The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-03-28
THE PROPOSED NEW COURT.

From the Philadelphia Press.
OF the several schemes brought forward
at the present session of the Legislature to
relieve the pressure of business upon the
supreme court of the state that for the
creation of an appellate court appears
to have developed the greater popularity
and support. 1t has, in fact, practically
taken the place of the other measures.
and is now being urged forward In
way that will doubtless make 1t successful.
The senate bill to establish this inter-
mediate bench gives it the name of supe-
rior court, but the designation of appel
late court is rather more appropriate
for the purpose. and 1t is altogether prob
able that that is the name which will ul-
timately be given it. 1t has received the
larger share of favor Another feature of
the measure likely to be changed is that
fixing the number of judges. Five were
originally provided for, and it is now pro-
posed that the number shall be seven.
There are several very convincing reasons
for this, leading one being the fact that
the new court will have quite as much, If
not little more, business on its hands
than the supreme court. A calculation
running back for year or thereabouts
shows that the division would have been
about equal in that time had the proposed
new court been in existence. For this rea-
son, and for the dignity and consequence
of the new court, it is proposed that the
number of its judges shall be the same
as that OF the supreme court.
Now that this matter has been got In its
present encouraging shape, and seems to
be fairly satisfactory to all concerned,
there should be no question about the
success Of the measure and no unusual
l,1n In, 70
ton has been proposed at the present ses-
sion. For a number of years the su-
preme court has been disposing of cases at
tho rate of 800 or 900 year. 1t has been
only by the most persistent effort that the
work has been kept along at all, and the
judges themselves realize that, doing 1t
under pressure and in necessary haste to
prevent burdensome and injurious de-
lays, it has not always been done with all
the care that should characterize it, 1t is
not necessarily a reflection upon the abil-
ity of the supreme court to say, what is
well understood, that the opinions of this
court are not rated as high as they were
some years ago. 1t has been believed that
having too much to do is largely, if not
altogether, responsible for this.
1t IS obvious, of course, that the SUI
preme court could not continue to work
indefinitely under the pressure put upon
it by the hundreds of cases which it has
been compelled to handle every year. If
1t does not wish to do both itself and the
public which 1t serves great wrong, 1t
will have to abandon such an effort sooner
or later: and should the present PROPOSE
tion to secure relief prove failure no one
would have any reason for surprise If the
supreme court abandon all further at
tempts to keep up with the business
brought before it in favor of more thor
ough and satisfactory work. If such
should be the resultant hardly any other
result could be eXpected-it would mean
such gorge of business in the court as
would compel litigants to wait many
years and suffer much injustice in some
instances before they could get judgment
There is but one side to this question, and
among intelligent people familiar with
the facts there is but one opinion. All
know the urgent need of doing something
to relieve the higher court, and after a
full consideration of the matter in its ey-
cry phase there seems no better way than
by the creation of an intermediate trl-
bunal.