USA > Louisiana > A history of Louisiana, revised edition > Part 23
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Art. 109. The District Courts, except in the Parish of Orleans shall have original jurisdiction in all civil matters where the amount in dispute shall exceed fifty dollars, exclusive of interest, and in all cases where title to real estate is involved, or to office, or other pub- lic position, or civil or political rights, and all other cases where no specific amount is in contest, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution. They shall have unlimited and exclusive original jurisdiction in all criminal cases, except such as may be vested in other courts authorized by this Constitution; and in all probate and succession matters, and where a succession is a party defendant; and in all cases where the State, parish, any municipality or other political corporation, is a party defendant, regardless of the amount in dispute; and of all proceedings for the appointment of receivers or liquidators to corporations or partnerships; and said courts shall have authority to issue all such writs, process and orders as may be necessary or proper for the purposes of the jurisdiction herein con- ferred upon them. There shall be one district judge in each judicial district, except in the twenty-first judicial district, where, until otherwise provided by law, there shall be two district judges, who shall not be residents of the same parish. District judges shall be elected by a plurality of the qualified voters of their respective dis- triets, in which they shall have been actual residents for two years next preceding their election; provided, one year's residence only in the district shall be required for the first election under this Con- stitution. They shall be learned in the law, and shall have practiced Jaw in the state five years previous to their election.
The first district judges under this Constitution shall be elected at
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the general State election in 1900, and shall hold office until their successors are elected at the election on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, 1904, at which time, and every four years thereafter, district judges shall be elected for terms of four years.
Vacancies occasioned by death, resignation, or otherwise, shall be filled for the unexpired terin by appointment by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate.
Art. 110. The General Assembly shall not have power to increase the number of district judges in any district.
Art. 111. The District Courts shall have jurisdiction of appeals from justices of the peace in all civil matters, regardless of the amount in dispute, and from all orders requiring a peace bond. Persons sentenced to a fine or imprisonment, by Mayors or Record- ers, shall be entitled to an appeal to the District Court of the parish, upon giving security for fine and costs of court, and in such cases trial shall be de novo and without juries.
Art. 112. The General Assembly shall provide by law for the inter- change of district judges; and also for the trial of recused cases in the District Courts by the selection of licensed attorneys at law, by an interchange of judges or otherwise. Whenever any district judge is prevented by disability, or any other cause whatever, from hold- ing his court, and that fact is made to appear by the certificate of the clerk, under the seal of the court, to the Supreme Court, or to any justice thereof, if in the judgment of the court, or any justice, the public interest so requires, the court or such justice shall designate and appoint any district judge of any other district to hold said court and discharge all the judicial duties of the judge so disabled during said disability. Such appointment shall be filed in the clerk's office and entered on the minutes of said District Court, and a certified copy thereof, under the seal of the court, shall be transmitted by the clerk of the District Court to the district judge so designated and appointed.
Art. 113. Wherever in this Constitution the qualification of any justice or judge shall be the previous practice of the law for a term of years, there shall be included in such term the time such justice or judge shall have occupied the bench of any court of record in this State; provided, he shall have been a licensed attorney for five years before his election or appointment.
Art. 114. No judge of any court of the State shall be affected in his term of office, salary, or jurisdiction as to territory or amount, dur- ing the term or period for which he was elected or appointed. Any legislation so affecting any judge or court shall take effect only at the end of the term of office of the judge or judges, incumbents of the court, or courts, to which such legislation inay apply at the time of its enactment. This article shall not affect the provisions of this Constitution relative to impeachment or removal from office.
Art. 115. The district judges shall have power to issue the writ of habeas corpus at the instance of any person in actual custody in their respective districts.
Art. 116. The General Assembly shall provide for the selection of competent and intelligent jurors. All cases in which the punish-
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ment may not be at hard labor shall, until otherwise provided by law, which shall not be prior to 1904, be tricd by the judge without a jury. Cases in which the punishment may be at hard labor shall be tried by a jury of five, all of whom must coneur to render a ver- dict; cases in which the punishment is necessarily at hard labor, by a jury of twelve, ninc of whom concurring may render a verdiet; cases in which the punishment may be capital, by a jury of twe've, all of whom must concur to render a verdict.
