AFTERNOON SESSION.
Mr. STEWART hoped the report of this Committee will be concurred in.
The question being on the adoption of the majority report, the same was concurred in by the House.
JURY TRIALS.
Mr. WILLIAMS, of Knox, from a majority of the Judiciary Committee, reported back Mr. Adams' bill [H. R. 74] to amend Section 372 of the civil procedure act, approved April 7, 1881, being Section 409 of the Revised Statute of 1881, with the recommendation that further action on the bill be indefinitely postponed. The minority of the same Committee submitted a report recommending that the bill to pass.
Mr. ADAMS said: I believe the report of the minority of this Committee ought to prevail, because I believe that if a Jury is competent to try a question of fact in one case it is in all cases. If a Jury is competent to try fraud in the execution of a note it is competent to try the same question with reference to the foreclosure of a mortgage. If a Jury can try fraud in a horse trade it can in a land trade. If a Jury is competent to try me for my life or my liberty it is competent to try me for my property or my money. There must have been somebody interested in the change of the rule that stood for nearly thirty years, and I can conceive of no people whose interest it affects sa much as the smart gentlemen who go over the country swindling men into the execution of mortgages through some fraud perpetrated upon them, and then denying them the right of a trial by a Jury of the citizens of their County.
Mr. MOCK: I believe in the minority report. I do not think it is right to leave it to the discretion of the Judge to say whether a man shall have a right to a Jury trial or not. If this minority report is adopted it will confer no greater right to any one for a trial by Jury than it did up to 1881. I believe that the law prior to 1881 was better than it, is now.
Mr. PATTEN: I do not see why, if a Jury has the right to try one case, why not let them try all cases. I am in favor of the minority report.
Mr. JEWETT: I think no man ought to vote for this minority report, and I hope that it will be voted down. It will almost double the length of our Courts should it prevail, and thereby incur a double expense to the taxpayers of the State.
Mr. WILEY: As one of the members of Judiciary Committee who signed the minority report, and believing it ought to prevail, I want to say just a few words. I can not coincide with the views of the gentleman from Scott [Mr. Jewett]. He seems to think that the minority report should page: 75[View Page 75] not prevail, because it would increase litigation and incur burdens upon the people by way of additional taxation. It does not seem to me to be in keeping with the spirit of our laws to let the question of dollars and cents interfere with the administration of justice. We must not measure the rights of citizenship by what the administration of justice costs. It is too small a measure. Rights, which belong to us as a people, must not be compassed by a question of expense. I believe the minority report ought to prevail, because the bill introduced by the gentleman from Morgan seeks to put every citizen upon. an equality in Courts of justice, and simply guarantees to every one a right which was acknowledged by the Code when the distinction between actions at law and proceedings in equity were abolished. As long as we have the Jury system, I am of the firm conviction that it is not right to deprive any citizen of the privilege of a trial by a Jury of his peers on any question of fact, and hence most heartily support the minority report.
Mr. GORDON: Nearly thirty years ago our code of civil procedure was adopted. By that code, as it stood until 1881, all questions of fact were triable by Jury. That plan worked well. The code established all distinctions between proceedings at law and in equity. The change made two years ago was a step backward; a step toward establishing the distinction abolished by the code. The litigants ought to decide whether they will try by Jury or not. Will the gentleman from Knox (Mr. Williams) give us anything like a definite idea as to what matters are triable by Jury as the law now stands? I am in favor of the the minority report.
Mr. FRAZER said: We have thus far tried to give stability to our laws, and not to suit the whim and fancy of some members. If gentlemen will examine the statute, they will find that there is no question of fact that may not be tried by Jury.
Mr. WILSON, of Marion, thought it would be going back to adopt the minority report.
The minority report was rejected-yeas, 60; nays, 35. The majority report, as amended by the minority report, was adopted.
Mr. MOCK, from the Committee on Rights and Privileges, reported back Mr. Campbell's bill [H. R. 146] to restrain certain animals from running at large, with the recommendation that it be indefinitely postponed.
After discussion thereon, the report was concurred in.
The House adjourned.
