Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1916-10-26

shall each receive such salary as
may be provided by law consistent
with this constitution, and no
Judge shall receive any compensa-
zion, p~creuisites, or emoiuments
"for or on account of his office on
ANY account whatever except such
salary"
In 1911 fudge Mccoy, then a mem
Der OF the court, prepared and q. his
personal solicitation, lobbied through.
an act known as Chapter 2Ss of the
laws of 1911 which provides that each
judge should receive sS,6o0,00 a term
above and beyond the 100000 con
stitutinnal limitation il he would dur
Ing the term of Office reside in Pierre.
The act stating that such payment
was made ain consideration of the
"increased expenses of living at a
"plaee other than his legal residence
Ii matters not whether the judge
: were single, married or had a family
or otherwise. McCoy's act donated
S $4,000 10 himself and a like sum to
each OF his brother judges merely be-
cause they were judges of the SUI
preme court.
Section 4, Art. s of the Constitution
under which Mr.. Mccoy was elected
and which he swore to support pro
vides that the terns of the supreme
! court should be held at Pierre. He
I therefore accepted the Office knowing
the salary was $3.0G0,0N per year, and
that as such Judge he must attend the
sessions of the court which the con-
situation requires TO be held at Pierre.
OF course. the people of the state had
no interest in his place of residence
outside of attending court,
Section 3, Art II OF Tire Constitu-
tion provides:
That the judges of the supreme
court should take an oath that they
would support the constitution Of
'the United States and the state Of
south Dakota and faithfully dis,
charge Tie duties OF such ONCE,
Judge Mccoy took this oath and
then contrary to his oath and trust
teak this additional sum
1t being ~seIf-eyident that the Mccoy
act of the legislature above mention
ed, giving each OF the judges So, 100000
additional was a perquisite or emolu-
ment on account of the Office and
therefore in direct violation of Sec
+ ton 80, Art. 5 OF the constitution
above quoted, the state auditor, Mr.,
Handlin, on whom devolyes the duty
of Issuing warrants without which
money cannot be obtained from the
public treasury, having recognized the
unconstitutionality Of the Mccoy act
refused to issue to Judge Mccoy (and
the other judges OF the supreme
! court) any warrant for this increased
amount. Judge Mccoy then, after
consulting with the other judges of
the supreme court, all of whom were
likewise interested, brought suit in
! his own court, the supreme court. to
I compel the state auditor to issue such
i warrant; or in other words to allow
him to delve into the public treasury
and take 49, 10000 of the peoples
money which they had by the consti-
tuition expressly prohibited and for
hidden him to take.
Probably no proposition of law is
of greater antiquity or of more uni
versal application than the maxim "no
man can be judge of his own case"
attention to this proposition and in
sisted that the judges thus interested
! should not preside at the trial of a
mat..,r in which they were SO vitality
Interested, and that they We're each
attempting to extract from the public
treasury of the state $3,600.0 to
which they we're no entitled and that
in short their position differed but
little, except in lack of physical cour-
age, from the position of any high
wayman.
The auditor also called the courts
attention tn the fact that thew had
, recognized this doctrine so far as to
hold that a circuit judge could not
preside in an action by or against a
corporation wherein his wife was a
| stakeholder, and that it had held the
Judgment OF a county court void where
the son of the judge, a practicing law
| yer, had a fee contingent upon the re-
suit OF the litigation. He also called
their attention to the fact that they
had quoted such decisions from the
case Of Washington Insurance Com
pany vs.. Price, / Hopk. 1, the follow
ing language on this subject:
at is a maxim of every code, OF
every country that no mar should
abe a judge in his cause. The
Learned wisdom of enlightened ma
ttions, and unlettered ideas of ruder
Societies are. in full accordance
upon this point and wherever
tribunals of justice have existed all
linen have agreed that a judge
Shall never have the power to del
eide where he is himself a party.
Whatever may be the exceptions
.sto the general infirmities OF human
nature this rule has no exceptions