N.J. Constitutional Convention: Vol. 4, Page 328
either strike the demand for trial by jury, or I would refuse to strike it, but on that day I would put it on either one trial docket or the other, and there it would find itself in the usual course when the trial came up. As far as the action is concerned, it presents no practical problem insofar as efficient administration is concerned.
VICE-CHAIRMAN: Well, then, that should cut down on the time.
JUDGE SMITH: Yes, it may cut down the time, because the right to trial by jury is raised immediately, and it is apparent to the litigant then, and it can be determined on the pleadings.
VICE-CHAIRMAN: Should it also not cut down the expense if you have one trial or two trials, as distinguished from the procedure in our system of separate trials?
JUDGE SMITH: Well, the only difficulty is this. You see, under the present system in the state courts you may have two filing fees, but even under the old system you could have under our system only one, if the court exercises discretion.
MR. SOMMER: That is a situation which the Legislature could correct?
JUDGE SMITH: That the Legislature can correct, yes. That has no place in the constitutional amendment pertaining to the courts. These are purely and simply, in my judgment, procedural difficulties that should be handled by either the Legislature, or where possible, by the rule-making powers of the court.
Incidentally, in closing, I might say that the federal court has built up for itself, under its system, its own equity jurisprudence. That is the one branch of the law in which in both substance and remedy we are guided entirely by the equity precedents established by our own courts. In other matters, such as negligence and the like, we are guided by the precedents established in the state courts, but in the federal system, the equity system, we are guided by our own remedies and by our own substantive law, as established in our own equitable system. Ther is no difficulty there.
VICE-CHAIRMAN: Anything further, Judge Smith?
JUDGE SMITH: No, unless you have some further questions.
(Silence)
VICE-CHAIRMAN: Thank you once again, Judge Smith.
There will be a recess for a few minutes, and then we will reconvene for our next speaker, Dean Ormsby.
(Recess at 3:10 P. M. The session reconvened at 3:15 P. M.)
VICE-CHAIRMAN: The meeting will come to order.
Mrs. Miller and members of the Committee, this is Dean Alexander F. Ormsby, Dean of the John Marshall College. Dean Ormsby was previously invited, but was unable to appear. Dean Ormsby.
MR. ALEXANDER F. ORMSBY: First, I am grateful for the
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