Evening star., 1919-08-25
JUDGES ADVOCATE .
MUNICIPAL COURT, .
CODE ACT CHANGES
Chamber of Commerce Rep
reSentative and Mr.. Adri.
ans Also Testify.
TELL HOUSE JUDICIARY .
committee OF 2 BILLS
Congestion Sought to Be Relieved
and Drawing of yuries
Facilitated.

Facilitated.
Judge Ashley NJ. Gould of the Dis-
trict Supreme Court. Judge George g.
Aukum Of the Municipal Court, Chapia
Brown, representing the Chamber OF
Commerce. and John H. Adriaans. an
attorney. testified today before the
House judiciary committee on two
bills affecting court procedure in the
District of Columbia.
Both OF these bills were introduced
by Representative Volstead. chairman
of the judiciary committee. at the re-
quest Of the District bench and bar
One provides for enlarging the juris-
dictfon of the Municipal Court and to
regulate appeals from the judgments
Of that court; the other would amend
the act establishing a code of law for
the District.
Judge Gould in Accident.
Judge Gould. on his way to the
hearing. met with an accident. the car
in which he was being driven by Mrs.
Gould having been in a collision with
big truck. Judge Gould was thrown
forward. striking his head so that he
was dazed for several minutes.
Regarding the bill affecting the Dis
trict code. Judge Gould said that in
| the absence of Chief Justice Mccoy.
Volstead. he wished to record the opin-
ion of all of the justices urging the
adoption of this measure.
One radical change, he said. was in
the method of drawing jurors. He said
that at present there was great diff
Guilty in getting satisfactory jurymen.
The proposed change would authorize
jury commission to get the jury box
| nlled. The change. he said, would pre-
serve the integrity Of the jury. He
pointed out that a great body of the
citizenship is exempt from jury duty
by service in the government. and
that there is a relatively small num-
| ber to draw from.
He described the many other
changes in the code as being found
last twenty years At the request
OF Representative Webb of North
Carolina, the committee had placed
before 1t document prepared several
years ago showing the present law
and the proposed law in parallel col
| umns. 1t was emphasized that the
bill in its present form shows the
changes which ought to be made ac-
cording to the Judgment of the Bar
Association and the bench. Judge
Gould said that there are no radical
| changes and no objection has been
Judges Approve Bill.
Regarding the other bill to enlarge
the jurisdiction Of the Municipal
Court. he said the Judges approved
this heartily. 1t would relieve the
Supreme Court of large number of
cases. As 1t is now cases can very
easily be transferred by filing an affi-
davit from the Municipal to the Su-
preme Court. where they will be held
for couple of years awaiting trial.
This brings about denial of justice
and a stagnation of the work of the
Supreme Court
Judge Gould favored increasing the
Jurisdiction of the Municipal Court in
cases up to at least $1,000. He also
indorsed the proposal that there
should be provision for a jury triad
in the Municipal Court and said he
believed that never would more than
two juries be required by the five
judges.
Chaplin Brown. speaking from an
experience of forty-two years and
representing 800 business men in the
Chamber of Commerce, offered a res
olution adopted by the directors Of
the chamber on a report made by the
law and legislation committee and Of
fered a revised bill.
Enlarged Jurisdiction Urged.
Mr.. Brown remarked that the Munich:
pal Court was in reality organized by
the business men of the District, and
that he, himself, had drawn the organic
act. The Chamber of Commerce rec
lA6
the Municipal Court up to cases involv-
ing $1,000 with concurrent jurisdic-
ton with the Supreme Court on
cases between $1,000 and $1,000 The
Chamber of Commerce favored Jury
trial where demanded. Mr. Brown en-
phasized that this enlarging work OF
the Municipal Court would impose no
financial responsibility upon either the
District or federal government, because
the Municipal Court was entirely self
supporting and annually turns in 4
considerable surplus from fees
Mr.. Brown advised that until the
docket of the Supreme Court is caught !
up. authority might be given to that
Court a bulk of the cases which are
now causing congestion. He said he
believed that the business men would
prefer to have the smaller cases Set
tied In the Municipal Court With a
right of appeal to the Court of Az
peals, because they could get action
in two or three months instead of be-
ing forced to wait two or three years
in the Supreme Court.
Mr.. Brown made q strong plea for
two additional judges for the Supreme
Court of the District saying that the
present judges are working Just as
hard as they can and give proper
care to the important cases that come
before them. Representative Webb OF
North Carolina. the ranking democrat,
put into the record the report of the
Attorney General showing that the
District court disposes of twice as
many cases as any state court He
argued for maintaining the dignity of
the Supreme Court by not making it
necessary to handle small business"
as now any case involving more than
IS may be brought into the Supreme
Court.
Representative Webb called atten-
ton to the fact that the bill for two
additional justices has twice been
passed by the House and once by the
Senate. Mr.. Brown said that they
ought to have a trial Of these cases.
and that as they are paying all the
costs of the Municipal Court they
feel they have a right to expect 1t.
Attorney Adriaans called attention to
a substitute bill which had been in
troduced by Representative Morgan
of Oklahoma at his instigation and re-
ferred to the District Of Columbia com.
mittee.
volstead Bill Endorsed.
Judge Aukam. when called upor