50 La. Ann. 985 | La. | 1898
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The relator, alleging himself to be the plaintiff in a suit pending in the Nineteeth Judicial District Court for the parish of Iberia, applies for the writ of mandamus to compel compliance by the judge of that court with the requirement the relator conceives is imposed by the 117th Article of the Constitution of the State, that District Courts shall hold continuous sessions during ten months of the year; and in districts embracing more than one parish, the judge shall sit in each parish alternately as public business may require.
The petition avers the pendency of the relator’s suit, and, omitting other allegations unnecessary for the determination of the question presented, averithat the judge is not engaged in holding court in the parish of St Martin, constituting, with Iberia, the Nineteenth Judicial District; that relator is desirous of the trial of his case; that there are over one hundred cases untried in Iberia; that under the Constitution, the sessions of the District' Courts are required to be continuous; that the respondent judge has been requested to hold sessions in Iberia, but the judge declines to do so, on the ground that Art. 117 of the Constitution is inoperative unless carried into effect by legislation, and the relator claims the writ of mandamus to compel the judge to hold court continuously in the parish of Iberia for ten months of the year, when not sitting in St. Martin. The answer of the respondent judge denies the power of this court to issue the mandamus to compel trial of a suit not susceptible of being brought to this court, because the amount involved is under two thousand dollars; denies that any application has been made for the trial of the suit; avers at the last term it was
The Constitution vests in this court the control and supervision of all inferior courts to be exerted by writs of mandamus, certiorari, prohibition or other remedial writs. Art 94. This jurisdiction is given without qualification, and manifestly extends in a case like this to compel a session to try appealable as well as unappealable cases. The mandate of the organic law that the District Court of the State shall hold continuous sessions is one of importance to all litigants, and is in the public interest. If the mandate is not obeyed we can see no basis to deny the resort to that compulsive power conferred on this court, and which affords, in our view, the only relief, if the constitutional mandate under consideration is denied execution by the inferior court to which it is addressed.
The District Courts, as now constituted, remain undisturbed until 'the organization of, the District Courts provided by the Oonstitution. Art. 118. Under the system in force, up to the adoption of the Constitution, the requirement was that in judicial districts of more than >one parish there shall be four annual terms of court in each parish fixed by law or the rules of court. Oonstitution 1879, Art. 117, Act No. 70 of 1880, No. 22 of 1892. If the business before the court of one of the parishes is limited an adjournment soon followed, and the interregnum before the term in the other parish begins was lost, to the detriment of suitors anxious for the speedy trial of their case. To guard against this evil and to secure the prompt administration of justice, the present Constitutionintroduced the requirement of continuous session of the district courts, the session to be for ten months of the year, the judge to sit in each parish alternately as the public business may require. The constitutional article contains other provisions not pertinent to this controversy, and closes with the explicit ■direction that the article shall take effect from and after the adoption ■of the Oonstitution. If we correctly appreciate the position of the respondent it is, that until legislation he supposes to be requisite, there can be no terms of the District Courts, hence the adjournment sine die of the District Court of St. Martin. It would require the clearest language to authorize the conclusion that the convention intended that - interruption of the public business claimed by the argument as flowing from the organic law. •The obvious import is continuous sessions of the District Oourt during ten months, the judge to sit alternately in each parish as the public business shall require. The old system of fixing terms was superseded by the one continuous term of ten months. It ‘is claimed the beginning of the term is not fixed, nor where it commences, nor is the two months of vacation designated. This, in our view, does not lessen the force of the constitutional mandate that
It is therefore ordered and decreed that the writ. of mandamus herein applied for issue to the judge of the Nineteenth Judicial District Court, commanding him to hold court in the parish of Iberia, thereafter in the parish of St. Martin, and alternately in each parish as the public interest may require, the session of the courts for-both parishes to be continuous, with the right of the judge to designate two months for his vacation, as required by Art. 117 of the Oonstitution.