Art. 117. District Courts shall hold continuous sessions during ten months of the year. In districts composed of more than one parish the judge shall sit alternately in each parish, as the public business may require. Until otherwise provided by law, judgments shalt bc signed after three days from the rendition thereof, and become e: ec- utory ten days from such signing.
The General Assembly shall provide for the drawing of juries for the trial of civil and criminal cases. A grand jury of twelve, rinc of whom must coneur to find an indictment, shall be empaneled in each parish twice in each year, and shall remain in office until a succeeding grand jury is empaneled; except in the parish of Cam- eron, in which at least one grand jury shall be empaneled each year. The district judge shall have authority to try at any time all mis.le- meanors, and when the jury is waived all cases ; not necessarily pun- ishable at hard labor, and to receive pleas of guilty in cases J:"s than capital.
The provisions of this article shall go into effect upon the adep- tion of this Constitution.
Art. 118. The District Courts as created and now existing under the Constitution of 1879, in the various parishes of the State, as now apportioned under existing laws, shall remain undisturbed until i e organization of the District Courts created by this Constitution, af er the general election of 1900, and the judge. thereof shall receive sal- aries as now fixed.
Sheriff's and Coroners.
Art. 119. There shall be a sheriff and a coroner elected by the qualified voters of each parish in the State, except in the parish of Orleans, who shall be elected at the general election and hold office for four years.
The coroner, except in the parish of Orleans, shall act for and in place of the sheriff whenever the sheriff shall be a party interested, and whenever there shall be a vacancy in the office of sheriff, until such vacancy shall be filled; but he shall not, during such vacanev, discharge the duties of tax collector. The sheriff, except in the pa - ish of Orleans, shall be ex-officio collector of State and parish taxe .
He shall give separate bonds for the faithful performance of his duty in each capacity. Until otherwise provided, the bonds sha!] be given according to existing laws.
Sheriffs elected or appointed shall furnish bond within thirty days from the date of their commissions, in default of which the office shall be declared vacant, and the Governor shall appoint for tl.e remainder of the term.
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Art. 120. The sheriff shall receive compensation from the parish for his services in criminal matters-the keeping of prisoners, con- veying convicts to the penitentiary, insane persons to the Insane Asylum, service of process from another parish, and service of pro- cess or the performance of any duty beyond the limits of his own parish excepted-not to exceed five hundred dollars per annum for each Representative the parish may have in the House of Repre- sentatives.
The compensation of sheriffs as tax collectors shall not exceed five per cent on all sums collected and paid over; provided, that they shall not be discharged as tax collectors until they make proof that they have exhausted the legal remedies to collect taxes.
Art. 121. The coroner in each parish shall be a doctor of medi- cine, regularly licensed to practice, and ex-officio parish physi- cian; provided, this article shall not apply to any parish in which there is no regularly licensed physician who will accept the office.
Clerks.
Art. 122. There shall be a clerk of the District Court in cach parish, the Parish of Orleans excepted, who shall be ex-officio clerk of the Court of Appeal.
He shall be elected by the qualified electors of the parish every four years, and shall be ex-officio parish recorder of conveyances, mortgages, and other acts, and notary public.
He shall receive no compensation from the State or parish for his services in criminal matters.
He shall give bond and security for the faithful performance of his duties in such amount as shall be fixed by the General Assembly.
Art. 123. The General Assembly shall have power to vest in clerks of court authority to grant such orders and do such acts as may be deemed necessary for the furtherance of the administration of jus- tice; and in all cases the power thus vested shall be specified and determined.
Art. 124. Clerks of District Courts may appoint, with the approval of the district judges, deputies with such powers as shall be prescribed by law; and the General Assembly shall have power to provide for continuing one or more of them in office in the event of any vacancy in the office of clerk, until his successor shall have been appointed and duly qualified.
