Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1913-09-03

pcSS tuSnh, dS lSSdl JuBBtSfS, ueIS3I-
ers of the law and Knockers OF Its
majesty"
There has been a great deal of vir-
tuous denunciatiOn by the legal pro-
fession recently in Kansas City Of the
legal ''snitch" or ambulance
chaser" The snitch is an adjunct
| to the business of the lawyer who
makes a practice OF taking personal
injury suits against corporations.
But many corporation lawyers are
equally unethical in their practice
| as the snitch. He is trained in hts
| side OF the law until he knows every
decision pertaining to his business.
He goes into the trial with but one
| definite purpose, to trick the court
into some error which will upset the
verdict on appeal. Equipped as he
is, he generally succeeds in luring
the Judge into some technical mis-
take in passing hurriedly on the null
t1tude or objections, requests, mo-
tions and exceptions which he makes,
and II the verdict is against him he
can sit back and laugh in his sleeve
| as 1t Is rendered, knowing that 1t
will be reversed in the appellate
court.
1t Is interesting to observe one Of
these professional "exceptioners" at
work during trial of a murder case
| or damage suit against a large cor
poration.
| The professional "eXceptioner" en-
| gagged in the case for no other reason
| except his nose for errors and his
| deftness in Turing the court into
| technical mistakes sits beneath the
shadow OF the judges bench and ap-
parently sleeps. BUT he never
sleeps. He sits with closed eyes, but
| he is listening, listening with every
| sense alert. Suddenly he pops up
| with an exception, and when he has
made it he drops down again and
sinks into apparent somnolence. He
| objects to everything. Half the time
| Of the court is taken up in noting
his exceptions.
And he often defeats the verdict Of
the jury after weeks and even
months of costly litigation. 1t was
so in the last trial of DR.. Hyde.
Justice David Brewer used to tell
| a story of one Of these exception
| ers." During the trial of an import
ant case the question was asked of a
witness:
And what did Mary say?"
The head of the ''eXceptioner" shot
up above the judges bench with the
exclamation: 1--WE except, your
honor"
long argument followed as to
| whether it would be right in law for
the witness to answer the question
and tell what Mary said. The court
ruled that the question was improper
| and an exception was saved. After
| the verdict was rendered the other
side appealed and the Supreme Court
! reversed the case and Temanded it
| for new trial, with the instructions
| to the court to permit the witness to
| tell what Mary said. On the se"ond
| trial the same question was asked
| and the witness answered:
| Mary didn't say nothin'."
Justice Brewer used to say that
| lawyer was disgrace to the profess
sion who did all things for the sake
| Of an acquittal, who went into court
for his client and delayed the trial
| by strategy until public feeling had
| died down, or witnesses had disap-
peared or their memories became un-
certain, who strove to get friendly
| jury on the panel, or who sought to
get into the record some technical
error to reverse the case, or who did
anything to weary justice and ena-
Bile the guilty to escape. That, he
"
yer.
On the other hand, jeremiah Ev-
arts, one Of the greatest lawyers this
country ever had, was greatly dis
turbed when he was considering en-
tering the profession of law, whether
| he could honestly engage In pursuit
| in which half the time he would be
struggling to maintain justice. He
finally came to this decision: That
any cause that was fit for any court
| to hear was fit for any lawyer to pre-
| sent on either side, and that neither
the judge nor counsel had the right
| to prejudice the case until both sides
had been heard.
Opposed to this opinion was that
OF Beverly Johnson, a leader of the
American Bar, who discovering in the
midst OF trial that the man he was
defending was guilty, when he had
assured him he was innocent, arose
and walked out of the court and re-
fused to touch the case again.
And there was the action Of Henry
Clay Dean, famous Missouri law
| yer OF the early days, who was called
on by man accused of a crime and
who asked Dean to defend him.
But did you do this thing?" Dean
asked him.
The man said he was guilty.
"Then," said Dean, 81 shall not de-
| fend you. You ought to be shot out
of red-hot cannon through a barbed
| wire fence straight into hell"
Along this same line was the ac-
ton of G. o. Tichenor, one of the
deans of the legal profession in Kan
sas City A man went to him once
| and stated that he had contracted to
sell certain piece of real estate for
certain price, but now he could sell