July 1888: State Supreme Court Justice Edward Scudder ruled, in State v. Manasquan Borough, that an individual citizen had no standing to defeat the incorporation of a municipality by attacking the constitutionality of the statute that authorized it. “Such a proceeding can only be brought by the Attorney General in the nature of a quo warranto. Even a court of equity cannot interfere,” he wrote. “If it were otherwise, any dissatisfied voter could upset everything at his pleasure.”
100 Years Ago
July 1913: The Law Journal editors looked back on the difficulties of executing on judgments in colonial times. In a 1751 case, a sheriff wrote, “not executed by reason there is no road to the place where [defendant] lives.” In a 1752 case, “not executed by reason of an ax” (apparently wielded by the defendant). In another, “not executed because the defendant’s horse was faster than mine.” And in 1755, “forty-nine executions returned not executed, by reason of the disturbance of the Indians.”
