The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-14
IN AID OF PHILBROoK.
The Measure Will Now Go
to the Governor for
Approval.
WAYMIRE'S ALLEGED BAD FAITH
A Charge That He Had Promised to
Sustain the Measure, but He
Fought 1t.

SACRAMENTO, March 13.-The bill to pre-
vent an attorney being disbarred at the
caprice OF a Judge for words used in an ar
gument in court passed the Assembly to-
day. This will send it to the Governor if
reconsideration is not effected by its
enemies. The bill was introduced at the
request of Horace Philbrook, who was dis
barred for three years because of certain
charges made against Judge Ralph G.
Harrison in the argument of case. 1t
provides that lawyer cannot be disbarred
for his language unless he shall have been
first convicted of criminal libel for its use
and further reinstates any attorney who is
now disbarred without having had trial.
Bula of Los Angeles urged that the bill
was not good since it would tend to lessen
the respect in which the Supreme Court
was now held. This respect, he claimed
was due to the fact that the people were not
allowed TO become unduly familiar with its
representatives.
Judge Spencer spoke long and earnestly
for the bill. He said he had earned his
way to the position he held in the legal
profession by life OF work and study. He
thought 1t wrong to give a Judge, who
might be prejudiced against him because
OF some defeat when both were practicing
at the bar, the right to take from him his
license to practice without having a chance
to take an appeal. Judges, he urged, were
only human, and had prejudices and made
mistakes. The bill was good in that it
guarded against giving the Judges too
great powers.
Devine of San Francisco agreed with
Judge Spencer. He stated that he did not
think it was right to give any man the
right to say that another man should not
practice his profession.
Dixon of San Francisco also spoke for
the bill
Judge Waymire of Alameda spoke
against the measure. He thought the dig
nifty of courts should be upheld. He said
the Legislature had adopted certain rules
to prescribe who could come before it.
Judges, he thought, should have the same
power.
The action Of Judgs Waymire occasioned
general surprise, as it was understood that
he was not going TO oppose the measure.
Philbrook, who has been working for the
passage of the bill, asserts positively that
Waymire volunteered the information that
he was not going to speak against the bill
and was going to vote for it.
''Not only did he not keep his word in
this" said Philbrook tonight, "but he
even induced Pendleton to move for re-
consideration of the vote by which the bill
was carried. His reason Tor this 1 cannot
imagine. He denies now that he gave the
promise, but l am willing to swear that he
volunteered the information to me-
Philbrook says he went to Pendleton to
ask him why he intended to reconsider the
bill and the latter told him it was entirely
through courtesy to Judge Waymire.
He assured me he still intended to vote
for the bill, ''said PhiIbrook, but that Judge
Waymire had come to him and asked him
to give the notice which may mean so
much to the San Francisco attorney and
promising in return to vote for the measure
requiring the licensing of architects"
The bill was carried by a mere majority.
At the time OF the first rollcall the vote
stood 80 to %. A call of the house was
then demanded and at last the Al votes
necessary to carry the measure were OBJ
tanned. There were only q noes, IA mem
bers being absent or not voting. The vote
was as follows:
Ayes-Barker, Berry, Bledsoe, Boothbv. But
Ter, Coughlin, Collins, Dale, Devine, Dixon, Dun
bar, Dwyer, Ewing, Fassett, Gay, Glass, Hall,
Healey, Holland, Huber, Hudson, Keen, Ken
yon, Lewis, Mccarthy, McKelvey, Nelson
o'Day, Osborn, Pendleton, Richards, Robinson,
Rowell, Sanford, Spencer, Staley, Thomas, lib
bits, Tomblin Twigg, Wade-4I
Noes-Ash, Bachman, Belshaw, Bennett
Bettman, Bulle, CargiIl, Cutter, Davis, Dinkel-
spiel, Dodge, Guy, Hatfield, johnson, Jones,
Kelsey, Laugenour, Meads, Merrill, North,
Phelps, Price, stansell Swisler, Waymire
Weyse, Speaker Lynch-27.