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Show HIGGINS -BURTON CASE HAS BEEN PRACTICALLY SETTLED No cause for action is report of the legislative committee. Decision agair(st the petition of William B. Higgins of Fillmore, tor mer district attorney of the Fith district, dis-trict, for the impeachment of Judge Thomas. H. Burton of Nephi, judge of that district, which embraces Washington, Iron, Beaver, Juab and Alillard counties, was announced in a report made to the house of representatives rep-resentatives yesterday afternoon by the committee on judiciary, which has been making an investigation of the Higgins-Burton case since January Janu-ary 14. When the report was presented and read there was no comment up-cn up-cn the recommendations made. On motion of Hamilton Gardner, chairman chair-man of the committee, it was dee'ded to defer action on the report until 2:30 o'clock next Tuesday afternoon. If the committee's report is adopted, adopt-ed, the Higgins-Burton controversy will be dropped, as far as the state legislature is concerned, and there will be no further investigation or consideration of the charges made against Judge Burton. The chief recommendation of the committee was: "That the petition of William B. Higgins be denied and that the house do not perfer ar- I tides of impeachment against Judge j Thomas H. Burton." Other recommendations are that mileage and witness fees be paid to : Vr. Higgins. Judge Burton. F J. ' Schultz of St. Ceorp W. W. Ol' en of Price and J. Al. Foster of Cedar City, and that the pet 't ion and nffi- . 'lavit of ATr. Higgins be spread upon the hoe-n journal. The crnimittee report, which Is signed by Air. Gardner. s"v; 1 . t the Higgins-Burton controversy was considered at eleven meetings. Af- ter telling of the committee's' pre-jliminiary pre-jliminiary work and a decision not to I hear ex parte evidence, the report continues: I "In his f.flidivil, Higgins stated I ten grounds which he thought wero ample causes for impeachment, only one of which did the committeo give Miy serious consideration, as followe "(b" Tha Judge Burton illegally and maliciously souglft to have Mr. Schultz discharge William B. Higgins Hig-gins and Wiliard Hanson as his attorney at-torney by speaking personally to Air. Schultz to this effect, by preparing prepar-ing a letter of discharge for the signature sig-nature of Schultz, and by preparing a formal order of discharge to be filed in the case. "The committee regarded this as tho most seriou:, matter presented to it. Accordingly it heard the Isbuoh involved. The following wltnessew teslili'd on this point: William B. Higgins, Fillmore; .1. M. Foster, Cedar Ce-dar City; Wiliard Hwnson. Salt Lake City; J. H. AlcKnight, Nephi; F. J. Sch u It,, St. George; W. W. Olsen, of Price; 1). II. Morris, St George; Wll liam F. Kno:;, Heaver, and Thomas , H. Burton Nephi. j "In addition, the committee had I before it the sworn affidavit ef Gordon Gor-don Whit' head. St. George, Utah, I the sworn affidavit of George B. Hancock. Han-cock. Ceiiar City; th- official record .of the entile p: oeewl ings of the court, and otiw-r documentary proof. 'After cai-cfMllv e(,nsi''er!n," all tno rvd .'iee ii-r'nHirg t this matter, j en;:)!:)il1, e ce-.-M. rs that no corrutit motive or ar':on instifyl-ig t':e hit . -ar li 'le nt of .JudKo Burton is i (;joi ' (!. Howev- r. it dor.-- appear thai th" defendant. F. J. Schultz. re- ( continued on last page) ' i ) I JUGGINS-BURTON' (continued from page one) p-attdly solicited Judfe Burton outside out-side of court to hasten a settlement of 'he case. Acting on such sokclta-. sokclta-. ion and moved by a desire to sHle the matter as rapidly as possible. Judge Burton did attempt to effect a settlement as between the parties. There is no evidence upon which to Ureuicate a finding that Judge Burton Bur-ton attempted in any way to interfere inter-fere with the relationship of Schultz and his attorneys. Judge Burton's ; Lotions in the Schultz case may have j been indiscrete, but they were not impeachable. "Other matters were called to the attention of the committee, but they were not of sufficient importance to justify comment here. - "The attention of the house Is again directed to the belief of ttiu committee that it was not called upon up-on in any sense to hear evidence as to the fitness or qualifications oi Judge Burton for the office. The sole question the committee had to decide de-cide was whether the facts justified recommending to the house that charges of impeachment be preferred,. prefer-red,. The question of qualification of Judge Burton was for the people of the Fifth judicial district to decide at the election of 1924. It is the understanding un-derstanding of the committee that all the charges contained in the petition, peti-tion, except the matter of the alleged disbarment of Mr. Higgins and Mr. Foster, were fully spread before the electorate in the recent campaign, j Since the people, acting on the in-! in-! formation thus presented to them, I chose to elect Judge Burton, thu committee felt that it had no right to go into the matter of fitness, ex-j ex-j cept in so far as improper motives lor actions constituting malfeasance I were involved." |