Perth Amboy evening news., 1911-08-02
ACTIONS
IN CHANCERY
Record Broken for Suits In
stituted in 8 Months.
spsota1 to tho EHEYINq NEWS.

Special to the EVENING EEWSs
Trenton, Aug. 2:-The Court Of
Chancery of this state has broken all
records in the number Of suits start
ed, more than 1890 actions having
been instituted IN the past eight
months. This fact was brought to
public notice today when Docket
Clerks Fred B. Biles and NJ. H. Potts
opened docket No. "a for the listing
Of suits. Each docket is q huge
canvass bound volume made espec-
tally for this work with entries for
about 5000 suits. Docket No. 33
was opened November &c, 1910, and
the big book being filled already
| shows that IN eight months New
| Jersey people have gone into chan
Gerry litigation the number Of times
stated.
Never before IN the history Of the
state has a docket in the chancery
| court been filled so rapidly. In re-
| cent years the average time for fill
| ing a docket has been about a year.
The chancery court is one Of the
best places IN all the state to study
human nature because the character
of It's work brings human interest
features constantly to the surface.
| Divorce suits and actions for the
foreclosure of mortgages form a
great portion of the business Of this
court, practically every one Of them
speaking mutely Of a home broken
up by infdelity or Of financial ruin.
The Court Of Chancery has turis-
diction in equity cases, where a
| plain, adequate remedy cannot be
| had in the courts of law. Its calen-
dar Is made up Of divorce cases,
suits for fnjunctions. bills of discov-
| cry, bills for specific performances,
actions for the partition Of lands,
mortgage foreclosures and general
insolvency matters.
| Records of nearly 100000 cases,
dating back to 1744, are on file, to
which more or less constant refer
ence have to be made, and to handle
| and keep tab on this immense num-
Der of documents is a tremendous
Job. A full and complete record of
each case is started as soon as the
first Pill is filed. Besides the work
of handling the documents Of the
settled cases in the matter of look
ing up records to give needed infor-
nation IN land sales and a hundred
| other matters, there is an immense
amount of work in connection with
the many thousands of pending
cases.
The method Of recording the cases
is to enter each paper in the docket
as soon as filed. A thorough system
of i%ndexing keeps tabs on the doc
kets. After being entered in the
49,. - 49,, 1-N aI4@ In
large freproof vaults, each pigeon
hole containing the papers of the
cases on one page of the docket.
Each pigeon hole is indexed to cor
respond with the docket and page
containing the references to the
cases it contains.
In 1744, when the chancery rec
ords were commenced. the dockets
Of final entry and corresponding
pigeon holes were indexed tunder thi
numerals, and this was c0F-2H
several years, until TWEEN ASre,
dockets and twenty-three /sets O.
corresponding pigeon bnlsg had beer
filed. Then the present method OF
indexing each docket under both a
letter of the alphabet and a numeral
was adopted. The letter Il" is not
used. Under this method the first
twenty-five dockets were indexed
from "a" to a." emitting a." Tho
next twenty-five were marked CAL"
"B1," etc, while the next twenty
five became AZ" b." etc.
After a paper Is filed and docket
ed it goes to the bo~okkeeper to be
charged and from there to the re-
ceiving vault TO be distributed. This
vault is but the temporary resting
place, but here the papers are placed
in a pigeon hole which Is indexed to
correspond to the indexing numbers
and letters given them in the docket
ing.
After a case goes to the chancellor
and is passed upon by him and dis
posed of, or as the chancery clerks
say, "goes to a decree" it goes to
the index clerk for the final index
ing. Then the copyist enrolls it in
the final docket and it is filed away
permanently.
The documents filed during the
first years of the court were all
writteI on parchment and are filed
In rolls They ara VSrfrab1e curfOGi-