Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1920-03-04
Kill Honsc Dim No. 30I

RI Virginia is neither ready nor willing to
i have all the bars between the lower courts
and its Supreme Court Of Appeals swept
aside. and that tribunal Hooded with a mass
of trivialitics OF which it never should hear
then IL Will demand of its General Assembly
that it scotch the measure providing for the
summary removal Of these wisely placed OBJ
stacles before it progresses further.
Officially. the measure is known House
bill No. @04; its patron, AR Pitts 1t has
been reported out of the Committee for
Courts Of Justice and has passed it's second
reading. 1t should advance no further to-
ward the statute books. To the layman it's
verbiage may sound innocent enough. Evil
IDENTIFY ii does. or it would not have been per-
mitted TO go so far.
Object of the bill, lis 10 amend and re-
enact section GAS OF the Code of Virginia
and to repeal section G349 of the Code of
Virginia in relation to appeals and writs
OF error. Specifically, it provides, ''In all other
cases where an appeal or Writ OF error is
provided for by law. the court judge to
whom petition is duly pesented shall allow
an appeal or writ Of error, and in each case
may award supersedcas to stay proceed
ings in whole or part"
In brief. the proposed amendment would
allow an appeal to the Supreme Court OF
Appeals ''As n matter Of right" Under pres
ent procedure 4 case may he carried TO the
Supreme Court only after petition for APP
peal has been laid before Judge OF that
court i'll vacation and lie has found suhi-
cient grounds to warrant its hearing. But,
should bill No. 304 he enacted into law,
hearing Of the by the Supreme Court
would be made mandatory.
The result would he paralyzng Supreme
Court judges, already overworked, would he
swamped with trivial or comparatively un-
important cases sent up to them for hearing
and there would be no escape. The law
would command them and there would be
no way but to comply. From the august
tribunal that 1t now is and has been since
Virginia was State, with learned decisions
that rank with the decisions OF. any other
high court in the land, it would degenerate
almost TO the level of a magistrates court,
where every person who imagineS he has
grievance would have unobstructed entree
Such a contretempts in Virginia is unthink-
able.
1t is so unnecessary. Tho standard of the
magistrates courts has been materially
raised within the last few years, and able
jr"ists sit in the Corporation, Hastings and
Circuit Courts. Surely that time has not
come when the jurists who preside over these
lower tribunals cannot be trusted to decide
Justly among the ltigants appearing before
them. Nor has the time come when mem
he's OF the Supreme Court cannot be trusted
TO grant petition for appeal when the
grounds presented are in any measure ade-
quate. There is no denial of justice under
the present procedure. Why, then, should
the Supreme Court be swamped by this
wholesale appealing Of cases as a matter
OF right?"
Sole benefactors. should the bill pass it
would seem, would be the lawyers browsing
in the enlarged field OF litigation and tho
court clerks in the increased fees that the
added business would bring. But to the
State Of Virginia the loss would be meal
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