254
The Green Basr.
from the State,1 and the Natural Gas Law.2 On the other hand the court upheld, of the acts of this year, the act permitting cities and towns to exact an increased license fee for a permit to retail intoxicating liquors;3 the School-book Law;4 and the Street Im provement Law.6 The several decisions of the court holding invalid legislation that was largely inspired by party expediency and thirst for place drew down upon the Republican members of the court the denunciation of the State Demo cratic press, which pursued them with un usual violence of language and with charges of dishonesty and party subserviency. So heated became the language and charges of that press that when the party it repre sented met in State convention on the 28th day of August, 1890, it, led by its extremest members, denounced Judges Coffey, Olds, and Berkshire in its platform, charging them with rendering partisan opinions and with judicial dishonesty. We are not aware that any party so openly ever went to this extreme. The charges were wholly un founded, and largely inspired by chagrin occasioned by the decisions of these three judges in striking down unconstitutional laws enacted for party ends. At the November election of 1890 Judge Mitchell was re-elected; but he died on the 1 2th of the following month; and on the 17th of the same month Robert W. McBride was appointed to fill the remainder of the few days of his first term, yet unex pired, and to fill the term to which he was elected until the November election in 1892. On the 19th of February, 1891, Judge Berkshire also died, and on the 25th of the same month John D. Miller was appointed to the vacancy thus occasioned. The legislature of 1891, in order to re1 Morris v Powell, 125 Ind 281 1 State v. Indiana, etc Co., 120 Ind. 575. 3 Bush v. Indianapolis, 120 Ind. 476
- State v. Haworth, 122 Ind. 462
5 Quill v. Indianapolis, 124 Ind 292; McEneney v. Sullivan, 125 Ind 407.
lieve the Supreme Court and its overloaded docket, created the Appellate Court, giving it appellate and final jurisdiction in all cases of misdemeanor, cases originating before justices of the peace, cases for the recovery of money only where the amount in contro versy does not exceed one thousand dollars, cases for the recovery of specific personal property, actions between landlord and tenant for the recovery of possession of leased prem ises, and all cases of appeals from orders allowing or disallowing claims against dece dent's estates. In all such cases their decis ions are final. Constitutional questions and the validity of statutes are reserved for the Supreme Court. By the terms of the act all cases of which the Appellate Court were given jurisdiction, and which were then pend ing before the Supreme Court, were trans ferred to the former court. In pursuance of a private understanding with several mem bers of the legislature who secured the pas sage of the law, Governor Hovey appointed three Republicans and two Democrats to the judgeships thus created. Unfortunately the jurisdiction of the court was not made broad enough, and consequently the full relief de sired was not obtained. The one hundred and thirty-six Indiana reports contain 20,427 reported cases. Samuel E. Perkins. Judge Perkins was on the Supreme Court bench nearly twenty-two years, though not continuously. Blackford was a member of the court for thirty-five years continuously, and Perkins was his closest competitor in length of service. Perkins was the only member of the old court that became a mem ber of the new. He was born at Brattleborough, Vt., Dec. 6, 1811, and died at Indianapolis, Dec. 17, 1879. His father was a lawyer, but died when Samuel was only five years of age. His mother was too poor to rear him, and he was adopted by a neighbor. His education was limited to the common schools of the day, with a short course in Gates County Seminary, New
