| Show THE WALKER ESTATE the dispute over the sale eale of certain portions of the S T walker estate has been een referred to several times in our court items Thesta the status tug of theca the case seis is this in mr walkers will there was a provision that the executors could sell certain property at public or private we sale on this authority contracts for sales were made subject to the confirmation of such sales by the probate court when the matter came up before judge bai baitch hw he refused to confirm the sale insisting that while the executors bid bd a right to sell upon the terms of ibe he will they should have done so upon a public notice given by advertising the executors under the advice af marshall royle boyle their attorneys took the posit on that the notice they had given was sufficient as it placed the property before the public as fairly as if it had been advertised the decision of judge bartch was appealed from and the case cam was waa heard in the district court by judge henderson who sustained the probate judge an appeal was taken to the territorial supreme court since the contracts acte for the we sale have been made the property has greatly appreciated and today tb the e estate could realize much more from it than before but the parties who purchased did so in good faith and but for a technicality on which leading atto attorneys and the courts disagreed would have been in full possession the supreme court seeing the position that the issue was not nol between parties litigant but between the court and others wanted to bear some arguments in ii t favor ot of the position assumed by the judges in the probate and district courts as well as that taken by the executors and purchasers and requested P L williams illiams to combat the pro propositions positions of marshall coile roy ie for this purpose mr williams filed led a brief giving his views marshall royle boyle filed their brief in answer meeting all of mr williams propositions lawyers like other people sometimes make mistakes or even become overanxious over anxious to present their side of the case and when they do they are frequently brought up standing by the opposing counsel this case seems to be one in point and the way in which marshall royle boyle impale mr Willia williams mij with a legal lance is worthy of a record here is an extract from what they say we observe upon mr williams brief that he appears in this proceeding as a friend of the court in andersons Ander sens dictionary of law adious aurice is defined A friend of the court imports friendly intervention of counsel to remind the court of some matter of law which has escaped its notice and in regard to which it appears to be in danger of going bronga wrong and lawrence in their law dictionary defined the same words A friend of the court A person who being in court and a stra strangle to the case then in course danellon dA of sellon gives the ibe judge information on a question of which he may take judicial notice e eg g of an unreported decision etc A A very delicate position and a very honorable position if rahly filled it seems to us to be a position in which an attorney should put aside self belf interest and free from all blas bias find and prejudice should bring to the COD consideration of the question involved not so much the training and resources of an advocate who has one side of a case to take care of as a cool dispassionate impartial judicial discrimination which can see both sides of a case and seeing them reach a fair and just conclusion in the premises if we have omitted to call the attention of the court to a leading case which discussed or ar decided the question now before this court mr williams might well comment upon the fact and call the attention of this court to it as something noticeable ti 11 if not suspicious and mr williams appears to think that he has dia discovered covered such an omission upon our part he bays it to is noticeable that in neither briefs of counsel nor in the opinion of the court to is the case of larco vs casaneuva cited which can only be accounted tor for by its inapplicability on the foots disclosed by the record il pages page 3 of brief the statement that the case of larco vs Casall casaneuva euva was not cited in the opinion of judge henderson or in our brief lu iu this case could only have been made because counsel had bad not read the opinion or the brief the case is not only cited in our brief but is discussed commencing on page 15 and ending on page 19 this noticeable error of counsel might have been avoided if counsel had given heed to the wisdom of a wonderfully wise man found in proverbs chapter and verse the proverbs reads made he that answer eth a matter before he heareth it it is ie tolly folly and shame unto him further oil on the attorneys say there are many things of which this court will take judicial knowledge but it is 18 noticeable that in this opinion mr williams sets at naught t the a common law of the english speaking race and largely also alfio the statutory law armost of the states of the United states and must rank kank himself among a certain class of persons mentioned by st paul who are a law iw unto themselves |
