Amos Morrill
Judge Morrill no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Morrill decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
He treated an express statutory deadline as controlling when the law gave no power to extend it.
“The court cannot extend, enlarge, or contract the evident and express provisions, meaning, and intent of the statute.”
He interpreted an amendment by considering the distinction Congress intended between voluntary and involuntary bankruptcy.
“The congress, in the passage of the section 9, intended to draw a distinction between a voluntary and an involuntary bankrupt.”
He distinguished voluntary salvage from work already required by public office.
“But it is voluntary performance in the strict line of their duty.”
Procedural preferences
He treated clear statutory text as sufficient without adding judicial gloss.
“The sections 5091 and 5101 of the Revised Statutes are so full, plain and unequivocal as to be beyond comment.”
In jury trials, he emphasized that judges may assist with the evidence but may not bind jurors on factual questions.
“Questions of law are to be determined by the court: question of fact, by the jury.”
Cautions
A claimant could not convert performance of a paid public duty into a private salvage award.
“Courts of admiralty will not permit the performance of a public duty to be turned into .a traffic or profit”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“I see no cause to change the opinion hereto- • fore rendered, that inasmuch as the applicant is a voluntary bankrupt, and has not assets equal to thirty per cent, of the claims proved against his estate, upon which he was liable as principal debtor, and has not obtained the consent of one-fourth of his creditors in number and one-third in value — his application for a discharge is refused.”
“The application is refused.”
“But as it appears that the fire was extinguished by the machinery belonging to the city, operated by men in the employ of the city, and that they were bound by its charter to do this, the libel is dismissed.”
The court approved a bankruptcy register's decision after finding state landlord-lien law inapplicable and the federal statute clear: "The decision of the register is approved."
The court instructed the jury on competing explanations for an insured's death but the published charge does not contain the verdict.
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
No case-level docket records are available for this nineteenth-century tenure, so the profile makes no claim about caseload mix or case duration.
A historical record
Judge Morrill no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.