Henderson daily dispatch., 1939-07-29
High Court
Decisions
Show Unity
Daily Dispatch Bureau,
In the Sir Walter, Hotel.
Nv HENRY AVERILL

Raleigh, July 29.-North Caro-
lina's seven Supreme Court justice
shared opinion writing during thu
1899 spring term almost as evenly
and equally as possible and during
the term they found themselves no
completely in accord in less thar
ten per cent of the 1913 decided
cases.
Justices Heriot Clarkson anC
William A. Devin wrote rs opinions
each; Chief Justice Walter Stacy
Justices Michael Schenck and M. V
Barnhin expressed the courts col
lective views on "a occasion; while
Justices A. A. F. Seawell and Wal
lace Winborne wrote % opinions
each. A total of 80 decisions were
decided in per curiam" decisions
"a technical term meaning that no
detailed opinion, written by a SIN
gle justice, was necessary and the
case was decided "by the court as
a w>>,le".
In all these 1913 decisions there
were only 10 with dissenting
opinions, though in a very. few Of
the "per curiam" cases the court
was equally divided, with one Of
the justices taking no part in the
decision. All in all, however, there
were dissents in only about 10 per
cent of the cases,
There were 169 civil, IA capital
felony and Is other criminal ap-
peals included in the 1913 cases. In
Gil per cent Of all cases the de-
cision of the lower courts were
sustained by the Supreme court
decision, with 121 affirmatiOns
against 50 reversa1s. In the causes
there were an even 100 affirmances
against SO reversals for a percen-
tage of 59.2. Of the IA capital felonS
whose cases were decided at the
Spring term, 10 were doorned in
accordance with the lower court
verdict, while four were given new
leases on life by the "new trial'
route. Of the other criminal cases,
IL were affirmed, four reversed.
According to Supreme court at
taches, it was purely a matter of
coincidence that the task of writing
opinions was so evenly divided
among the Justices, as there is no
fixed or set rule governing the
matter Obviously an effort is made
by the Chief Justice to come within
reasonable limits of assigning the
writing of opinions within even
limits, but it was termed "quite un-
usual that during the last term the
division should have been so close
that there was difference of only
two in the highest and lowest num-
Der written.
1t probably was more than a
coincidence, however, that the per-
centage of cases affirmed or re-
versed varied so greatly among the
individual justices.
Judge Clarkson, for instance, was
an affirming" judge with a ven
geance, his opinions sustaining the
lower court 21 times, while he
handed down only four reversals.
He wrote eight opinions in criminal
cases, five of them capital, and
found no error in any of them. Of
II civil opinions, 13 were affirman-
ces against four reVerSals.
He was, therefore, the leading
yes man of the court with a per-
centage of sc, against the composite
Gil for the court.
Other justices with more affir-
mances than reversals were Judge
Winborne with Is against eight;
Judge Schenck with Is to g; and
Judge Devin with IA 10 II.
The Justices who found the lower
courts wrong more often than light
were Seawell Go affirmed, 13 re-
versed), the Chief Justice (11 af-
firmed, Is reversed) and Barnhill
"a. affirmed, Is reversed).
Of the 80 "per curiams'', only
three were reversals.
AS noted, there were but 10 cases
with written dissents. Of these
seven were 4-3 decisions; while
there were four with two dissenters
and eight in which one justice dis
SERTED alone. Judge Barnhill led the
lone dissenters, with three, Judge
Devin had 2, Judges Clarkson, Sta
cy and Winborne, one each. Neither
Justice Seawell nor Justice Schenck
wrote a Gingle-handed dissent.