Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1876-01-20
That List of Decisions.

81 reversed. The average of decisions with
the other Circuit Judges throughout the State
stands about reversed to 10 sustained
Now this Showing" is clearly enough rough
on somebody or some thing-the Supreme
Court, the "other Judges or. There's
some overhauling needed somewhere, sure as
you live. This trifing with the vital" inter
ests of the poor helpless, unlearned people"
must be stopped Either the Supreme Court
will have TO be knocked in the head or Judge
Mills be made Judicial monarch of the Com
monwealth, clothed with power to render de,
csions that none shall dispute
The above we copy from the
AdUocdte. We do not attribute any
malicious purpose to that sheet,
whatever it may affirm. Ii has not
the consistency and resoluteness Of
professional liar. A Gown or black
guard gains his pointif be can stretch
the broad grin on the countenance
of his listeners, and dispose them to
mock and laugh truth, facts and COM
mon sense out of countenance.
Except in the Fifth Judicial Cir
cult, two out Of ten cass only,
taken up to the Suprom Court have
been reversed Thus 81 10 "carC-
full attorney" Would ii all the
lawyers in the State coneregate here
and exclaim, "long live the Judge"
whose ignorance and bIunders puts
fifty or one hundred dollars into our
pockets every time be decides a case?
But to the decisions. Having access
to the Supreme court reports, we
have examined a number of them to
ascertain the proportion of affirmed
and reversed decisions. 1t was too
large q job to explore the thirty
eight volumes already published.
The first issued after the organiza
of State government was LIST Chand-
Ter Rep't. The cases brought up be-
fore the Supreme court for a rehear-
ing had mostly been decided by
by judges Damn, Miller and Irvine,
Territorial judges holding District
courts. The volume is small, con-
tanning 81 cases, of which % are re-
versed and Is affirmed. We then
turned to the 18th Wisconsin pub
lished while Judge Cothren presided
over the three counties of Grant,
Iowa and Lafayette. This volume
contains 81 cases brought up from
the several circuits, of which 80
stand reversed and 81 affirmed
There were 3 cases from the Fifth
circuit, of which 2 were reversed and
l affirmed. The 18th volume show
ed 121 cases, of which II were re-
versed and so affirmed There were
4 cases from the Fifth circuit-3 re
versed and one affirmed. These two
volumes embrace the years 1860 and
1861. We then examined the 18th
| NO1uuiOJ tH0 ulSI pubAl5uou III VI
Judge Mills came upon tho bench.
In it there were l21 appealed cases !;
20 reversed and 81 affirmed There
were from this circuit 3 affirmed and
l reversed cases. la the 25th vol
ume We found in all 50 cases, OF
which 81 were reversed and 46 af
firmed. From this circuit there
were II appealed cascs--an unusually
large number and of them Z were
affirmed 5 reversed. The Both vol
nme showed AZ reversed and 43
affirmed cases. From this circuit,
case affirmed and two reversed
Lastly, we investigated the Both
volume and found 38 decisions re
versed to 10 affirmed. OF the cases
from this circuit 2 only were affirmed.
1t appears that in some of the re-
ports the number of reversed deci-
sions Is greatly in excess; in others
the affirmed takes the lead. 1t is
very difficult 70 explain this by any
underlying cause. We learn that
many Of the reversals were owing to
the careIossnes9 Of attorneys in draw
ing up judgments and orders. One
thing is very certain : The number
OF cases taken up to the Supreme
court from the Fifth circuit, both
under the administration of Judge
| Cothren and Judge Mills, IS compal-
atively very small. The whole mum
appealed while the latter has occu-
piod the bench will not probably ex-
ceed one hundred cases, while the
aggregate number in the last eight
cen volumes must reach fully from
fifteen to eighteen hundred. The
population of the five counties Of this
circuit, as will appear from the cen
sus of 1870 is one-ninth Of the popu-
Iatlon or the entire State, ana they
have still larger average of it
wealth and business. If the above
figures are correct this one-ninth of
the people of the State have nos paid
at farthest to exceed one-ffteentn
of the cost of Supreme court litiga.
ton. If attorneys through dissatis-
faction should take up every case in
which they are defeated, whether on
valid grounds or not, is quite prob
able that there would be large ma.
Ijority of affirmed decisions. The
law has never been administered IN
this circuit so as to canse general
stampede to the Supreme court to