Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-01-13

cases coming over from the MaSSd-
chusetts docket, fifty-one new en-
tries and six indictments. The Court
following& the earlier Massachusetts
practice, sat both as nisi prius and
as law court, and the cases heard
| and decided in law and those commit
ted to a jury were intermingled. To
illustrate: the first Law. entry is this:
NO. 6. Peter Steele VS.. Edmund Ad-
ans. Nonsuit entered at the May
Term, 1919, subject TO the opinion of
the whole Court. Continued nisi. Mo-
ton to set aside the nonsuit over
| ruled. Judgment for the defendant
and for his costs taxes at $27.10."
Then follows the record of jury
case with verdict rendered, and then
| a new entry in which a law ques-
ton was raised by demurrer. The
Court passed upon it. adjudging
plaintiffs declaration good and or
| dering judgment in his favor. Only
one divorce case appears on the dock
ct SO that there was little need for
the usual query on the part of the
bar II wonder how he is on divor-
| ces?" This first term adjourned on
Saturday. August j.. having been in
session five days. and tried three civil
and three criminal cases
| The next term was held at WiscaS-
| set for the County of Lincoln on the
4th Tuesday of September, 1920, in
what was then known as the old
Town House or Court House, a wood
! en- building erected about 1874 and
, situated about twenty rods south of
the present brick court house on
! what is now a part of the Common.
| The existing courthouse, built in
| 1924, is located on the site of one of
the old Sheepscot farms granted by
| Governor Dongan, the absentee gov
| ernor of Pemaquid when that region
was called the county Of Cornwall
and was an appendage of New York.
! 1t is the oldest court house in the
State now in use as such. It's quaint
ness and simplicity as we'll as it's his
torical interest would suggest that
| the court room be preserved I'M
changed
| Let us now trace in most genera
| terms the changes in our judicial
system since it's inception
We began with two distinct tribu-
malls, the Supreme Judicial Court and
the Circuit Court of Common Pleas
The Supreme Court, as we have al
ready seen, consisted of three mem
| hers. and that number continued I'M
| til lS47 when it was increased to fou1
| Samuel Wells, afterward Governor
being the new appointed This Court
sat with either two or three mem
bers at least once a year in each OF
! the nine counties, at which terms, as
| at the first term i'll York already de-
Scrlbed, Jury trials We're held and law
! questions finally determined Ger
tam terms were also held in each
county b. "a single Justice for jury
! trials, and from such terms t,ues-
| lions or law We're continued TO be
! considered when the full Court should
SIT IN that county asaini One and
Inc same docket in each County con
! tanned both the law cases and the
jury cases. In fact The docket in Ken
| nebec County for the first term Of the
| supreme Judicial Court held at An
gusta on the 2nd Tuesday of Sepiem-
Der, 1920, by Chief Justice Mellen and
Justices Preble and Weston follows
along in the same volume that con
talns the docket of the last term at
| The Massachusetts Supreme Court
neid the previous year by judge
Wilde. so easily did one Court merge
| into the other.
! The inferior Court for The trial OF
jury causes was the Circuit Court hf
! common Pleas. This Court as existing
under Massachusetts was continued
by the Act of Separation until 1899
when by act of our Legislature a Court
| OF Common Pleas was created co,s,y+
ing of Il Chief Justice and two aseo-
| ciate Justices who had inferior iuris
! oictioh and held then twenty-four jury
! terms throughout the State. Questions
! OF law and appeals were carried from
| this Court to the Supreme Court. The
| first members were Ezekiel Whitman
of Portland, Samuel Il. Smith os Wis
| casset. and David Perham of Bangor
| In 1872 the Court of Common Pleas
| was abolished and District Court
was established in its place. This
was done in part because of d:ssatis-
| faction with one member of that
| court The State was divided into
| three districts with two Judges in the
Western district and one each in the
| middie and eastern. Ezekiel Whit
| man, the Chief Justice of the ola
Common Pleas, was made Chief JUS
tice OF the new District Court.
! This dual system of Supreme and
Common Pleas or District Courts wa
| maintained until 1852, when a ccmplete
reorganization was made. largely I'M
der the guidance and influence of Holm
Appleton. afterwards Chief Justice.
The District Court was abolished and
| its jurisdiction transferred to the S,-
preme Judicial Court. the number of
whose Judges was then increased from
| tour to seven. Then began our present
system. single Justices holding pisi
prius terms in all the Counties. ana
five or six sitting together at Law
terms.
The question of separate and dis
tinet Law Court or Court of Annea1c
whose members should do no nisi prius
work whatever, has been agitated at
various times. In 1855. Governor Nor
riil in his message called attention to
the satisfaction prevailing in va
rious sections of the State with. the
existing system, but urged that no nav,
system be established without mature
elaboration. Accordingly the Legis-
lature Of 1856 increased the n,nher
of Judges from seven to eight and the
Supreme Judicial Court was divided
into two sections of fpnr p7spobars.