Some Jersey Juristic Jibes.
73
SOME JERSEY JURISTIC JIBES.
HOW would you obtain possession of an estate when the tenant for life holds over? " is a question often put to law students about Jersey City. The usual answer given is, " By ejectment." A popular Jersey City lawyer, until re cently a State official, was the attorney for the plaintiff some years ago in a " false arrest" action against James A. Bradley, "the founder " of Asbury Park. The found er's counsel made an eloquent address to the jury, dwelling with great emphasis upon the wonders that his client had worked at Asbury Park; stating that he had trans formed the sandy and marshy wastes into a city of paradise, and concluding with the honorable chestnut, " made the barren wil derness to blossom like the rose." The effect upon the rustic jurymen was quite in describable. They were inclined to favor the defendant anyhow; and only by great difficulty were they restrained from tumult uous applause. When the excitement from this glowing peroration had somewhat sub sided, up rose " Charlie," shaking his shaggy mane with its eleven cowlicks rampant, nine couchant, and five dormant. His reply was short but very fetching, and concluded with : "It is true, gentlemen, that Mr. Bradley came into the wilderness, and the wilderness at Mr. Bradley's touch brought forth a rose. But, gentlemen of the jury, I ask you to honestly tell me who plucked that rose?" Verdict for plaintiff on first ballot. In what was formerly called " East New Jersey " the quick-witted and shrewd ex ploits of a certain county prosecutor with a military handle to his name have for years been stock in trade for the story-tellers of the bar. The General was noted for pursu ing his favorite sport, hunting, in season and out of season. One day when but a few miles from his home he had bagged several 10
fine quail and rabbits, he was pounced upon by an old and exceedingly irate farmer, who demanded the game and damages. The General offered him a good sum for the trespassing, but positively refused to sur render his booty. Fully expecting to recover both the game and the money, the farmer marched the General to the office of a justice of the peace and made his complaint. But to the farmer's horror, his prisoner emphati cally declared that he had not been trespass ing, and that he himself and none other was the owner of that farm. Then he made a counter-charge against the farmer for disor derly conduct. The justice was about to proceed further with the hearing, when the General declared that since the title to the land was in question, a justice's court would have no jurisdiction, and that he must send it up to the court of common pleas. Amazed beyond expression at the peculiar turn of affairs, the unhappy farmer engaged a law yer, and learned that it might cost him £500 to conduct his suit; and that even if suc cessful, it might throw a cloud on the title. That the title to the farm he had owned and worked for fifty years should be disputed by any one, least of all a disreputable hunter, was a mystery to the yeoman. He quickly sought out the General, and compromised. Nor was his astonishment lessened when he found his opponent in the person of the County Prosecutor'of the Pleas. There is something really remarkable in the diversity of talent in the profession down in " Old Monmouth; " and of " natural abil ity," whatever that means, there is a super abundance. While a student in the office of an ex-judge, a bright young Irishman, now a leading practitioner, was suddenly called upon for the first time to conduct, before a jury, a defence in which a counter-claim of damages was set up. The counsel for the plaintiff was just out of a law-school, and
