The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-23
.TUMLIN WANTS REFORMS
 IN CTIANCERY PRACTICE,

dalned and established, chancery proce- dure, in Alabama, has degenerated into a bundle of technicalities, and has be- come snare and a trap, in which justice and right, often miscarry
 The rule with us is, to take our test- mony, in causes, in the form of dispositions taken by and subscribed to before the register. The chancellor, in most cases. never sees the witnesses, and has no op- portunity to observe their demeanor while -estifying, as is the case with a law judge. He simply has the cold lifeless deposition (often colored to some extent by an in- terested register from which to draw his conclusions and by which to formulate his decree.
 In taking testimony, in chancery case, the affair often takes on the complexion of Star Chamber Proceeding and the real facts never reach the chancellor hence the doing of equity, at times, be- comes impossible.
 One of the greatest guaranties of truth fitness is that the witness is compelled to testify, under the sanction of an oath. in the hearing and in the presence of a judge or a judge and jury. A witness is more apt to speak the truth. whsL he knows that the eyes of a judge and a Jury are upon him.
 Then we have bundle of rules respect ing notices, of time and place of taking
 
 for interlocutory and final decrees, which are purely technical, and serve no useful purpose so far as the real issues of a controversy are concerned. They do serv the trickster. handsomely, however al times, and many meritorious causes are lost, because the attorney in charge has slipped up and fallen down on some one of the many rules of procedure
 The foregoing is not all. nor a hint at all, the evils of our system of chancarv procedure.
 The matter of the cost growing out of the said system. The register. under the present law, is entitled to his commission as the commissioner to take the testi- mony. In addition to the commissioner s fee, he is entitled to so much per hundred words.
 It often happens in an ordinary chan cery case where the same Is hotly con tested that the cost amounts to more than the entire subject matter of the suit, and the losing party is financially ruined when compelled to pay the cost The cost of course. includes fees for the attendance of witnesses a S at law, in ad l. dition to the cost of the commissioner and the cost of the depositions.
 He who seeks equity Alabama has long and tedious journey with the possi- bility of losing his case, not upon the merits, but upon some technical rule that has become fastened upon our present system, and in the end, being Financially ruined. by being compelled to pay the cost.
 Now. what are the remedies for the existing evils?
 Simply this-abolish. aboish-the sep arate chancery courts of Alabama by consolidating the same with the circuit court
 Abrogate the present rules of chancery tara o,I shall be taken under the same circum- stances and under the same limitations as 1t is now taken at law.
 Let parties to chancery suits have the right to jury trial as the same is now allowed at law and, of course. let the cost both at chancery and at law be the same in all respects whatsoever.
 Under this plan there can be law and an equity docket in the same court with the right to a jury trial fully preserved to parties ltigants having causes on ei- ther docket
 A system similar to the one above sug- gested has been in successful opera tion in the code states of the west for num- Der of years.
 The rules of pleading can be changed and modified to meet the requirements of the suggested changes. but in all cases let the substance, not the form, of a pleading be the basis upon which to determine the sufficiency thereof.
 MT. Editor. I feeel that changes along the general lines indicated in the fore going paragrap phs are absolutely neces- sary in the interest of the cause of jus tice. I know that the people of the state demand that radical reforms be perfect ed in our system of procedure. know that the people are entitled to drastic changes, and that actual conditions war rant and justify, amply, such changes But there are many interested parties who are up in arms against any mate rial change.
 All those who have fattened off oi the present bungling system are prac- tically unanimously opposed to the ab-