Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1885-05-02
Petty Lawsuits.
Kron lohio.l Register.

IT
1T We sometimes comment severely ON
the Southern practice ofsettling quar-
rels by duels, but there is one thing
that we Northerners are often guilty
OF, which, though not as bad in its con-
sequences as dueling, il as useless as
the code of honor. We refer To the
petty lawsuits that take place in every
county court in the country. Often it
is a mere matter of spite work and
when the lawsuit is ended the parties
are more revengeful in spirit than ever.
The records OF our courts will show a
namber OF these petty cases within
the past few months, and the amounts
involved in them are mere tribes. The
/ Register has referred to one case in
which there WAS only one dollar sued
for, and yet that case dragged through
three jury trials. Two or three other
cases of scarcely greater magnitude
have occupied the attention OF the
court the past week. Some OF these
cases cost the county no inconsistent
bic sums. OF course, when IL man
feels himself wronged he wants his
rights established, but when he has
grudge against neighbor and goes to
law Just to make him trouble, regard
less whether it costs the county any
thing or not, itprovokes protest from
peaceful tax-paying citizens.
Ii is not for the Register to say that
the recent cases above referred to were
simply acts of spite, but if they were
not, how much has either party gained
by the litigation? The amount in
vOlved in each case was not worth
quarreling over to the extent of an eX-
pensive lawsuit, and If the Jury tailed
TO agree both parties were left unsatis-
fed. A lawsuit is often duel in
which statute books, and not pistols,
are the weapons. 1t is simply strife
as to which party shall come out ahead,
and the ilI-feeling thus engendered
often lasts for years.
Some men have bumps of combat
ivene$s SO large that they are eternally
quarreling, and il public sentiment in
their community frowns on tstleutis
or duels, they find vent for their pug
nacious spirit in the courts. Now 1t
is not clear to the rest OF the tax-pay-
ing community that the expenditure
of money by the county in feeding
such bumps OF combativeness is alto
gether iudicious. When men go to
law just to see which will beat, as is too
often the case, they forget that their
acts effect others besides themselves.
There ought to be some way OF
Squelching these petty suits. They are
not popular with lawyers, they are ex-
pensive, the amounts involved are not
worth the fighting for, and the more
they are encouraged the. more they
will increase in numbers.
The defeated party in these petty
cases has, of course, heavy costs to pay,
and If irresponsible, then the Sheriff
and other parties with him lose their
fees.
Is it not much better in all such
Gases, where the amounts in question
are trihing, to avoid a lawsuit. which
invariably increases the ill-feeling be
tween the parties, and settles the matter
by arbitration Let two or three OF
the neighbors be called in, state the
Case ON each side to them and abide |
by the decision. Nine times out OF
ten such men will decide in way
more satisfactory than Il jury belud-
died with lawyers pleas, and huge |
mass of testimonies 10y witnesses. Ar
bitration is cheap; it don't excite the
bump of combativenesS, and as for |
iustice-well, it is equal to the average |
from the courts.