District Attorneys.
Art. 125. There shall be a District Attorney for each judicial dis- triet in the State, who shall be elected by the qualified electors of the judicial district at the same time and for the same term as is pro- vided in Article 109 for district judges. He shall receive a salary of one thousand dollars per annum, payable monthly on his own war- rant. He shall be an actual resident of the district and a licensed attorney in this State,
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He shall also receive fees; but no fee shall be allowed in criminal cases, except on conviction, which fees shall not exceed five dollars in cases of misdemeanor.
Any vacancy in the office of District Attorney shall be filled by appointment by the Governor for the unexpired term.
Justices of the Peace.
Art. 126. In each parish, the Parish of Orleans excepted, there shall be as many justices of the peace as may be provided by law. The present number of justices of the peace shall remain as now fixed until otherwise provided. They shall be freeholders and qualified electors and possess such other qualifications as may be prescribed by law. They shall be elected for the term of four years by the qualified voters within the territorial limits of their jurisdiction.
They shall have exclusive original jurisdiction in all civil matters, when the amount in dispute shall not exceed fifty dollars, exclusive of interest, and original jurisdiction concurrent with the District Court when the amount in dispute shall exceed fifty dollars, exclu- sive of interest, and shall not exceed one hundred dollars, exclusive of interest; including suits for the ownership or possession of mov- able property not exceeding said amounts in value, and suits by landlords for possession of leased premises, when the monthly or yearly rent, or the rent for the unexpired term of the lease does not exceed said amounts. They shall have no jurisdiction in succession or probate matters, or when a succession is a defendant, or when the State, parish or any municipality or other political corporation, is a party defendant, or when title to real estate is involved. They shall receive such fees in civil matters as may be fixed by law. They shall have criminal jurisdiction as committing magistrates, and shall have power to bail or discharge in cases not capital or necessarily punishable at hard labor. The General Assembly may by general or special laws invest justices of the peace in general or in any par- ticular parish or parishes with criminal jurisdiction over misde- meanors to be tried with a jury composed of not more than five nor less than three persons, in such manner as may be provided by law, with the right of appeal to the District Court in all cases, not ap- pealable to the Supreme Court, as hereinbefore provided for.
Constables.
Art. 127. There shall be a constable for the court of each justice of the peace in the several parishes of the State, who shall be elected for a term of four years, by the qualified voters within the territorial limits of the jurisdiction of the several justices of the peace. They shall receive such fees in civil matters as may be fixed by law.
Art. 128. Justices of the peace and constables shall receive no fees in criminal matters, including peace bond cases, but, in lieu thereof such salaries as may be fixed by the police jury, and paid by the par- isb, which salaries shall be graded.
Art. 129. The General Assembly, at its first session after this Con-
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stitution is adopted, shall provide a general fee bill. or bill of coste. regulating and fixing the fees and compensation allowed sheriffs. clerks and recorders, justices of the peace, constables and coroners in all civil matters. The General Assembly may provide in all civil cases for the service of process and pleadings by the litigants them - selves.
Courts and Officers for the Parish of Orleans, and City of New Orleans.
Art. 130. Except as herein otherwise provided, the judicial officers of the Parish of Orleans, and of the City of New Orleans, shall be learned in the law, and shall have resided and practiced law or shall have held judicial positions in this State for five years, and shall have been actual residents of the City of New Orleans for at least two years next preceding their election or appointment.
