Evening star., 1902-03-25
THE DISTRICT CODE
AMENDMENTS PASSED BY THE
SENATE WITHOUT DEBATE.
Most Of Them Were to Correct Cleri-
cal Errors or Manifest Oversight
Others Were Important.

The Senate was occupied this afternoon
with the coasidS Sration Of Senate bill 49a to
| amend. the code Of law OF the District Of
Columbia. This 1in was introduced in the
Senate December Sand reported favorably
from the committee on the District OF Co
lumbia December II. by Mr.. Pritchard. The
bill consisting Of sixty-three printed pages
was passed without being changed from
the form in which it was reported from the
District committed -
Almost all the amendments to the code
contained In this bill are made to correct
clerical errors or manifest oversights in the
original code bill Several Of the other
amendments are important. A substitute
offered for section 80 Of the code is to make
1t more explicit and complete the manner
and time in which the business of the flf-
teen Justices of the peace whose terms
ended when the code went into effect were
to be transferred to the smaller number
OF new justices Of the peace appointed un-
der the code
Another amendment was to relieve doubt
under existing. law whether the grand and
petit juries summoned in December, 1901,
could legally serve as jurors. in view Of the
fact that the laws under which they were
drawn were repealed by the code. This
amendments. Of course, was not acted on
soon enough to be of effect and consider
on that account Another section OF the
amended code allows an illegitimate child
to take either personal property or real es-
tate from the mother on her death. as
under existing law an illegitimate child
could not inherit from Its mother.
Relating to Real Estate.
Several sections of the code relating to
assignments. releases of mortgages or
deeds Of trust are by the amendments
stricken from the bin. In the code these
sections are substantially in the form in
which they were prepared by Judge Cox In
the first draft of the code. They seem to
have been taken in a large part from the
Maryland code. Numerous questions and
dif1culties were suggested In regard TO
them. Finally number of attorneys IA
miliar with the Maryland practice In this
regard were consulted with and the matter
carefully and thoroughly examined, and 1t
was concluded that these sections would
give rise to a great deal of litigation AMI
that their usefulness was at least doubtful
No serious objection is made to the prac-
tice which has obtained in the District for
many years in regard to assignments and
releases of deeds Of trust. Common-law
mortgages are practically unknown in the
District. For these reasons it was thought
best that these sections be struck out
Another section is to prevent b!ackmail-
ing of owners of real estate through re-
cording false deeds.
new section is added to allow the pre-
SlOlnS justice at a trial, AT MS ulScrellOu, 10
permit a party who has called a witness
and has been surprised at his testimony to
put in evidence contradictory statements
| made by the witness to the party who has
called him, or his attorney.
Relating to Usury.
Another section relates to usury. The
amendment provides that all payments of
interests on usury contract shall be
deemed to have been made account of
| the principal debt. thus compelling the
creditor who enters into such a contract
to lose the whole Of the interest A new
section puts promise made after full age
to pay debt a contract during infancy
upon the same footing as a promise to
pay q debt which has been barred by the
statute of limitations by requiring the
promise to be made in writing.
Another section provides that will shall
pass real estate acquired by the testator
| after the date of the will unless contrary
| intention is manifested. Provision is made
| against the possibility of the construction
| Of the code SO to put end to the term
| Of office of officials in the District, such as
| United States marshal. United States dis
| trict attorney, Police Court judges, notaries
| public, etc. --#