The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-04-29
A SYSTEM OF COURTS.

The proposed plan of reorganizing
the courts so as to have a Supreme
Court consisting of seven justices each
of whom shall hold Circuit Court, ought
to have very serious consideration be-
fore being adopted. There is grave
question whether it would cure the ills
for which it is offered as a remedy.
There is every likelihood that it would
create other inconvenience.
This can be said of the system it
proposes: Many states and territories
have abandoned just such system for
one in which the personnel of the trial
and appellate courts are entirely sep
arate; but it would be hard to find a
state or territory which has abandon
ed the latter system for the one pro-
posed.
One of the reasons given for propos-
ing this system is that trial judges are
frequently called to sit as Supreme
Court Judge and meanwhile the trial
of causes waits. But this proposed
new system perpetuates this cause of
delay The seven men would be con-
stantly engaged in Supreme Court
work, leaving no time for trial court
work. OF practical necessity all seven
| judges will have to reside in Homo
lulu, leaving the rest of the territory
without judges except at the intervals
when one of them goes on circuit. But
the causes of litigation do not wait for
term time or judges convenience to
arise Probate business is constantly
arising. In cases where injunction is
the proper remedy rights may be lost
and the strong trample down the weak
simply because there is no judge ac-
cessible before whom the remedy for
threatened wrong can be set in motion.
What a proper judiciary system ought
to offer is prompt and speedy means
of adjudicating rights. This can hard
ly be said to be offered by system
which proposes to concentrate all the
| judges in one place. The natural ten
dency of such a system would be to
concentrate the bulk of the law bust
ness in Honolulu. Such a result could
not be expected to be displeasing to
lIle IlOHOlulu utT. nS lawyers VI lHe
other parts of the territory, however,
can hardly be expected to look on it
with the same complacency.
What is needed is a court always
open for the transaction of business
as fast as it arises and convenient to
the locality where the business arises.
California has a judiciary system
which in many respects is admirable.
Each county has one superior court
having jurisdiction in all matters, civil
criminal and probate. That court is
always in session. There is no distinc-
ton of term time and vacation. A suit
is begun and process is made return
able so many days after service, and
proceeds to trial in due course. There
is no waiting for term time. Litiga-
ton proceeds as it arises. There is not
a period of congestion during term
time followed by a period of delay in
vacation.
Illinoios, which preserves the old
common law procedure more nearly
than any other state or country in the
world, though it keeps up the system
of terms of court, provides for the
speedy dispatch of probate business as
we'll as some other classes of litigation
by a system of county courts which
are always in session for probate bust
ness.
What Hawaii needs is a court system
that places the courts and keeps them
open in the various islands of the ter
ritory where the litigation and the pro-
bate business arises.