Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 12.pdf/496

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The Court of Appeals of Kentucky. érate Army and served with distinction to the close of the war in 1865. After his return from the army, he re sumed the practice of the law in his old home and in 1867 he represented his district in the State Senate. While filling this office, he was nominated by the Democrats and in August, 1870, elected Judge of the Court of Appeals. Prior to his election to the bench, Judge Lindsay was not widely known outside of his immediate district but when he took his seat he immediately showed himself to be a Judge of the highest order. No other man in Kentucky in so short a time ever established such a reputation as profound jurist and able lawyer. His opinions reported in volumes 7 to 14 of Bush's Reports are widely quoted as authority, and the Supreme Court of the United States has time and again rested its decisions upon the reasoning of Judge Lind say's opinions. One instance of this may be cited. In the case of Douglass i1. Cline, (12 Bush. 608), Judge Lindsay, in delivering the opin ion of the court, for the first time, laid down the doctrine that in a suit to enforce a mort gage lien upon a railroad and for the ap pointment of a receiver to impound the earnings pending the suit, a Court of Equity in its discretion might annex conditions to the granting of a receivership, such as re quiring the payment of back wages to em ployés or of certain claims for materials and supplies. The doctrine of this case is the foundation of the " six months rule " in re ceivership cases laid down nearly two years later in Fosdick v. Schall (96 U. S. 335), and since then repeatedly followed by that court and the other courts of the country. When first laid down it attracted widespread atten tion and startled some lawyers by what was regarded as its radical displacement of con tract liens. It is said of the Hon. Edward J. Phelps of Vermont that soon after the deplorable

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killing of Judge John M. Elliott of the Ken tucky Court of Appeals (hereafter men tioned) he was arguing in a Vermont Court a suit for the foreclosure of a railroad mort gage. The case of Douglass v. Cline, (12 Bush. 608), was cited as an authority by op posing counsel. Mr. Phelps had never heard of the case, and he asked time to con sider it. The next morning he took up his argument, stating that he had read the Ken tucky case, that it seemed to be exactly in point and the only observation he could make on it was that he now understood why they shot Judges in Kentucky. Despite these face tious remarks of Mr. Phelps the doctrine of Douglass ï'. Cline is now a part of the set tled law of the land. Judge Lindsay after his retirement from the bench located in Frankfort for the prac tice of law. It is said that for years he en joyed the most lucrative practice of any lawyer in Kentucky. He again served in the State Senate and was a leading member of the convention that framed the present State Constitution. When Senator John G. Carlisle was appointed, by President Cleve land, Secretary of the Treasury in March, 1893, Judge Lindsay was chosen as his successor by the Legislature of the State. When his term expired in March, 1895, he was again elected for a full term of six years. In the summer of 1892, Judge Lindsay was made one of the World's Fair Commis sioners, and in the same year President Har rison appointed him a member of the InterState Commerce Commission. The appoint ment was promptly confirmed by the Senate but Judge Lindsay declined to accept it. In 1896, when the split in the Democratic party over the currency question occurred, Judge Lindsay allied himself with the " Gold Democrats " and took a prominent part in the Convention at Indianapolis that nomin ated Generals Palmer and Buckner. In the campaign that followed he made many ef