The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-04-13
DAVID DUDLEY FIELD
The Eminent Jurist Died
This Morning in New
York of Pneumonia.
ARRIVED FROM EUROPE WEDNESDAY.
Interesting Account of His Career
Voted to Seat Samuel ].
Tilden.

New YORK. April 13, 1S94.-David Dudley
Field died of pneumonia at three o'clock
this morning at the residence of his daugh-
ter-in-law, Mrs Dudley Field, No. % Gram
mercy Park
Mr. Field was ill but twenty-four hours
he returned from European trip last
Wednesday morning in the best of health.
He retired on Wednesday evening about
half-past ten, seemingly in the best of health,
after spending the day in the company of
his brothers, Henry and Stephen.
At three o'clock Thursday morning Mr..
Field was seized with a congestive chill. DR..
Stephen Burt, of No. 81 West Thirty second
street, Mr.. Fields family physician, was
hastily summoned He said that Mr.. Field
was threatened with pneumonia, and called
DR.. Frank Delafield, the lung specialist, in
consultation. Both doctors remained at Mr..
Fields bedside all day. At six o'clock last
night DIR. Delafeld went home, as he consid-
cred Mr. Field to be in no immediate dam
ger. Or. Burt, however, remained by the pa
tient's bedside.
at three o'clock this morning he died with
out awakening.
DR.. Burt said that Mr.. Fields death was
absolutely painless. He IS too old to make
any fight against the disease. Both of Mr..
Fields brothers and his daughter-in-law
were near him when the end came.
The funeral will be held on Sunday after
noon at Calvary Church. On Monday the
body will be taken to Stockhridge, Mass,
for burial
RETURNED FROM EUROPE WEDNESDAY.
The sndden death of Mr.. Field comes as a
shock He returned from Europe last We'd
nesday morning in the best of health. He
gloried in his vitality, and boasted that few
men of eighty-nine would take five months
European trip alone.
Mr.. Field went abroad on the 8th of last
November to visit his only daughter, Lady
Musgrove, who lives at East Grinstead,
Sussex, England.
Mr.. Field spent about six weeks in Eng
land with his daughter and then went to
Paris, Monte Carlo, Genoa, Nice, Florence
and Rome.
In an interview on Wednesday Mr.. Field
said that he would now busy himself with
his autobiography which he was writing.
He planned, he said, to spend the summer in
the Berkshire Hills
Mayor Gilroy ordered the flags on the City
Hall to be displayed at half mast today for
the death of Mr. Field
David Dudley Field was brother of the
late Cyrus W. Field. Other brothers still
living are Stephen Field, a Justice of the
United States Supreme Court. and Rev. DIR.
Henry NJ. Field. editor of the Evangelist.
SKETCH OF HIS CAREER.
David Dudley Field was born at Haddam,
Conn, on February 13, 1905. He was gradu-
ated at Williams College in 1925. He studied
law in Albany first with Harmanus Bleecker
but after few months removed to this city,
where he completed his studies.
In 1928 he was admitted to the bar, and
became junior partner in the law firm of
Henry & D. Sedgwick.
Mr.. Field, until 1885, was continuously
engaged in the active practice of bis profess
A .lrr fa11
Letter on the Reform of the Judiciary Sys-
tenn and afterward addressed a committee
of the New York Legislature on the subject.
In 1916 he wrote series of articles on 'The
Reorganization of the Judiciary" which
were widely distributed in pamphlet form
Mr.. Fields influence was felt in the con-
stitutional convention of 1916, and the re-
port called for general code and the RE
form of the Practice" In September 1S47,
he was appointed Commissioner on Practice
and Pleadings and as such took part in the
preparation of the code of procedure.
The Commission reported the first install
nent to the Legislature in February, and
it was enacted in April, 1S48.
The remainder was reported in four sec
tious at different times until January, 1850,
when the completed Codes OF Civil and
Criminal Procedure were submitted to the
Legislature. Both these codes have been en-
acted into law.
This system has been adopted in twenty
four of the States and Territories, and is the
basis of the legal reform established by the
new Judicature act in England, and of the
practice in several of the English colonies,
including India. Eighteen of the States and
Territories have adopted his code of criminal
procedure.
The radical design of the new system of
civil procedure was to obliterate the distinc-
tion between the forms of action and be-
tween legal and equitable suits, SO that all
the rights of the parties in relation to the
subjects of litigation can be determined in
one action, instead OF dividing them be-
tween different suits.
OTHER CODES PREPARED BY HIM.
In 1857 Mr. Field was appointed by the
State of New York head of commission to
prepare political code, penal code and a
civil code These, with the two codes of
procedure previously made, We're designed to
supersede the unwritten or common law.
They were completed in 1855 and covered
the entire province of American law,and pre-
sented to the people in complete form the
whole law by which they were governed.
In 1878, Mr.. Field presented to the Social
Science Congress his Outlines of an Inter
national Code," which attracted the atten-
ton of all jurists. and has been translated
into French, Italian and Chinese.
An eminent Chancellor of England said
that s'Mr. Dudley Field Of New York had
done more for the reform of laws than any
other man living.n
During the Civil War Mr.. Field was a
strong adherent of the Administration, and
was active with voice, pen and purse in aid
of his country.
For eight week, in 1876, he filed the unex-
pired term in Congress OF Smith Ely, who
had been made Mayor of New York city
At this time he had acted with the Demo-
cratic party, and was one of the advocates
on that side in the dispute over the Presi-
Dental election.
Mr.. Field delivered numerous addresses
III. xax.E
literature on political topics.
His Sketches Over the Sea- appeared in
the Democratic ReuielU at the time of his
first trip abroad, in 1886, and he published
SPEECHES, Arguments and Miscellaneous
Papers"
LIEUTENANT LYMAN APPEALS