New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-02-03
FIGHT ROTATION ORDER,
Justices Contend Lac Governing
ASSIGNMENTS Is Unconstitutional.

In their fight against forced rotation. the JUS
tees of the municipal courts of the borough are
attacking the constitutionallty of the act Inc
scheme is not new one Section 1875 of the
old charter as well as of the new one of the
city required that the Board of Justices provide
for such rotation. This act was repealed III
1902 one section specifying that the only cases
In which another justice other than the one
elected might hold court was in case of va
Cancy, Illness of the elected justice or in a case
where the elected justice might order the case
taken to another district. when he was dis
qualified from trying it for some reason.
In 1904 Section IL of this act amended.
the rotation scheme being adopted again
through the addition of two new subdivisions,
which provided that each justice, after holding
court in his district for one month, shall
sit in at least five of such other districts at least
once, for period OF month at a time. pre-
vious to his return to the district for which he
shall have been elected or appointed"
The justices against rotation maintain that
the municipal courts are only a continuation
and reorganization of the District Court of New
York and the Justices courts of Brooklyn
In a recent letter to Archibald r. Watson who
wrote at length on this subject in the December
issue OF THE Bench and Bar" Justice Wauhope
Lynn said
1t would be Just reasonable TO enact law
requiring the county judges in the State to ro-
tate from one county 10 another and remain out
of their counties five months before returning to
their own county, and yet this is the condition
we have by rotation in the municipal courts.
1t might further be stated that the work of
our courts is hindered great deal by this fire.
quent change, as each justice, in the indorse
ment of his papers. Is best understood by the
clerk whom he has appointed and who under
stands and is familiar with his handwriting and
authorizations of pleadings. It is often the
that clerks make mistakes through inability to
understand all of these various markings or
forget the instructions of the justice after he
has left the court. This is we'll illustrated in
some cases where rank perjury has been COM
mitted and the justice has instructed the clerk
TO retain the exhibits file, and after the JUS
tce has left such court, the clerk forgetting
such instructions. has permitted the plaintiff or
defendant to take from the record the very evil
dences of crime
On the alleged unconstitutonality of the rota-
ton system one justice said yesterday:
The only justices under the constitution that
have right to sit outside the districts In which
they are elected are the Supreme Court Judges
feel that it is unconstitutional to coupel ms 10
serve In district other than one to which we
are elected. These constitutional questions in
Municipal Court act 1t prescribes that we must
reside in the district and act as justices The
justice shall hold court in the district to which
he was elected and must be a resident of that
district, and that was the decision in the RoI+e
-NSANN