Art. 131. There shall be a Court of Appeal, to be known and designated as the Court of Appeal for the Parish of Orleans, which shall be composed of three judges, who shall be learned in the law and who shall have practiced law in this State for six years, and shall have been residents of one of the parishes hereinafter named for at least two years next preceding their election or appointment, and they shall be elected by the qualified electors of the said par- ishes. Said court shall sit in the City of New Orleans, and shall hold its session from the second Monday of October until the end of the month of Jime in each year. Said court, until the first day of August, 1900, shall be composed of the present judges thereof, and a third judge, who shall be elected by the qualified voters of the Parish of Orleans, at the Congressional election in the year 1898, and who shall serve in said court until the Ist of August, 1900. His successor shall be elected for a term of eight years from that date, at the general State election of 1900. On August 1, 1900, the [judge] of the Court of Appeal for the Fifth Circuit, as established under the Constitution of 1879, who was elected in the year 1896. shall become a member of the Court of Appeal for the Parish of Orleans, and together with the judge of that court elected in 1896, shall serve until the election of their successors at the Congressional election of 1904. At that election one judge of said court shall be elected for a term of six years and one for a term of eight years, and thereafter all elections for judges of said court shall be for terms of eight years.
Vacancies occasioned by death, resignation, or otherwise, shall be filled for the unexpired terms by appointment by the Governor. with the advice and consent of the Senate.
'The judges of said court shall each receive a salary of four thousand dollars per annum. payable monthly on his own warrant.
After August 1 1900, in addition to those from the Parish of Or- leans, all appeals within its jurisdiction from the parishes of Jefferson, St. Charles, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard, shall be returnable to said court, and the costs of filing same shall not exceed five dollars in each case.
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All cases pending and undetermined on said date in the Courts of Appeal as now constituted, from said parishes, shall be transferred to said Court of Appeal for the Parish of Orleans without cost to the parties.
There shall be a clerk of said Court of Appeal, who shall be elected by the qualified voters of said parishes for a term of four years, he shall be entitled to charge and retain as his compensation such fees as may be allowed by law. The first election for said clerk shall be held in the year 1899, at the time the parochial and municipal elections are held in the City of New Orleans; said clerk shall appoint, if necessary, deputy clerks, and shall fix and pay their salaries; he shall give bond in the sum of five thousand dollars, which bond shall be examined in open court by the judges of the court, and all testimony given in said examination shall be re- duced to writing and made of record; he may be removed by the court for the same causes and in the same manner as is hereinafter provided for the clerk of the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans; he may act as minute clerk of the court or appoint a deputy to that position.
Said Court of Appeal for the Parish of Orleans shall hereafter have appellate jurisdiction from the city courts of New Orleans as now constituted, under the same conditions as hereinafter provided for appeals from the City Courts to be organized under this Con- stitution.
Art. 132. There shall be two District Courts for the Parish of Orleans, and no more. One of said courts shall be known as the Civil District Court, and the other as the Criminal District Court. For the Civil District Court there shall be not less than five judges, and for the Criminal District Court not less than two judges, who shall be elected by a plurality of the qualified electors of the Parish of Orleans for the term of twelve years, and who shall each receive an annual salary of four thousand dollars, payable upon his own warrant, in equal monthly instalments.
Art. 133. The Civil District Court shall have exclusive and gen- eral original probate jurisdiction, and exclusive original civil juris- diction, in all cases where the amount in dispute or the fund to be dis- tributed, shall exceed one hundred dollars exclusive of interest; and exclusive jurisdiction in suits by married women for separation of property, in suits for separation from bed and board, for divorce, for nullity of marriage, or for interdiction, and in suits involving title to immovable property, or to office or other publie position, or civil or political rights; and in all other cases, except as hereinafter pro- vided, where no specific amount is in contest, and of all proceedings for the appointment of receivers or liquidators to corporations or partnerships. And said court shall have anthority to issue all such writs, process and orders as may be necessary or proper for the purposes of the jurisdiction herein conferred upon it.
