The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-03-18

Governor Wells yesterday filed Will
the secretary of state his disapprova
of house bill LOG, by Shepard, relatins
! to practice and procedure in the su
prene court. His objections to the
measure were set forth in the follow
! irg language:
March II. 1897.
To the Secretary of State:
| have the honor to file with you, dis
approved, the accompanying bill (passeC
by the Second legislature, which has
finally adjourned, thus preventing the re-
turn thereof to said legislature, known
as house bill No. 1885, entitled. AN act
relating to practice and procedure in the
supreme court of the state of Titan,
with my objections thereto
Section ! of the bill provides that all
cases on appeal to the supreme courl
shall be tried in that court upon p type
written transcript of the record, and that
the court shall not in any case require
an abstract of he record.
This makes TIE rule absolute in every
case and leaves no discretion with the
judges of the supreme court before whom
the cases must be tried, and who must
be we'll informed as to the best means
by which cases can be properly pre-
scented to them with a view of full
consideration and understanding OF the
itated.
1t may be true that there are cases in
which It imposes = burden upon IT. aD-
pellant to be required to print an abstract
of the record, but it is doubtless also
true that in many cases II would impose
a great burden upon the judges of the
court to compel them TO READ the Iuil
transcript of every case to determine the
questions involved upon appeal And I
think that in many cases the interests or
Justice may. require printed abstract.
Where cases are submitted on the tran
script without any printed abstract. only
one Judge can read the record at one
time, while if each of the Judges IS sup
piled with a printed copy of the abstract
the judges can read and consider the case
at the same time.
Our constitution provides that lin cases
at law the appeal shall be on questions
of law alone" | learn that in many law
actions the transcript consists of hun
dreds of pages of typewriting, consisting
largely of testimony. while the questions
of law on appeal are very few.
II seems to me that il would be I'M
posing an unnecessary burden upon the
Judges of the supreme court to compel
them to wade through this mass of tes-
on appeal. when they could be presented
in q comparatively few pages OF printed
abstract OF the record.
| find that it is provided by a rule of
the supreme court that in criminal cases
the court or one of the judges thereof
may rive appellant leave to file brief
and abstract other than printed This
rule was doubtless adopted by the su-
Dreme court to permit poor persons con-
victed of crime to have their cases heard
uDon appeal in the supreme court of the
state and manifests a disposition to re-
lieve litigants of the expense of printing
where it would work a hardship or CO az
injustice.
If the rule requiring printed abstract
in civil cases IS found to work a hard
shin. | have no doubt the supreme court
will adopt a rule that will give the
needed relief. 1 think II better that the
court should be left free to
adopt such rules in regard to practice as
the judges may approve. with power to
make such change as experience may
suggest, than to make. by legal enact
ment an inf1exible rule of practice. which
may be found to be i'll suited to the cir
of many cases. but which
cannot be changed till another meeting
Of the legislature two years hence
Section 4 of the bill REQUIRES that the
supreme court shall grant rehearing
when the defeated party requests it, and
hat each party upon the rehearing shall
nave the right to address the court at
east 20 minutes
Under the practice prevailing in the SUI
)reme court, each side has the right to
present to the court a printed brief and
S allowed at least one ho&- to address
he court orally. so that eacn case is pre-
seated on printed briefs and oral argu-
nents of two hours.