Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-01-03
RELIEF FOR IITIG ANTS,

The crowded condition of the United States supreme court docket, and the difficulty of getting appealed cases to trial during the lifetime of the litigants, is a burning shame and cries aloud for reform. Cases that are taken up to this court not infrequently stand for years before they are brought to the attention and receive action from the court The bench and bar and business public, as we'll as the persons directly interested in the causes, are strenuous in urging some reform in the premises, and it is hoped
 that the present session of congress may do something in the matter.
 Early in the last session the judiciary committee of the house prepared bill upon the basis of one submitted to con- gress by Attorney General Garland when he was in the senate. This measure pro- posed to give the district courts the entire jurisdiction now exercised by the circuit courts except in cases of writs of habeas corpus, mandamus and prohibi- ton, and to increase the member of circuit judges by the appointment of nine additional judges, and that each circuit court shall consist of one circuit justice and two circuit judges. These courts were to sit in appeals from all final judgments of the district courts in matters of law, and from interlocu- tory orders in certain cases, and power was given them to issue all writs neces- sary to enforce their jurisdiction, ,and the same jurisdiction in criminal causes by writs of error to the district court, as now allowed by law. Two circuit judges were to sit with the district judge in the trial of criminal cases the punishment of which is capital, and in the trial of indictments in cases certified by the at tOrney general to be sufficiently important, and in such cases the judgment of the district court to be subject to review only by the sn- preme court. It proposed many other important changes in the law, especially in regard to corporations and receivers, which would lessen the number of cases that would reach the supreme court. This same committee likewise recom mended the passage of bill to establish court of appeals in cases relating to patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc, to which all appeals of this nature should go from the United States courts and the commissioner of patents before reach ing the supreme court, and provided that the right of appeal to the supreme court from the court of patent appeals should be subject in all cases to the same regu- latiOns that now exist in causes of ad miralty and maritime jurisdiction. It is | claimed that this last provision would save at least one-fourth of the time now consumed by the supreme court in wa ding through voluminous records to find the facts, because the court of patent ap- peals would find the facts and the law and the review of the supreme court | would be confined to the questions of | law.
 mittee's message here outlined would give President Harrison the ap- pointment of one justice and two judges for the court of patent appeals and nine circuit judges, and it may be that the house will not be disposed to put this ad- ditional pap into President Harrison's hands. Nevertheless, there is urgent need of some relief to the present condi- tion of things, and if the proposed meas ures meet the approval of the legal fra