The Detroit times., 1909-12-07

personal rights. To the former class
belongs Judge Lurton."
The attorney went ON TO argue that
this position is the correct one. and
that stability OF property should be
made paramount. ! talked with law
Aers In Cincinnati and Memphis. and
found nothing 10 contradict the i'm
preston as 10 Lurtons corporate and
railway leanings.
III Judge Lurton has ever decided
a motion or case in n way distaste-
ful 10 the Louisville a. Nashville rail-
road said "A Memphis attorney, II
have never heard of the case" and
he added. This may mean that the
J.. A. n road is always right; but III
that is what II means IL is singular 10
say the least"
His Pro-Corporation Record.
Judge Lurton's pro-railroad and pro
corporation record covers period Of
about 80 years. II began when the
firm was l.urton & Smith, and he was
local attorney for the l.. a. y. IL Is
maze up on many learned decisions,
we'll written and fully "buttressed'
by hodry precedent. and all tending
to the weakening OF personal and the
strengthening OF property rights. They
have contributed To the defeat of per
sonel injury claims against railroads
aud the breaking down OF federal and
state regulation OF corportions.
And to this end Judge Lurton has
worked with ability. He is a scholarly
man of industrious habits and no
small vices.
He can write an unsound opinion
said one lawyer. "and make 1t sound
like music on the water.
On one occasion. however, judge
Iurton was elOquenily silent. That
Is remembered by lawyers as the
time he overruled the u. s. supreme
court. The facts were these: One
Kelly had sued a railroad for damages
TO compensate for personal injuries
resulting from the failure OF the road
to furnish safety appliances required
by the so-called coupler law. Judge
Lurton protected the railroad by read
ing into the law the necessity for due
diligence. Meantime the same sort
of case went from Arkansas TO the y.
=. supreme court and the latter body
Knocked out the due diligence" de-
fense. Kelly applied to Lurton for re-
hearing. Denied" ruled the court
NO opinion" that was all. Since then
the supreme court has interviewed and
taken the Kelly case from Judge Lur-
tons court
Judge Lurton. as a member OF the
United States circuit court Of appeals,
found technical grounds for declaring
the employers liability act unconsti-
t9tional. In the application OF j. *.
Keen for an injunction against vot-
ing certain railway stocks Judge Lur-
ton found the sherman antitrust law
not 10 be binding upon him or his rail-
roads, much to the satisfaction OF T..
III. Hartman. whose consolidation pro-
gram was thus made easy
Looking Backward
As far back as the early '70s Judge
Lurton was known as a partisan OF
the corporations as against the peo-
pie. defending the claims or turnpike
and early railway companies TO the
subsidies voted them by the state be-
fore the war
1t is recalled that when he was "A
member of the chancellors court he
read a paper before the Bar associa-
tion arguing the entire sufficiency OF
the courts TO curb trusts and monopo-
lies. and dcpreciating legislation OF
this character.
Another paper read a few years ago
Is devoted to an elaborate defense CT
corporations generally.
Judge I.urton was born in Clarks-
willie Ky but WAS brought as boy,
to Tennessee. He graduated from the
Lebanon School of Law. the oldest
institution of its sort in Tennessee.
After about four years as judge OF
the chancellors court he was elected
TO the state supreme bench. where he
served 10 years. He was appointed to
tho federal court in 1898. His resi-
dence is in Nashville He has two
children. both grown, and living away
from home.