The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-07-10
TO 00DIFY THE LAWS.
seven missfens of Prominent
Lawyers Appointed by the Governor

Especial to Inc Jersey Clty news.
TRENTON, July 10, 1s97.-Governor
Griggs yesterday appointed seven com
missions, consisting of three lawyers each,
to codify the existing laws Of the State.
The commissions are appointed under a
law passed at the last session of the
Legislature which provides that the Com
missioners shall serve without pay. but
they may employ clerical assistance at
a compensation to be fixed by them and
to be paid by the State. The Commits
sioners are to report to the next session
of tho Legislature such bills as in their
Judgment should be enacted to take the
place Of the numberless laws which now
exist on each Of the different subjects re-
ferred to the commission.
The Commissioners appointed and the
subjects referred to them are as follows:-
District Court and mechanics lien
laws-William l. Lewis. Paterson; Ed
ward s. Atwater, Elizabeth; James 5.
Erwin, Jersey City.
Crimes and criminal procedure-John
Franklin Fort, Newark; Fred c. Marsh,
Elizabeth: James S. Erwin, Jersey City.
Townships--Alfred F. Skinner, Newark;
VIM. NJ Lanning, Trenton; James j.
Bergen, Elizabeth.
Infants, orphans courts, surrogates,
administrators and executors-George T.
Parrot and Francis ]. Swayze. Newark;
Flavel McGee, Jersey City
Absconding debtors-Wm. H. Corbin,
Elizabeth; James E. Howell, Newark;
Frank Bergen, Elizabeth.
Conveyances, partition of land. sale OF
land under law or judicial proceedings,
and assignments for benefit of creditors
Frederick Adams, Newark; VIM. Penning-
ton, Paterson; Eugene Stevenson, Pater-
son.
Beneficiary societies and corporations
without capital stock organized for bene-
ficiary, charitable purposes and other
kindred purposes-Charles l.. Corbin,
Jersey City; Benjamin A. VAIL Railway;
Edward NJ. Collie, Newark.
The Legislature of last winter passed
a general borough law which superseded
the borough laws in about one-tenth OF
the space. The Legislature of 1886 passed
codification of the corporation laws
which very much simplified matters and
very materially REDUCED the volume OF Q,
of the laws Of the State did not meet the
Messrs Vroom and Lanning, who had
the work in hand, had no power to
codify. All they did was to compile and
arrange the laws of the State under
appropriate headings, leaving out those
that had been repealed or superseded by
amendments.
Governor Griggs has always strongly
urged codification of the laws of the
State and in this he has been supported
by many of the most prominent mem
bers of the bar The action of the Leg
islature was the outgroWth of recon-
mendation made by Governor Griggs IN
his first annual message, in which he
severely criticised the endless and fire.
quently repetitious legislation on a given
subject
In his message Governor Griggs said
THE compilation of the general statutes
Legislature approved April 4, 1894 has
been completed in three volumes, COM
prising. with the index, 4,o9S pages. The
pains, care and accuracy with which they
have sifted and classified the almost in
Vulnerable acts that comprise the
the the last general revision in 1877. An ex.
animation of these ponderous volumes re,
veals such a condition of our statute Law
e clear us alsg and logical i classification, e sim
| plicity and condensation, most of the
| titles reveal large numbers OF separate
acts, drawn without any special reference
to each other often covering in different
ways, and sometimes in inconsistent
ways, the same subject and constituting
a mass of legal enactments incomprehen-
sible to the layman, and to the lawyer
and the judge often of doubtful meaning
and application.
The Governor in his message as an IN
stance, called attention to the fact thai
a citizen desiring to investigate the laws
regulating the assessment and collection
of taxes would find in these volumes
| 24O different statutes, embracing S23 differ
ent sections, the whole covering 175 pages
of closely printed matter.
The Governor was very strong in his
| recommendations that the laws be codi-
fed, and said that in many instances
| instead of being a source of enlighten.
ment and guidance, they must necessarily
| be a cause of disorder and confusion II
| the conduct and management of many OF
| the public affairs of the State.