The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-06-24
npr~<k asgs 81 mir
M. M. MURDOCH, Editor.
a JOB ON KANSAS AT LARGE.


The Kansas papers are raising a breeze over a bill
which has passed the house OF Congress provid
inc for terms Of the Federal Court at City. Kan
sas There could be particular objections to that Il
tbe hill stopped there But it does not 1t embraces
lob and Senator is being loudly called upon TO
defeat it in the Senate The bill seems to have been
introduced by Bowersock the Congressman from that
district and should it become law great inconvenience
will result and injustice be done. In short the bill Is
wholly understandable of its minor provisions
It provides that civil suits wherein any one OF the
defendants resides Wyandotte county in said state
shall hereafter be filed shall be tryabe at said city
of Kansas City, This wipes out the whole present
judicial arrangement Of the Federal Courts in Kansas
Under provision if suit is brought to foreciose
mortgage on land in Sedgwck county county and any
one Of twenty defendants happen to live in Wyandote
county the suit must be filed and tried in Wyandotte
county More than this, if any Kansas City, Kansas,
or Kansas City Missouri lawyer should have such a
suit all that would be necessary for him to do would
be to name some Kansas City man as Of the de-
PENDANTS charging that he had claimed have some
interest in the land (and doubtless he could always get
a Kansas City Kansas, to claim to have some IN
teres in the land and the would have to be filed and
y,
less change of venue shall be granted provided by
law" but we do understand that there is any such
thing change venue provided by the Federal law and
in any event the sedgwick county would have to
go to Kansas City get his change of venue if such
a thing possible
The act gives the sitting at Kansas City jurs
dcton as wide as the state in certain cases. whereas
no other term of court has any such widespread jurs
dicon Sitting at Leavenworth Topeka the judge has
the jurisdiction of First Division matters only Sitting
at Wichita has jurisdiction of Second Division mat
tiers only sitting Fl Scott he has jurisdiction OF
Third Division matters only.
Under the present arrangement the court for the
First Division Topeka in November and the term
is open until the following In the First Division
the court sits at in June and the term is
open there until the following November. This bill
provides for term at Kansas City week after the
opening Of the term Leavenworth, which gives Leav
enworth but one week Circuit Court practically
and it opens again at City the second Monday
in January which necessarily terminates the term of
court then running at Topeka This would give To- |
peka six or seven weeks only and would be highly in
convenient not only for lawyers of Topeka but for
the lawyers all the way west of Topeka After January
il they wanted anything done IN court the would nave
go City to get it done, and peculiar is
the act that doubtful whether he could get 1t
there at present the jurisdiction Of the court is
divided terroriay The system is simple, easily I'M
derstood and works we'll Now there is introduced a
new sort of Jurisdiction 1eavenworth try things
only in the First Division Topeka can try things only
the First Division Wichita try things only in
the Second Division Salina can try things only IN
the Second Division Fort Scott try things only in
the Third Division But Kansas City can try certain
things at least, in any division
The act is badly drawn. Nobody knows whether in
addition the jurisdiction specifically conferred has
general Jurisdiction matters First Division
not renders the judicial system in unnes-
essariy complicated expensive The general pur-
pose the is Of throw the United States
business of the into the hands of the
lawyers Kansas City Missouri and City
sas The bill ougt to be beaten altogether or very
much modified.