Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-09-25
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IMPORTANT TERM.

l"FS VA ~te'bs
The Grand Forks Herald looks up
on the present term of the supreme
court, begun at Grand Forks and to
be ended at Bismarck as one of the
most important in the state, and calls
attention also to- the ease with which
iitigants get into the higher court.
1T is difficult to devise a means to
shut out civil Htigants from appeal
ing from the decisions of lower
courts without passing upon all the
procedure in the case and this would
in effect require a new court to do
presicely what the supreme court is
doing now. There might be reduc-
ton of the appeals in criminal cases
involving penalties less than capital
by creating court or judge to
pass upon questions of appeal and
decide whether any substantial right
of defendant had been violated in
the louvre court before permitting
an appeal and review of the case in
the upper court. But this is aside
from the comment of the Herald on
the Importance of cases being heard
at this term, which is as follows:
Among others there are four rail-
road cases of especial interest. There
is the rate case in which the railroads
contest the right of the state to re-
quire them to issue thousand mile
books for 500. There is the coal
rate case which it is expected will be
up at the Bismarck session. There
lis a case involving the right of a
common carrier to condemn land for
reservoir purposes, a case which pre-
~sents a number of very fine legal
points, and the decision Of which will
be awaited with great interest And
another railroad case of interest is
that brought to ascertain whether
the 500 Telegraph company is sepa'
rate from the railroad company, and
so subject to separate taxation.
There is an elevator case Involving
the law of last winter providing thai
elevators shall post in their loca
houses records of their weights ane
grades at terminals, the purpose o
the law being to check fraud in thes'
matters by v companies and thei
agents. Another suit of importanc
is one in which for the first time tn
drainage law is directly attacked o.
the ground of unconstitutionality
Other suits have been brought froI
4 time to time in which the constit'
tionaiity of the law was involves
more or less Indirectly, but in tn
case the whole suit rests on tt
charge that the law in and of itse
is unconstitutional.
Temperance legislation is also
z be tested by the court. The law pr
viding for the payment of rewar
for the conviction of blind pigge
is to be passed on, and it is believ
that the reward for the apprehe
sion of horse thieves will stand
fall with this. The Burr case, inv
wing the validity of the appointing
of a judge in the Ninth district CON
up at this session. The Kenms
Park case is another important Q
: because of its effect on that parti
lar locality.
These are some of the more
poTtant cases, involving nitric
questions of law, or important
3 their bearing on the affairs of
state. In addition to these tn
is an unusually large number of c
es Of the ordinary character, the c
sideration of which, however, j,
2 5ss take time and labor It seems a:
there should be some means de
u ed of heading off a lot OF this lit
ton before it reaches the supre
court Under the present conditi
If two Htigants are fairly we'll to
no one ever expects either of Il
TO accept the decision Of dist
court. 1t is an understood tt
that a case is to be appealed,
matter which way it is decided
the trial court. And it appears
litigant is never at a loss for s.
means Of entrance into the suprt
court. 1t seems more than poss
that we have extended what Ju
Amidon calls the quest for error
our civil as well as into our Grim
proceedings Why should not q
Of his Recommendations for the
p1ifying Of our procedure in Grim
cases be equally coed for civil ~