Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-02-07

The supreme court in a brief memoir
andum said that the constitutionality
OF the law had been passed on many
times, and it had been affirmed not
only by the state supreme court, but
by the United States supreme court
as we'll. Case retransferred to the ap-
pellate court. The appellate courts
dignity, of course, was deeply in
iured. II had been told In effect
(which seemed the obvious fact) that
it did not know the law. Therefore, |
to prove that it did know the law, the |
court wrote a long opinion unfolding |
its view. Case retransferred to the |
supreme court.
The supreme court, being now on |
its mettle, reaf1rmed its position, like |
wise in long opinion, in which it |
held, one would say not insanely, that
there must be some court to say the
final word and this must be the su-
preme court. 1t also pointed out that
this same defendant, the Panhandle
railroad, had already tried four times,
unsuccessfully, to plead the uncon-
l stitutionality of this same law, to de-
/ feat similar judgments, and intimated
that it was about time to put an end
to this sort Of trumpery litigation.
Case retransferred to the appellate
court, where under the statute it be-
! longed
Did the appellate court accept this
ruling of the supreme court? Not in
the least. In a memorandum it said:
THE case having been submitted to
the full court, and four judges not con-
curing, the case is retransferred to
the supreme court"
And there the Peck case sleeps
All this, gentle reader, happened
years ago. The last action of the ap-
pellate court was January, 1910, and
on December 5 last, the case was still
on the docket of the supreme court.
The Judgment obtained by Peck, after
two trials. was $4,000. How much
Of this do you suppose will be left for
Peck when the lawyers, aided and
abetted by the courts of Indiana, are
through?
If this is not judicial anarchy, I, for
one, do not know what the terms
mean. 1t is my personal opinion that
no crazy bomb thrower who ever land
ed on these shores has ever done a
tenth part of the harm to American
institutions which this judicial an
archism in its innuperable manifesto
> tons has worked to render justice a
thing of jest and contempt.
STANDINGS OF LANGUAGE.
Now the grim part of this special
: case is that there has been no severer
critic of the law and court administra-
ton Of the law than the Hon. Cassius
= c. Hadley, who throughout these pro-
ceedings sat as chief justice of this
same appellate court of Indiana, and
with whose permission | will take
from his able address before the Bar
= Association of Indiana for 1909 my
second example:
"A man was driving along the high
: way in a wagon On load of hay
: when he was knocked from it by al
Ioverhanging telephone wire which had
= been negligently allowed to fall down
. He was permanently injured. He suec
the company and proved the injury
. and the negligence. The jury founC
a for the plaintiff and assessed damages
= to compensate him for his injury. The
defendant took an appeal and. for The
first time, before any court, raised III;
. question of the sufficiency of the aver
= ments of the petition. The supreme
= court, two or three years after the
> suit was instituted, reversed the cas-
>, on the ground of the insuficiency o
:. the averments, holding that the com
. plant was bad in this particular, with
out regard to whether the recort
=. showed a fair trial or a just result. l
- ruled that an allegation that the plain
;, tiff was driving along upon said stree
-, upon load of baled hay, and withou
70 seeing or knowing the condition o
q said telephone wire, he drove agains
i, and was caught by said wire and wa
thrown from his wagon, does not shoy
that the plaintiff was thrown becaus
- Of such wire! And why? Because Q
the absence of an averment that h
: was thereby thrown Before the cas-
IN reached a second judgment the plaiI
= tiff died and his action died with him.
O. NEW YORK SAMPLE OF JUSTICE
st This is justice in Indiana. The mex
al is from New York-a sample OF ho1
n. the law is administered by the sam
I'd court OF appeals, which, faithful t
n the traditions of courts of appeal
SO found the attempt to enact the Enl
Iish workingmens compensation la
into the statutes of New York uncoI
q stitutional.
In April, 1910, one Wolter was col
4 victed of a peculiarly atrocious mu
der of a little girl and sentenced I
i death the following June. His counst
appealed. The code of New York r,
quires that in death cases such a.
peals shall be argued within 81
4 months unless the court shall enlarg
the time. Ten months after the a.
peal, the prisoners attorney havin
Z made no appearance, the district "a
3 torney asked the court to affirm tn
/ conviction by default as the code pr
yides. The court refused and gave tn
defendants lawyer forty days furtnt
4 leeway, ordering at the same time tn;
in the event Of further non-appearanc
a the court should he furnished with