The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-12-10
PRESENTED TO BENNERS

PRESENTED TO BENNERS
 The injunction was presented to Chan cellor Benners late yesterday afternoon:
 T refuse your injunction" said Cham cellor Benners to Attorney John London. that the consolidated court bill is all right"
 This is not an injunction attacking the court bill" answered Attorney London, but one seeking judicial enlightenment on the status of the criminal court of Jefferson county'
 Let's see your bill," said Chancellor Benners.
 After reading the bill of injunction for a few minutes Chancellor Benners said:
 'I grant your injunction and set the bond at $100.
 Attorney London stated that Attorney W. K. Terry of the board of revenue will file his appeal from the injunction o1 Monday morning, and that on Thurs day, December 21, arguments on the merits of the injunction will be heard by the supreme court
 ''W-e want an early decision" said MT. London, lin order to prevent confusion. Tle consolidated court bill goes into eff feet the second Tuesday of January and before that time it is desirable that the supreme court should pass on the fea- ture that we have presented which is to question the claims that the criminal court of Jefferson county is included in the consolidated court act"
 GRAVE FEATURES APPEAR
 Certain grave features appear as the result of the filing of the Gore injunc- ton yesterday. The drawing up of the injunction and the investigation into the merits of the consolidated court bill have been in the hands of Attorney Walter s. Brewer a former assistant solicitor.
 MT. Brewer explained in detail yester- day the perplexing situation created by the legislature by the consolidation of the courts. MT. Brewer also stated that if the supreme court held that the con soidated court bill did not take in the criminal court, it would mean that Jurge Harrington P. Heflin and Judge William D. Fort, both elected as judges of the new circuit court, would have to be appointed by Gov. Charles Henderson as judges of the criminal court It would also shorten their terms, as both Judges Fort and Heflin were elected as circuit judges for six years, while if they are appointed to the criminal bench they can only serve until the next general election, which will be in two years.
 DEFECT IN TITLE
 ''The title to the consolidated court bill." said MT. Brewer, which is the only act which attempts in any way to abolish the criminal court of Jefferson county, reads as follows:
 q ITO provide a circuit court in every county in the state and for. the consoli- dation of the chancery court and all other courts of record having the Jurisdiction of the chancery court, or circuit court, or either of them, into the circuit court, and to remove all pending causes and records into the circuit court, and to provide and regulate the proceedings therein'
 Now the contention is this title does not include the criminal court of Jeff ferson county for the reason that said court has neither the Jurisdiction of the chancery court nor the circuit court; the chancery court having no criminal juris- diction, and the criminal court having no chancery Jurisdiction; the circuit court having both civil and criminal jurisdic- ton and the criminal court of Jefferson county having no civil jurisdiction what ever
 "In addition to having no civil juris- diction, the criminal court has certain criminal jurisdictions that the circuit court does not have. The legislature. in writing the body of the consolidated court act, evidently realized or recognized the fact that the title to the act was not broad enough to cover the criminal court Of Jefferson county because after setting out all that appears in the title they went further in the body of the act and said: And every court of record by what ever named called having the jurisdic- ton to try civil and criminal cases or either. with juries. is hereby consolidated into the circuit court
 FROM EXPEDIENCY VIEWPOINT
 From the standpoint of expediency it is far better that the criminal court of Jefferson county should not be con- solidated into the circuit court of Jeffer- son county. Some of the reasons for this are: Under the constitution of Alabama no misdemeanor case can be tried in a circuit court until the defendant has been indicted by a grand jury or unless the case comes to the circuit court by ap- peal from a justices court Justices only have Jurisdiction over a limited number of misdemeanors. The practical result of this would be that about 90 per cent of the misdemeanor cases would have to be indicted.
 ''In addition to the loss of time and trouble that this work will entail, the law now provides that all witnesses for the state appearing before the grand jury must be paid in cash. This item alone would amount to thousands of dollars in Jefferson county alone each year. Furth- CT, another direct result would be that each defendant in misdemeanor case would be entitled to preliminary trial