THE SUPREME COURT OF CONNECTICUT.
By Leonard M. Daggett.
The Supreme Court of Errors of the State of Connecticut, as at present constituted, may be described in few words. There are a Chief-Justice and four associate judges, all of whom are also Judges of the Superior Court, and like them appointed by the Legislature for terms of eight years upon nomination by the Governor. By constitutional provision the judges are disqualified to act after reaching the age of seventy years, and are removable by impeachment or by the Governor upon address of two thirds of each house of the Legislature. Their salaries are $4,500 a year for the Chief-Justice and $4,000 for each associate judge. The Superior Court, of thirteen circuit judges including those who are members of the Supreme Court, has original jurisdiction of all important causes, civil and criminal, holding stated sessions in each county, and transacting the larger part of the judicial business in the State. Until 1889 the judges of the Supreme Court performed circuit duty as judges of the Superior Court, but are now excused unless the public business shall demand such service. The State is divided into Judicial Districts, in each of which terms of the Supreme Court are held at stated times.
An outline history of the court system from the beginning will show where the appellate jurisdiction has lain, and how the Supreme Court as an institution has been developed.
Connecticut's first "Corte" met in the very infancy of the Colony, in the year 1636. The magistrates of whom it was composed were legislators; but, having the supreme power, they both made and administered the law. In 1638 an inferior court without legislative power was organized, called the Particular Court. Its jurisdiction, as afterwards extended, included all causes, civil and criminal, with a right of appeal to the General Court, the legislative body. The judges were Magistrates; that is, members of the upper house of the Legislature. The system of the New Haven Colony, from its foundation in 1638 until its union with Connecticut under the Charter of Charles II. in 1665, was somewhat different, but not radically so. In fact, the exercise of judicial power by the Legislature as the highest court and by its members as judges of the inferior courts, was common in the New England Colonies, and remained a feature of the Connecticut system until 1784.
The union of the Connecticut and New Haven Colonies in 1665 made a new organization of the courts necessary. As then established, the system remained unaltered in its prominent features until 1784, over a century.
The Colony was divided into four counties, afterwards six, in each of which sat County Courts, with juries, invested with jurisdiction of all civil causes of more than trivial importance and of minor criminal of fences. There were, of course, magistrates with local jurisdiction of trivial causes. A State Court, called the Court of Assistants, holding two sessions yearly with a jury, exercised original jurisdiction of capital offences, but of civil causes by appeal only. This court was composed of the Governor, or Deputy Governor, and at least six or seven Assistants, — that is, members of the upper house. In 1711 it was succeeded by the Superior Court, composed of the Governor (afterwards the Deputy Governor), who presided, and four associate judges, which held two sessions a year in each county. These judges were appointed annually by the Legislature, and were, with very rare exceptions, members of the upper house. The Legislature held two sessions yearly. During the
