The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1917-05-19

ports. It contains 100 pages and re-
ports 65 decisions of the supreme
court. The book shows no regard for
public economy and the expense OF
booking and publishing the decisions,
and the same is true of the reporting
system. In the first case the reporter
gives two and one-half pages to a
copy of his own brief, containing q
multitude of cases and vainly trying
to show that the Court may not rein
state an action which it has dismiss
ed .a,...iE. ~ g..
In the second case the head.note
or syllabus covers three pages and
the decision with the briefs covers
80 pages, and several whole pages
are given to the citation of a table
of cases which are promisculously
thrown together and which really
serve no purpose only as book pad.
ding. 1t really looks as If someone
had q stapd-in with the book makers
or had no just sense of public econ.
Omy. ,..,..y.
A head-nOte, or what they call q
syllabus, of decision should never
cover more than one page. Its pur.
pose Is to show at a glance the lead
ing. points or topics Of the decision.
and not to, duplicate the decision.
The, space given to a lawyers brief
should not exceed one page-and the
decision it should be'a concise and
lucid statement of the case and the
law governing it, only that and moth.
ing more. II q judge desires to write
and publish general commentary on
the law, he should do 1t at his own
The third case reported covers 10
pages, including five pages given to
table of cases. We must try to
stop that system Of reporting. r
According to the Docket Of the
West Publishing company, based on a
count of the average number of words
in the decisions of, the several state
courts, the longest decisions are Civ.
en- In North Dakota That is sorry
compliment to our Supreme Court. It
shows; as the fact is, that the de-
cisions consist largely Of mere stuff!
flng in the form of quotations and
citations. For judge to say to his
stenographer: Copy the complaint,
this document, and this testimony,
is much easier than 1t is for him to
give concise and terse statement Of
the same. Hence the long decision is
no compliment.
Vol. 237 U. s. Supreme Court Re-
ports (1914), contains $50 pages and
1923 decisions, which shows those de-
cisions are only about half the length
of our Supreme Court decisions,
though, the cases are all vastly more
important: In the u. S. Reports there
is mo head.nOte or syllabus covering
more than one page, and the average
length Is less than halfta page: In
the early U. S. Reports the head
notes are still shorter and some, OF
them do not exceed three lines. Here
is g. head-note and decision in which
the Court has not yet concurred. .,
Rhoadsy ". National Bank and New.
,-,,E &g- berry. Il; .;5.,s% d
.Head-note-7ln a suit for malicious
prosecution It IS well to: remember
the terms, malice and maliciously i'm
port a wish to vex, annoy or ipjure
another person or an intent to do q
wrongful act, established either by
proof or presumption of law. Good
faith or fool innocence does not justf-
fy q wrongful act. ~ = ~. x
aRObinson, j.: This is an appeal
from judgment against the plaintiff
in AN action to recover for malicious
prosecution. GHere we omit short
statement OF the faCtS,) -
- The defense was that the warrant
was sworn out in good faith and on
the advice of the states attorney.
However, 1t does not appear that the
states attorney was fully advised that
the mortgage debt had been reduced
from $1,315 to $4,000, and that the
car across the street from the bank