The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-03
A LIMIT ON APPEALS
ALL THE RELIEF LIKELY TO BE
GRANTED SUPREME COURT.
CASES FROM CITY COURTS
CAUSE CONGESTION OF SUPREME
COURT BUSINESS.

vide New Judges-This Is the
/ pointed by the Bar Association
to Consider This QuestiOn-Mr.
Samuel b. Adams Gives the Con-
illusions Reached by the Commit
tee Mt Recent Meeting in Atlanta.
Appeals From City Courts to BE
Cut of Save in Special Cases.
Remedy Suggested Not All That
Could Be Desired But All MIR.
Adams Thinks Can Be Done.
The question of devising an addition
to the judicial system of the state, for
the purpose of relieving the pressure
now brought to bear upon the SUI
preme Court is one of earnest interest
to the legal profession in Savannah.
Mr.. Samuel B. Adams said yesterday
that he doubted the practicability of
securing the passage by the Legisla-
ture of such bill as that drafted by
Judge Barrow, a synopsis of which was
printed in the Morning News.
Mr.. Adams is a member of the COM
mittee appointed at the last meeting
of the Bar Association to consider this
question and devise a means of rem
edying what has become an acknowl-
edged and almost insupportable evil.
| Mr.. Adams said the congestion in
| the Supreme Court is due largely to
| the mass of business appealed from
the City courts that have been estab-
| lished all over the state of which there
are now upwards of forty. Mr.. Adams
continued:
Bill Wouldn't Pass.
THE committee appointed by the
Bar Association, consisting of two
from the state at large and one from
each congressional district, met in At
lanta Friday for the purpose of formu-
lating one or more measures for the
relief of the Supreme Court All were
present except one. The general con-
census of opinion was that, while an
intermediate court, or a court of APP
peals, would be desirable. and even
important, to give complete relief, yet
that it was useless to expect the Leg
islature to create any offices and pro-
vide for new salaries.
After a long discussion, the COM
mittee agreed upon a bill to be pre-
scented to the bar and to the Legisla-
ture limiting the right of appeal to
cases in which the bill of exceptions
shows that the sum or value in dis
pute exceeds $500 principal except that
an appeal will be allowed when the
bill of exceptions makes it to appear
that the case involves title to land,
or is an equity, or divorce cause, or
involves the title to public office, or
is a habeaS corpus or contempt case,
or involves the constitutionality of a
statute, or 1t is made to appear that
it is necessary to determine the con-
Stitutionality of state law.
Another exception is made in
cases where a justice of the Supreme
Court, upon an examination of an ex-
emplification of the record, certifies
that the case Is a proper one for a
writ of error.
Caused by City Courts.
1.-THE committee realize that the in
crease of business in the Supreme
Court is largely attributable to a null
tiplication of city courts all over the
state, and that it is important to cut
off, as far as may be, appeals from
these sources.
THE committee is to meet again in
Atlanta Monday week, and it was I'M
to present a plan looking to the cut
ting off of appeals from a vast ma
jority of these courts directly to the
Supreme Court. The right of certiorari
from any City Court to the Superior
| Court now exists and the desire is, as
far as practicable, to let appeals to the
Supreme Court come only from the Su-
perior Courts and when the jurisdic-
tiCnal amount is present, subject to the
exceptions indicated.
Difficulty in Getting Relief.
1--WE realize fully that the bill already
agreed upon will not give all the re-
lief that is desired by any manner of
means, but we also realize that it will
be very difficult, if not impossible. to
get through the legislature with the
requisite majority, any bill looking to
complete relief The bill as proposed
Will cut off a very considerable per
centage of the cases that are now
brought to the Supreme Court-a great
many of which involve less than $780,"
The difficulty of getting a bill, to
which there is any opposition, through
the legislature springs largely from the
fact that to change the judicial system
of the state q constitutional Amend
ment is necessary. To secure the SUBJ
mission of such an amendment to the
people, requires a two-thirds majority
of the membership of both houses,
something that approaches impossible
ty when the prevailing absenteism in
the legislature is considered.