Art. 134. All cases after being filed in said Civil District Court shall be allotted or assigned, among the judges thereof, and, except as herein otherwise provided. each judge, or his successor, shall have exclusive control over every case allotted or assigned to him,
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from its inception to its final determination in said court. In case of vacancy in the office, recusation, absence or disability of a judge to whom a case has been allotted or assigned, or in case such action is deemed advisable in the proper administration of justice, or of the business of the court, such case may be reallotted or reassigned, or without snch reallotment or reassignment, but, under rules to be adopted, it may be taken in charge by another judge of said conrt, and the judge to whom a case is thus reallotted or reassigned, or by whom it is thus taken in charge, shall be anthor- ized to aet therein for all purposes as though such case had been originally allotted or assigned to him. Previous to the allotment or assignment of a case, any judge of said court may, for the pur- poses of such case, make interlocutory orders, and issue and grant conservatory writs and exeentory process. Applications for natural- ization, for emancipation, and by married women for authorization, when there is consent given and no issue joined, or where there is no contest, suits for nullity, and for revival of judgment, and snits in which is claimed an interest in property or funds as to which a par- ticular judge has acquired jurisdiction, need not be allotted or espe- cially assigned, but shall be controlled by law or by rules to be adopted by the court.
Art. 135. Judgments homologating accounts, which have been duly advertised, when not opposed, or so far as not opposed, may be rendered and signed either in term time or vacation; and by any judge, in the absence or disability of the judge to whom the case has been allotted.
Art. 136. The judges of said Civil District Court shall be author- ized to adopt rules, not in conflict with law, regulating the allot- ment, assignment and disposition of cases, the order in which they shall be tried, and the proceedings in such trials, and to sit en banc for the purpose of testing the bonds and sureties of the clerk of the court, the recorder of mortgages, the register of conveyances, and the civil sheriff; for the trial and removal of the clerk and civil sheriff, or either of them, for the selection of jurors, and in other cases when the action of the court as a whole is required. When sit- ting en banc the judge who has been longest in continuous service in said conrt, and in his absence the judge longest in service of those present, shall preside; and when a certificate or anthentica- tion from the court is required such judge shall be anthorized to sign the same as presiding judge. The court may, by its rules, grant . the presiding judge further authority not in conflict with these provisions. Provided, that in rendering judgments en banc, the conrt shall conform, as far as practicable, to the rules and practice of the Supreme Court.
Art. 137. There shall be one clerk for the Civil District Court, who until the election and induction into office of the clerk of the Court of Appeal, provided for in Article 131, shall be ex-officio clerk of the Court of Appeal for the Parish of Orleans, and shall be elected by the voters of said parish for the term of four years. His qualitications and duties, except as herein provided, shall be as fixed by law; he shall furnish bond in the sum of twenty thousand dol-
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lars. which boud shall be examined by the court, and all testimony given in such examination shall be reduced to writing and filed of record in the court. He shall charge and collect the fees prescribed by tue General Assembly, and shall dispose of the same as herein- after provided; the amount of his compensation shall be three thousand six hundred dollars per annum.
Said clerk shall be authorized, with the approval of the judges of the Civil District Court, to appoint such deputies and other assist- ants, at salaries not to exceed those now fixed by the law, as in the opinion of said judges are needed for the efficient discharge of the duties of hisoffice; and he may remove them at pleasure, or the court may remove them. The Court of Appeal for the Parish of Or- leans, until after the election of the clerk thereof, as hereinbefore provided, and each judge of the Civil District Court shall appoint one minute clerk, who shall be sworn as deputy clerk, and shall re- ceive an annual salary of eighteen hundred dollars in equal monthly installments; and the said Court of Appeal, until said election, shall also have the right to appoint one doeket clerk.
The minute clerk appointed by the judge of the Civil District Court longest in continuous service in said court, as hereinbefore provided, shall be ec-officio minute clerk of the court when sitting en banc, and shall receive, as additional compensation, three bun- dred dollars per annum, which shall be paid in like manner as his other compensation. The clerk of the Civil District Court shall be removable by the judges of said court, sitting en banc, upon proof, after trial, without a jury, of gross or continued neglect, incompe- tency, or unlawful conduet, operating injury to the court or to any individual, and a majority of said judges shall be competent to render judgment in the case. Such trial and the lodging of com- plaints leading thereto, shall be regulated by rules which shall be adopted by the judges of the Civil District Court and of the Criminal District Court in joint session.
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