Rhode Island Supreme Court

The Rhode Island Supreme Court, founded in 1747, is the court of last resort in the U.S. State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The Court consists of a chief justice and four associate justices. The current Justices of the Rhode Island Supreme Court are:

• Chief Justice Paul A. Suttell (appointed 2003, elevated to Chief 2009)
• Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg (appointed 1997)
• Justice Francis X. Flaherty (appointed 2003)
• Justice William P. Robinson III (appointed 2004)
• Justice Gilbert V. Indeglia (appointed 2010)

History

In 1747, the Rhode Island General Assembly authorized the creation of a Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize, and General Gaol Delivery, consisting of one chief justice and four associates, all serving one year terms. Most of the judges during the 18th century were laymen, merchants or farmers and did not possess formal legal training, and therefore the court did not explicitly follow British common law. Parties, however, could still appeal to either the British monarch, English courts or the General Assembly until independence in 1776.^[1]

In 1747 the Assembly appointed the first Chief Justice, Gideon Cowell, who was not a lawyer and the second, Joshua Babcock, a Yale educated physician. Stephen Hopkins served as Chief Justice from 1747 to 1755 and was the first trained lawyer to serve in this position.^[2]

In 1798, the Assembly renamed the Superior Court "The Supreme Judicial Court," and in 1843, "The Supreme Court." The first officially recorded decision was Stoddard v. Martin (1828), a case involving gambling on an election. Until 1994 the General Assembly sitting with both houses in "Grand Committee" chose the Supreme Court justices without the governor's consent. In 1994 after a wave of corruption scandals, citizens amended the Rhode Island Constitution to allow the governor to choose Supreme Court nominees from a list of candidates approved by a non-partisan nominating committee. Both houses of the General Assembly still must approve any nominees.

Notable Cases

• Trevett v. Weeden (1786), (involving the legitimacy of paper money) was one of the first cases where a state court held a legislative act unconstitutional, setting precedent for Marbury v. Madison.^[3]
• Picard v. Barry Pontiac-Buick, Inc. (1995), tort case, often used as an example of battery in Tort textbooks
• Angel v. Murray (1974) first articulation of the UCC rule that a contract does not always need additional consideration for modification.

Prominent Rhode Island Supreme Court Justices

• Peleg Arnold, Delegate to the Continental Congress
• Joshua Babcock, physician, friend of Benjamin Franklin
• Charles S. Bradley, former partner at Tillinghast & Bradley
• William Ellery, Signatory of the Declaration of Independence
• Stephen Hopkins, Signatory of the Declaration of Independence, Governor of Rhode Island
• David Howell, Delegate to the Continental Congress, federalist leader, U.S. District Judge
• Christopher Lippitt, American revolution officer under George Washington
• Daniel Lyman, member of the secessionist Hartford Convention of 1814
• Samuel Ward, Delegate to the Continental Congress, Governor
• William West, 1787-1789, American Revolution general, Deputy Governor, anti-federalist rebellion leader

Chief Justices of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

• Stephen Hopkins,
• Daniel Lyman,
• Paul A. Suttell

Images

Footnotes

External references

• Rhode Island Supreme Court
• Irving Berdine Richman, Rhode Island: A Study in Separatism, (Houghton, Mifflic & Co, Rhode Island: 1907), 191.
• Thomas Durfee, Gleanings from the Judicial History of Rhode Island, (Providence: Sidney S. Rider, 1883), p. 164
• Amasa M. Eaton, The Development of the Judicial System in Rhode Island, Yale Law Journal14 (Jan. 1905), 148-170.
• John T. Farrell, The Early History of Rhode Island’s Court System, Rhode Island History 9 (July 1950), 65-71; 9 (Oct. 1950), 103-117; 10 (Jan. 1951), 14-25
• Link to article describing various RI Court primary sources
• Gail I. Winson, "Researching the Laws of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations: From Lively Experiment1to Statehoodby," (Roger Williams School of Law).
• Rhode Island Supreme Court is at coordinates