JOHN A. NAUMAN, Lancaster: I move that the reports be received, and taken up for consideration in the regular order at later session. Duly seconded and agreed to. THE PRESIDENT: The report of the Special Committee on Contingent Fees. JOHN B. COLAHAN, JR., Philadelphia: In the absence of Judge Beitler, I will present the report. It is brief and may as well be disposed of. REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON To the Members of the Pennsylvania Bar Association: GENTLEMEN :-Your Committee on Contingent Fees has already submitted two reports, one at the meeting held in 1909, and another at the meeting held in 1910. In the latter it recommended for approval an Act of Assembly placing the matter of contingent fees expressly under the supervision of the Court. For matters, developed in the course of the debate on this act, the Committee requested that it be recommitted, which was done. See Annual Report for 1910, pages 298-321. At our meeting in 1910, by a resolution unanimously adopted, the Legislature was asked "to authorize the appointment of a Commission to inquire into the working of the present laws regulating the liability of employers for industrial accidents; the comparative justice, merits, and defects of the laws of other States and countries relating to the subject, as well as the causes of such accidents; with power in said Commission to recommend such new law or laws as it may deem wise, having due regard to the con stitutionality of the same, to the end that the defects in our present laws, if any be found to exist, may be effectively remedied." The Governor of the State recommended in his message to the Legislature at the beginning of the session in January, 1911, the appointment of such a commission, and subsequently a concurrent resolution was adopted by the Legislature authorizing the appointment of a Commission. consisting of seven members: two employers of labor, two employees of industrial establishments of this Commonwealth, or duly accredited representatives thereof, two persons learned in the law, and one person "of skill and experience in making investigations," to inquire into the "causes and results of industrial accidents in the mines, mills, factories, stores, and upon the railroads, ships, wharves, and in all industrial establishments in this Commonwealth," the Commission being instructed "to study the most advanced methods for safeguarding against these accidents and to inquire into the subject of a fair compensation for those injured in these accidents and for the families of those who shall be killed as a result thereof." The resolution carried with it an appropriation of $15,000, to be included in the General Appropriation Bill, and the Commission was directed to report its findings, and a recommendation for whatever legislation it might deem advisable, to the Legislature which should convene in 1913. Your Committee has had several conferences with the Governor and Attorney General on the subject, finding both greatly interested and helpful in the matter. The investigations of the Commission will necessarily include a consideration of the question of contingent fees, and we believe that until the Commission makes its report, which must be to the Sessions of 1913, it is unwise to do anything in the matter except so far as may be helpful to the Commission. Your Committee therefore reports progress, and would ask to be continued. Respectfully submitted, ABRAHAM M. BEITLER, FRANCIS FISHER KANE, JOHN S. RILLING, JOHN W. APPEL, A. LEO WEil, S. J. STRAUSS, Special Committee on Contingent Fees. T. ELLIOTT PATTERSON, Philadelphia: I move that the report be received, and the Committee continued. Duly seconded, and agreed to. THE PRESIDENT: Next is the report of the Special Committee on the Attorney-General's Department. M. HAMPTON TODD, Chairman, Philadelphia: In view of the fact that I requested the members of the Committee to meet, and in view of the fact that they were all ex-Attorney-Generals, and that none of them would act, I was unable to reach any beneficial result. I therefore move that the Committee be discharged from further consideration of the subject. Duly seconded, and agreed to. THE PRESIDENT: The report of the Special Committee on Digesting of Statutes. THE SECRETARY: I have received no report from that Committee. THE PRESIDENT: There being no report from this Committee the next in order is the Report of the Special Committee on Judiciary Department. THOMAS S. BROWN, Chairman, Allegheny: As we were not able to furnish our report in time to have it printed, I will read it. Mr. Brown then read the following report: REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON To the Pennsylvania Bar Association: The subject which this Committee has been requested to consider was referred to it by a resolution of the Association at the Annual Meeting in 1909. The Committee made two reports—a majority and a minority report—to the Annual Meeting of 1910; and thereupon without discussion by the Association, the whole subject was referred back to the Committee for further report. Your Committee, in obedience to your mandate, has given the whole subject further consideration and now presents its second report. Said reports of 1910 are found on pages 209 to 239 of the report of the proceedings of that year, and discuss the subject, in its several features, with such fullness that no further general discussion will now be presented; except the following points which were not then considered and are thought appropriate for presentation now. The attention of your Committee has been called to the fact that political influences are sometimes brought to bear in the selection and calling in of Judges from other judicial districts to hear cases where the resident Judge either is personally interested, or does not wish to assume the responsibility of trying, on account of the effect upon his political future. The Act, approved April 27th, 1911, providing for the assignment of Judges to districts other than their own, does not remedy this condition of things, because it permits the resident Judge to select from the Judges registered with the Prothonotary of the Supreme Court the one that he wishes to call upon. As a remedy for the condition complained of, we would suggest that the Act of April 27th, 1911, be amended so as to require that the Judges should be assigned in rotation, as their names appear upon the “Judicial Assignment Register," and that resident Judges be not allowed to call in Judges from other districts, otherwise than under the provisions of said Act as amended, except in special cases provided for by other Acts of Assembly. Another evil greatly complained of by both counsel and litigants is the delay in deciding cases, and complaint has been made to your Committee that this delay in some instances, at least, is due to political influence. The ordinary and ofttimes unavoidable delay in securing the disposition of a case is sufficiently annoying and detrimental to the profession, but when added to this, the Judge called in specially to hear some particular case, for no apparent legal reason, holds up the decision for months or years, there are grave reasons for suspicion of undue influence, and there exists a condition of affairs that it is the duty of the profession to remedy. We believe that this evil could be cured by the enactment of a law requiring all cases to be decided by the lower Courts within some definite time limit after they are finally argued. The report of the majority of the Committee last year recommended, with respect to the mode of selection and the term of office of the judiciary, that all Judges of the Commonwealth be elected, by popular vote (as now is done) for terms of twenty-one years, without eligibility for reelection, but with a provision for retirement on pension, after a full term of service, and having reached the age of sixty-five years. It was thought that these provisions would minimize, if not eliminate, the evils of political influences in the selection of our Judges. |