The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-03-10
SATURDAY EVENING LETTER
10y Justice J. {. Robinson.)

For the night shall be turned into
morning,
And the cares that infest the day
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs.
And finally steal away.
as to tell you that / am the idler of
the court. Now / must tell you the
secret OF my idieness and how it is
that / have so much time to lean
back on my easy chair, put my lower
limbs on the table and read the Count
of Monte Cristo. AS you may con-
lecture, to my perception most Of the
appeals coming before the court pre-
sent merely kindergarten matters.
When attorneys argue those cases /
turn on the searchlight OF a few
questions, pointing out the real issue
and the law and the facts OF the case.
/ show that the judges are not to be
misled or hoodwinked by any talk or
side issues: that the law is not to be
made a lottery or a game of skill and
chance, with the prizes going to the
best players and the best takers. The
result is that talk is often cut short,
and when it ends, the court and the
counsel know quite well how the case
should be decided.
Then when the chief justice orders
me to write one or more decisions, l
do it right off. put my mind on the
work until it is done and then lay 1t
on the table Of the chief justice. Than
IL he does not give me any more work,
of course l become an idler. When one
of the judges writes a decision and
puts on my table a copy, at once
consider it and compare it with. my
notes, and if it, is correct, ] sign it,
and il not. / dissent. Then again
become an idler, with my legs on the
table.
The other judges have not yet come
to follow my easy ways, and SO they
make themselves lot of work. They
continue to write decisions which are
too long and too learned to be pub
lished or read. They take much time
in criticizing my decisions, thus
"Mr. Robinson, that decision is too
short. 1t covers only the turning
points of the case and not all the
points made by the counsel. And the.
syllabus Cor head note) is too short,
it is only three lines and does not
fairly reflect the decision. And your
grammar is not perfect. Here is a
sentence in which the verb does not
agree with its subject in number and
person; and here the proposition is
not followed by the objective case of
the pronoun."
And so must soon write some let
tiers on grammar and composition just
to make the other judges think ] know
something about it.
In writing decisions a Judge cannot
be too careful to avoid the use OF
idle words, because to book and pub
Iish them does make the taxpayer a
needless expense; and then it is said
that for every idle word we must give
an account in the day OF Judgment.
AS you know, when a Judge writes a
decision it is common to put over II
something they call a syllabus,
headnote or keynote, showing its
leading propositions Of law. Here are
the headnotes in some decisions OF
my writing:
Drainage case-f5 Miles Into Canada.
In drainage cases the right to a
preliminary contest on the mere per-
Icentage of benefits is no protection. tt
is only contest on the percentage Of
cost and plumber that may be charged
and extended as a tax against each
tract of land. Tt in no manner Affects
the total amount. and that Is by far
the most important matter. The
commissione may well be trusted to