Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the North Carolina Bar Association Volume 7 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1905 Excerpt: ... REMARKS BY MR. THOS. S. KENAN, PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. Gentlemen of the Bar Association: I congratulate you in assembling on the shores of beautiful Lake Toxaway at this the Seventh Annual Session of the Association, and thank these good ladies for their charming presence; for their aid and encouragement are regarded as essential to the promotion of any laudable undertaking. Article eleven of your Constitution makes it obligatory upon the President to deliver an address, but he is allowed the privilege of selecting its subject. Assuming the right to place a liberal construction on this article, I have ventured to depart from the general custom in that I have not confined myself to any particular subject. After completing the course of study at Judge Pearson's Law School, I was licensed to practice law in the County Courts in December, 1858, and in the Superior Courts in December, 1859. I recall the names of but few members of this body who antedate me. The ancient procedure of the Common Law and the old system of pleading and practice were then in vogue, but they have been swept away by a blizzard of reform. I opened a law office in Kenansville, Duplin county, in 1860, and the first suit in which I was employed was upon a note for the recovery of a considerable sum of money. The defendant was brought into court by due process, and when I saw upon the docket that the demand of the plaintiff was met by an entry of "Payment; setoff; accord and satisfaction; stat. lim., with leave to add," which meant any other plea in defense, as nil debet or non est factum, I was riotously inclined to enter a nol pros., leave the court house, abandon the practice and engage in other business. However, upon being informed by older lawyers that these pleas were merely for...