The Washington critic., 1890-02-17

DISTRICT COURT or APPEALS.
TIE establishment of Court of Ap-
peals for the District of Columbia, rs
provided for in the bill to be proposed
10y the Bar Association of the District,
will 90 much 10 tighten the pressure Of
work now pending in the courts, and to
improve the administration of justice
by removing all ground of complaint in
regard to the mode by which appellate
jurisdiction is at present exercised.
Appeals are now had from any of the
special terms of the District Supreme
Court to the General Term of that court;
that is, an appeal may be taken in re-
gard to any final order, Judgment or de-
cree of any one of the judges of that
court to all, or a majority, of them sit
ting together in an appellate capacity
Such is the pressure of the current busi-
ness of the courts that rarely are there
more than three judges on the bench in
the General Term. The tribunal thus be-
comes rotating and uncertain, and it
often happens that delay is caused by
the circumstance that one of the judges
is the particular one before whom the
case was originally tried, and from
whose judgment the pending appeal
has been taken. A postponement is the
result, of course, and it is said that
there are now before the Court in Gen.
eral Term cases which have vainly
awaited the action of that courtduring
the past five years
The bill Of the Bar Association will
propose that Court of Appeals for the
District shall consist of chief justice
and four associate justices, and shall
exercise the appellate jurisdiction and
power of the present Supreme Court in
General Term. Appeals from its de-
cisions to the Supreme Court of the
United States are to be had under the
same regulations as those taken from
the United States Circuit Courts.
The advantages which must follow
the institution of properly constituted
appellate tribunal are obvious. The
judges of the District Supreme Court,
relieved from the duties of the General
Term, would be able to oyertake and
dispatch the accumulation of business
in the lower courts. A permanent and
determinate court would be in readiness
to hear appeals, and the disheartening
and expensive delays in litigation which
constitute, in themselves, distinct and
positive failure of justice, would be OBJ
waited.
Another advantage would be light
ening in a measure of the load which
the United States Supreme Court is now
required to carry. That august tribunal
is believed to be at present fully three
years behind its work, and, with the
growth of this great country, its bust
ness is necessarily increasing year by
year both in volume and Importance.
The most feasible plan suggested as q
remedy for this state of things is one
which would relieve the members of the
court from circuit duty, and which
would establish at different point;
throughout the country new courts OF
, final appeal with a clearly defined
jurisdiction.
f The creation of a separate Appellate
Court for the District would be in har
Q mony with such a plan, and, so far a
- the District is concerned, would relieve
9 the Supreme Court from appeals in al
p cases except those which involve Fed
eral or constitutional questions.
+ Court of Appeals is absolutely needed
S and the members of the Bar Association
e of Washington, who best know tn
a exigencies of the case, are well qualities
+ to set forth the method by which tina
h need may be most surely satisfied
o SIBERIAN A TROCTTIES.
e Most readers of The CRITIC wer
!, naturally Mortified by reading, yestel