318 



HORTICULTURE 



September 28, T918 



THE EFFECT OF SOLDIERS' AND 

 SAILORS' CIVIL RIGHTS ACT. 



There appears to be but little ac- 

 curate information among business 

 men as to the Soldiers' and Sailors' 

 Civil Rights Act, which is the law 

 passed by Congress to prevent the 

 bringing of suits and actions against 

 men in the army and navy, in any 

 way which would make their absence 

 a detriment to them. This is already 

 affecting large numbers of business 

 houses and with the millions more 

 men certain to be under arms in the 

 next few months, this law is destined 

 to be of great importance. That it Js 

 really important already may be seen 

 from the fact that one of my clients, 

 a wholesaler, encountered it five 

 times in one week In trying to collect 

 delinquent accounts. 



This law is in force for the period 

 of the war, and to quote from Its own 

 terms, it Is for this purpose: "Protec- 

 tion is hereby extended to persons In 

 military service of the United States, 

 In order to prevent prejudice or Injury 

 to their civil rights during their term 

 of service, and to enable them to de- 

 vote their entire energy to the mili- 

 tary needs of the nation, and to this 

 end the following provisions are made 

 for the temporary suspension of legal 

 proceedings and transactions which 

 may prejudice the civil rights of per- 

 sons in such service during the con- 

 tinuance of the present war." 



In a nutshell, the act puts creditors 

 where they cannot take snap judg- 

 ment against a man who owes them 

 an account, it that man is in the army 

 or navy. This Is so in the case of 

 any business transaction, including 

 transactions where fixtures and such 

 things are bought on installments. 

 The justice of the law is not debat- 

 able, but creditors are going to find It 

 a good deal of a nuisance, no doubt. 



This law applies to every court in 

 the United States, even justices of 

 the peace, aldermen or magistrates' 

 courts. Its provisions, so far as they 

 are germane to this article, I briefly 

 summarize as follows; — 



If you sue a defendant to recover 

 an account, or tor any other purpose, 

 and he doesn't appear, you could or- 

 dinarily get judgment by default. 

 Now, be'ore you can do that, you 

 must file an affidavit either that he is 

 not in the military service, or that 

 you don't know whether he Is or not. 

 If he Is In the military service, you 

 can't get judgment without the court's 

 permission, and permission may not 

 be granted. It will not be granted in 

 any event until the court has first ap- 

 pointed an attorney to represent the 

 defendant and has, If thought neces- 



sary, made you put up a bond to re- 

 imburse the absent defendant from 

 any damages he may suffer from your 

 judgment, if you are granted leave to 

 take judgment and the judgment Is 

 set aside after he comes home. 



If it wasn't for this provision a 

 creditor could have started his suit 

 against a man in the army or navy, 

 served the paper at the debtor's home 

 and in time gotten judgment by de- 

 fault and levied on anything he could 

 find belonging to him. ^ 



If any judgment is rendered against 

 any man In military service, and it 

 appears that he was prevented or hin- 

 dered in making his defense by his 

 absence on military service, the judg- 

 ment can be opened any time up to 

 ninety days after he leaves the serv- 

 ice, and he will then be allowed to 

 make his defense, provided he can 

 show he has one. 



This means that no judgment will 

 be safe against anybody In the mili- 

 tary service, up to a date ninety days 

 after he leaves, until he has come 

 Into court and defended at the time. 



The court can stop proceedings 

 against a person In military service, 

 at any stage, provided It appears that 

 his being engaged In military draft is 

 hampering him In any way. This Is 

 left in the absolute discretion of the 

 court, and is a most radical provision. 

 Suppose you have a running con- 

 tract of some sort with a customer 

 who Is called in military service, and 

 ordinarily, if he broke It, you could 

 collect damages, either damages spe- 

 cified in the contract, or damages you 

 could show you had suffered. It the 

 court stops your proceeding, you can- 

 not collect any damages from then on, 

 even If the proceeding is suspended 

 for five years. Also, If somebody who 

 has entered into such a contract Is 

 compelled to default on it because he 

 was called Into service, you cannot 

 collect damages from him by reason 

 of such default, if the court thinks col- 

 lecting damages Is unfair, as It proba- 

 bly will. 



If you have issued an attachment 

 or have garnished the property or 

 wages of a man in the service, the 

 court can set the attachment aside. 

 If you can show the court that being 

 In the service has no effect on the 

 defendant's ability to pay, you may 

 Induce the court not to set the at- 

 tachment aside, but In the average 

 case this will not be easy. 



All the stays and stops referred to 

 above can be made for the full period 

 of the war and three months there- 

 after, the latter period being provided 

 to allow the debtor to get on his feet 

 again. 



This law contains some special pro- 

 visions regarding the installment con- 

 tracts by which so many fixtures and 

 business appliances are sold now- 

 adays. It Is provided that no concern 

 which has sold something on Install- 

 ments, or on the usual lease or prop- 

 erty note, and has collected a deposit 

 or installment on It can — If the buyer 

 defaults on his payments — step In and 

 either seize It or take legal proceed- 

 ings against the buyer. Any seller 

 who violates this provision can be 

 fined ?1,000 or sent to prison. In ad- 

 dition, the court can compel him to 

 refund all Installments which have 

 been paid, or It may stay the whole 

 case. Of course. If It can be shown 

 that the military service of the buyer 

 is not interfering with the case In 

 any way, the court may refuse to In- 

 terfere, but I say again the courts are 

 going to take the position that they 

 must be very clearly shown before 

 they deny persons in military service 

 the protection given them by this 

 act. 



Other provisions of this act, not Im- 

 portant to the readers of this article, 

 extend similar protection against fore- 

 closing either real estate or chattel 

 mortgages, or taking summary pro- 

 ceedings for unpaid rent, or cancelllog 

 life Insurance policies for non-pay- 

 ment of premiums, or selling real es- 

 tate for non-payment of taxes. 

 (Copyright, June, 191S, by Elton J. 

 Buckley.) 



CINCINNATI. 



C. E. Critchell's store was burglar- 

 ized on Friday last. The burglars 

 have been arrested and have con- 

 fessed to the stealing of ribbons and 

 other supplies. 



Robert Warren Hardesty, son of 

 .Mr. and Mrs. Thos. Hardesty of Ft. 

 Thomas, was killed in an auto smash- 

 up on Saturday when a machine in 

 which he was riding was hit by a 

 train. His parents have the sympa- 

 thy of their friends in the trade in 

 their bereavement. 



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