Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-01-06
COURT OF ERRORS
UPSETS MILITARY
RETIREMENT LAW
Ruling Permits Return of Many
Officers Forced to Quit
National Guard.
TEN VOTED AGAINST THE
MEASURE, ONE FOR IT
Status of Adjt.-Gen. Sadler in
Doubt, Owing to Gen.
Breintnall's Resignation.
[speeial % the Newark star.l

declared unconstitutional today in a
vote of ten to one in decision
handed down by the Court of
Errors and Appeals One of the results
which will follow the decision will be
to return to office in the National
Guard of the State a number of inn
portant officers who were placed upon
the retired list after Governor Fort
had approved the law.
The vote on setting aside the Vreden-
burgh law was as follows: TO affirm
Supreme Court decision, Chancellor Pit
ney; for reversal, Chief Justice Gum
Il mere, Justices Reed, Trenchard, Parker
Bergen, Voorhees,, Minturn, Vroom
Judges Boeart and Gray. The opinion
is by the chief justice and will be filed
this afternoon
The suit to test the constitutionality
OF the law was brought by General Ed
ward f. Campbell. of Newark then
commander of the First Brigade the
defendant being Colonel Frederick
Gilkyson of this city, who was then
acting adjutant- general, following the
retirement of Adjntant- General r.
Ieber Breintnall. The suit was for a
writ of certiorari bringing up for re-
view the act and all the proceedings
under it. which, as far as General
Campbell was concerned, was the off,
cial order retiring him.
The point at issue in the suit was
whether or not the Vredenburgh act
Was unconstitutional as being within
the interdict of the clause of paragraph
6, section l. of article 7, of the State
constitution which provides that mo
commissioned officer shall be removed
from Office but by. sentence of court
martial pursuant to law"
The s4pfeme Court upheld the law
on the ground that it did not provide
for removal from office, but for retire
ment from active duty as an Incident
or. the reorganization of the military
s-ril OF the State, a matter which the
court held was expressly committed to
the regulation of the Legislature.
The stntns of Adiutnnt- -GeDcraI
Wilbur L. Snd1cr is probably one
OF the most important positions
TINT the, decision Of the court will
affect. The ndjutant-seneral, how
ever, seems 10 be of the opinion
that the decisioB will not have the
effect of removing him from Of
flee. This theory is presumably
based upon the assumption TINT
General Brientnall voluntarily ten
dered his resignation, which went
cHect on the DAY that Gov
esnor Fort signed the sredenburgh
NV because OF this, II Is insisted
by the friends of General Sndler
that General Brienfnali cannot
take advantage of the setting aside
of the inv.
General Brientnal has been quoted
as saying that his resignation was not
a purely voluntary act on his part. but
was in pursuance of the requirements
of the act placing upon the adiutant
general the duty of reporting to the
commander -in-chief the names of all
officers who had reached the age of
Cd years. and had thereby come within
the compulsory retirement feature of
the act. Strangely enough the resig-
nation of General Brientnall seems to
have been mislaid. so that the exact
language emploved nv him cannot he
ascertained The document. II Is stated
is not In the Governor,s office. nor
ti;e adiutant generals office nor has n
hsep t,isd With tbe 'sacratary of state
Retired by order.
srhe actual retirement of General
Brientnall was accomplished by an
executive order officially known as
general order No. 6. issued on March 2.
THE language of the order apparently
sustains General Brientnalls conten-
tion that while he in fact made appli-
cation to be placed ON the retired list
he did SO onlv in obedience to the pro-
visions of the act which had been
signed nv tbe c,overnor few ho,,rs
before. The first section Of the order
reads as follows:
Pursuant to the nrovjsions of an aet
entitled "a sunnIerent to an act on.
titled "An ACT concerninp the militia
of the state. approved Nav 1s. 1900"
annroved March 2. 1909 Rripadier-Csan
eral n. Heber Brientnall. the adi,,tant-
peneral of this state. having officially
renorted to me that he is bevond The