BASTARDY.
On motion of Mr. BROWN the order of business was dispensed with, and he returned from the Judiciary Committee the bill [S. 36] to regulate proceedings in bastardy with a substitute therefor, viz: a bill to amend sections 15 and 17 of the act of May 16, 1852, regulating prosecutions in cases of bastardy and providing for the support of illegitimate children, so that the testimony of the prosecuting witness may be perpetuated, and the prosecution may be commenced before a justice of the peace; and requiring the court to demand security for the proper expenditure of the money for the support of the child; that the suit may be dismissed by the prosecuting witness, when provision has been made by the reputed father for the maintenance and education of the child, the terms of provision to be filed with the records of the court; and where the prosecuting witness is an unsuitable prrson to have the custody of the child and of the funds for its support, the court may appoint a suitable person who shall give security for the faithful performance of his duty.
Mr. NEFF hoped the Senate would refuse to concur in this report of the committee, for he desired to see this class of cases taken out of the hands of justices and planed in the Circuit and Common Pleas Courts, as his bill [S. 36] provides.
He hoped the amendment giving jurisdiction in these cases to Justices of the Peace would not be adopted. It rendered the prosecutions more expensive to the prosecuting witness, and was less satisfactory than where the prosecutions are commenced in the Circuit or Common Pleas court.
Mr. N. said that cases of this kind should always be commenced in courts of record. Every one who has had any experience in practicing before Justices knows that in a majority of cases the trials of such causes are but farces. He preferred the Senate should not adopt the report of the committee, but on the contrary perfect and adopt the original bill, changing the jurisdiction of such cases from Justices' courts to courts of Common Pleas and Circuit Court. He believed the provisions to be just. When a member of the House of Representatives, in 1867, he offered a similar bill which passed the House but failed to pass the Senate. He really believed a law should be passed which would give bastard children some rights. Legal gentlemen know how often putative fathers take advantage of the mother by giving her what they call satisfaction, but which is really no satisfaction, and thus the ends of justice are defeated. The object of the law is to page: 137[View Page 137]secure a support and the means of education for the child. He never knew of a settlement in such a case but what the object of the law has been defeated. Generally these men are shrewd men whotake advantage of the mother and get her to come into court and say that proper allowance has been given her and that satisfaction has been made, when such is not the case. He thought these casesshould be taken out of Justices' courts and given into more competent hands to try.
The report of the committee was concurred in.
