Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 08.pdf/140

 The Supreme Court of Maine. cancy in the office of judge of the Supreme Judicial Court by death, resignation, or otherwise, there shall be no appointment to fill the same, but the number of judges of said court shall thereafter be seven." Laws of 1879, ch. 125. In 1880, ch. 220, the law was repealed. With the brief interruption already indi cated, and which Judge Virgin profitably employed as associate counsel in important cases, he has gi%ren twenty years of indus trious and faithful work on the Bench. He wrote three hundred and thirty-eight opin ions, and is entitled to the credit of promptly discharging this part of his duties. In this respect he was a model of excellence. As they came from his hand they had a certain mechanical finish and neatness that de lighted the reader's eye. His reportorial experience made him perfect in preparing his manuscript, and especially in sub-divid ing his pages into proper paragraphs — the great aid to clear interpretation so often left to the proof-reader and printer. " He wrote and re-wrote his opinions," says an able lawyer, " with the most studied care, and his grate blazed with the manuscript pages, martyrs for a single fault." In connection with this the following esti mate placed by Chief-Justice Peters upon this branch of Judge Virgin's judicial labors, will bear repeating: "His mind was of a me chanical turn, and he constructed an opinion with as much artistic care as an engineer would construct a government fortification. The grounds for a foundation would be care fully surveyed, simple and solid materials selected, and then be in orderly fashion embodied together, with every point guarded against weakness or attack. All his work was in a mechanical sense nicely consum mated." Clearness, force, and accuracy de note the style of his composition. Nor do I recall a single sentence in any of his writ ten judgments that bear a double or doubt ful meaning. His love of labor was buoyed up by having that kind and degree of esprit

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du corps that gives solidarity to the Bench, and it was combined with a proper taste that embalms knowledge, which as Disraeli says, "cannot otherwise preserve itself." It would be easy to cite many of Judge Virgin's opinions that have passed into the solid body of the law, oft cited and quoted by text writers. A few selections will an swer the purpose of this sketch. I take them in the order of time. Mosher v. Jewett, 63 Maine, 84 (distraint, lien); Carter v. Bailey, 64 Maine, 458 (copyright, and non liability to account to co-owner in the absence of any agreement inter sesc~); McLellan v. McLellan, 65 Maine, 500 (evidence sufficient to create a written trust); Grindle v. Express Co., 6y Maine, 317 (carriers, measure of damages); Cum-, berland County v. Pennell, 69 Maine, 357 (county treasurer, robbery as a defense); Montgomery v. Reed, ib. 510 (deeds, flats, shores); Bolton v. Bolton, 73 Maine, 299 (life insurance); Reed v. Reed, 75 Maine, 264 (equitable mortgages); Northrop v. Hale, 76 Maine, 306 (pedigree, evidence); Nash v. Simpson, 78 Maine, 142 (will, life estate); Coburn Will Case, 79 Maine, 35; Deake v. Deake, 50 Maine, 50 (fraudulent concealment of will); Gilpatrick v. Glidden, 81 Maine, 137 (trust ex maleficio); Hare v. Mclntyre, 82 Maine, 240 (quarry, blasting, fellow-servant). I think Gilpatrick v. Glid den is the most interesting in the facts, and was the first of the kind that came before our court. It was a case where a husband and wife were childless and it was decided that where the husband's intention of devis ing his property to his own heirs was changed and it was devised to his wife by will absolute in form, upon her assurances that she would only use it during her life and devise the remainder to his heirs, the wife would take the property, after his death, charged with a trust in favor of the hus band's heirs. The opinion is a masterful one and valuable to the profession for its exhaustive and learnedly illustrated ex