Willink v. Morris Canal, &c., Co..... 4 N. J. Eq. 377. 430 8 Ves. 10..... 157 v. Bull.... Wilson v. American Palace Car Co.. 65 N. J. Eq. 730. v. Fisher. Winans v. Luppie.. 84 Worden v. California Fig Syrup Co.. 187 U. S. 516. 323 PROCEEDINGS IN THE COURT OF CHANCERY IN REFERENCE TO THE Death of Honorable Henry C. Pitney. HENRY COOPER PITNEY, who held office as vice-chancellor from April 9th, 1889, to April 9th, 1907, died at his residence in Morristown on Tuesday, January 10th, 1911, at the age of eighty-four years. On Tuesday, February 7th, 1911, at the opening of the February term of the court of chancery, the chancellor and all the vice-chancellors being present, the following proceedings took place: VICE-CHANCELLOR STEVENSON said: "It is the desire, Mr. Chancellor, of the vice-chancellors and of many members of the bar who are present, to take some action to-day in commemoration of the life and services of the late Vice-Chancellor Pitney, and in order that this may be done we ask that the regular order of business may be suspended for a sufficient time." THE CHANCELLOR said: "The regular order will be suspended. I will ask the senior vice-chancellor to take my seat." The chancellor at this point retired, and Vice-Chancellor Emery took his place upon the bench. The following addresses were made: MR. EDMUND WILSON, ATTORNEY-GENERAL, said: "If your Honors please: At the age of eighty-four, full of years, rich in useful service, Vice-Chancellor Pitney was 'gathered to his fathers." "His was a personality at once striking and distinguished. At the bar and on the bench he has made his impress upon two generations of men. Vigorous in mind and body, endowed with the highest qualities of courage and manhood, ripe in judgment, learned in the law, sensitive to truth, and a natural lover of justice, he has found a place of enduring eminence in the profession of his choice. "His very instincts and character fitted him for special usefulness in the arena of equity. He despised deceit and the dissembler. He hated fraud. By temperament he found keen pleasure, to use his own words, in laying bare a fraud into which a crafty designer had lured an unwary and innocent victim. Such problems aroused his keenest activities and righteous indignation. So, too, the man who suffered by accident or mistake made high appeal, not so much to his sympathies as to his inherent love of fair play. Those who sought to evade a just and lawful undertaking outraged his ideals of morals and manliness. To such he made it clear that the remedy of specific performance could teach lessons both of morals and manliness, for by it how often did he compel some men to do by force of the court's decree what all honest men should have done by choice! To him a duty arising from confidence or trust reposed was a solemn and sacred obligation. His whole life by precept and example proclaimed it. And so it was that the negligent or dishonest trustee learned from him new or forgotten lessons of honesty and of diligence. And through the whole gamut of activity that comes to the equity judge his very instinct helped him enforce the lessons of honesty, of fairness, of diligence and duty, of manliness and of morals. "If his hand was sometimes heavy his heart was always tender. If his manner was sometimes brusque his motives were always true to high and righteous ideals, and those who knew him best loved him best, and loved him with tender consideration. "He was not lacking in deep and tender human sympathy, but his ideal of justice was wholly impersonal. Justice to him, as it should be to all judges, was an abstraction from which the personal equation had been wholly eliminated. There is a higher quality of justice, as it seems to me, than that which we symbolize by the blindfolded goddess. It is the justice that is not blindfolded, but sees all with calm and comprehending vision-the status of the parties, the personnel of counsel representing them, the consequences of final decision-and then, having seen all, is unswayed, but holds the balance with just and even hand. This was his ideal of judicial duty. Naught could obscure it and nothing ever swerved him from obedience to it. It was a principle of right and wrong, impersonal and dominating, which alone appealed to him. He was indeed a righteous and impartial judge. "His mind was vigorous, resolute and splendidly trained, and his deliverances were clear, cogent and courageous. In the philosophy of the law just as in the physical universe a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. His reasoning was direct and not by devious paths. He thought straight,' as Bacon said of one of the judges in his own time. In an issue of law neither casuistry nor the complex refinements of reasoning brought confusion to his mind. The real issue was discovered and laid bare. The non-essentials were swept aside and the true principle and controlling trend of authority were speedily and appropriately applied. And so it was that the journey was short between the story of a wrong when he heard it and the relief which was sought. "In a controversy of fact he found the truth with unerring instinct. Those who knew him at the bar said his skill in marshaling and analyzing facts was masterful, and that faculty or gift would seem never to have left him, but rather to have grown with judicial experience. His opinions, I think, were lucid and useful to an unusual degree. This was not alone because he was a learned judge, but in part at least because the controlling facts were recited with such clearness and completeness, and analyzed with such care, that the principle of equity at length invoked was obvious and convincing. Thus when the facts had been passed in complete review the legal principle in its application was both illuminated and emphasized. It is this characteristic which made his opinions to me, at least, of special value. "I attended the dinner given in New York by the bench and bar in honor of his eightieth birthday. It was there that he made formal announcement of his retirement from the bench. I felt the touch of pathos when he said, "The infirmities of advancing age admonish me that my day of work is over and past, and I am ready to say "let thine aged servant depart in peace." Well, the end has come. He has at length departed in peace and entered into rest. His, indeed, was a life worth living. It is such a life that makes convincing answer to the eynic who would teach us that life is aimless, useless, vapid and hopeless. His life was dynamic, useful and inspiring. To have protected the weak, to have unmasked fraud, to have corrected mistake, to have applied justice with strong and even hand, to have thus added to the sum of human happiness and safety, to have heard and obeyed as a great equity judge for eighteen years the voice of right and wrong which comes echoing across the centuries,-is to have found an abiding place in the memory of mankind. "May God keep that memory of his life and service ever green." MR. WILLIAM J. MAGIE, FORMER CHANCELLOR, said: "If your Honors please: When Vice-Chancellor Pitney attained his eightieth year and was about to quit the seat in this court which he had occupied for eighteen years, the bench and the bar of New Jersey united in a tribute to him of their admiration, respect and affection, which was quite unique. It did honor to those who paid it, and those who were close to him well knew it gave intense satisfaction to him to whom it was paid. But such a tribute is of course ephemeral. It rests only in our memories and will soon die. It seems, therefore, eminently fitting that the bench and bar in the court he adorned should again, and perhaps upon their records, make some permanent memorial of our estimation of his character. "If I may be permitted to say it, I think I have had exceptional opportunities to observe and appreciate the qualities of Vice-Chancellor Pitney as a man, as an advocate, and as a judge. When I came to the bar (it was nearly fifty-five years ago) he had already been practicing for some years and had attained a reputation as a successful practitioner. There were prophecies of a distinguished career for him. I knew him after that as one member of the bar knows another not prac |