys-
TEN, where every salutary declaration OF
Section " of Article l, of their State
Constitution is rendered nugatory, and
VIXEN they see that clearly, we shall not
long expect to be burdened with the re-
proach that our Courts of Law are not
Courts of Equity.
DOES 1T MEAN WAR