Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1889-11-29
Report Of the Code Commission.

OLYMPIA, Nov. Goth, 1889.
To the Honorable the Senate and House
of Representatives of the State of
Washington:
The Eleventh Biennial Session Of
the Legislative Assembly of the Ter
ritory of Washington by an Act ap-
proved Feb. 2, 1888, authorized the
Governor of the Territory of Washing
ton to appoint Commission of four
persons to revise, codify and fully pre-
pare code of the laws of said Terri
tory having reference and adhering
as closely as practible to our present
system.
After this Commission had nearly
completed its labors the Congress OF
the United States passed the Enabling
Act for the admission of the Territory
as a State. This act provided "All
laws in force made by said Territories,
at the time of their admission into the
Union, shall be in force in said States,
except as modified or changed by THIS
act or by the Constitutions of the
States, respectively" And Article
XVII, Schedule Section 6, of the
State Constitution provided,
"SEc. 6. All officers now holding
their offices under the authority of the
of the United States, or of the Terri
tory of Washington, shall continue
to hold and exercise their respective
Offices until they shall be suspended
by the authority Of the State"
The Commission suspended work,
and waited until the Constitutional
Convention framed the present Con-
stitution. They then advised with
most OF the Territorial officials and
many of the leading lawyers, and after
due consideration, decided that it was
their duty to go on and perfect a code
for the State Of Washington, which
they have done with the exception of a
few of the general laws, and now most
respectfully report the same to the
Honorable Senate and House of Rep
resentatives of the State OF Washing
ton.
The work of the Commission as now
presented, is divided into four parts,
designated, for convenience of CLASH
fication and reference, respectively
The Political Code, which contains the
laws relating to the machinery of gov
eminent as far as the same is regulat
ed by State legislation; the Civil Code,
relating to personal and private rights
and private property; the Remedial
Code or Code of Civil Procedure, regu-
lating the entire subject of civil pro-
cedure in all the courts of the State,
and the Penal Code which embraces
crimes, criminal procedure, the State
prisons and county jails.
Some of the general laws we did not
think it possible for any Code Com
mission to present in satisfactory
shape to the Legislature without first
advising with its members.
We have endeavOred to assist the
Legislature as much as laid in our
power to lessen their arduous labors
and shorten their necessarily long and
tiresOme session, and We confidently
believe that the Legislature can take
up our work and complete it in much
less time than would have been re-
quired, if no work had been done by
the Commission under the State form
of government.
The Commission most respectfully
suggest that joint committee be APP
pointed to examine the work, and re-
port to the Legislature what action
they may think best to have taken,
feeling assured that upon investiga-
ton they will find that the Rene
dial Code and Penal Code are fully
prepared, and that a very large pro-
portion of the work on the Political
Civil Code has been completed, tax
ing into consideration the necessary
revision that all works of this kind
undergo before final adoption.