THE CODES OF CALIFORNIA AS AMENDED AND IN FORCE AT THE CLOSE OF THE 1915 IN FOUR VOLUMES EDITED BY VOLUME THREE CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE LOS ANGELES PUBLISHERS FOREWORD. The 1915 Edition of Kerr's Small Codes is prepared on the same lines-with a single exception-as to method of preparation and thoroughness as were Kerr's Pocket Codes, 1909 Edition. In the latter Edition some annotations were included, which are omitted in this Edition. Annotations in an enchiridion edition of the Codes are of necessity incomplete and unsatisfactory (1) for want of space, and (2) because an annotation by reference to cases citing Code sections is of necessity incomplete, and may be misleading and positively injurious, by reason of the fact that many cases, in which there is no reference in the body of the opinion to Code section or sections, deciding pertinent questions of law and procedure, are entirely omitted by such method of annotation. The Vade Mecum-"first aid in case of difficulty"-for all California lawyers, is Kerr's Cyclopedic California Codes, which are always readily accessible, and which are thorough and satisfactory, being complete and logically arranged. History of Each Section of every Code, was introduced into California Codes with Kerr's Cyclopedic California Codes and Kerr's Pocket Codes, 1909 Edition, and this innovation, so valuable to the discerning and careful practitioner, has found imitation in a rival publication; but nowhere else are these histories so full, accurate and satisfactory for the purpose for which they were designed, and which purpose they serve; "padding," by excerpts and quotations from Code sections and amendments thereto, is not good editorial work, and is a needless consuming of space, because the careful practitioner must of necessity turn to the full text of the Code section at the time the decision in hand was rendered, in order to ascertain the exact bearing and value of such iii ввоенк decision on the present Code provision (where changed from what it formerly was) and the state of facts in the case being investigated or tried. Difficulties and Delays in the production of Kerr's Small Codes, 1915 Edition, were unusual and unjustifiable in fair and upright dealing. In former years, in fact ever since the publication of the first volume of Kerr's Cyclopedic California Codes in 1906, the editor (or his publisher) has had no difficulty whatever in securing from the State Printer the signatures of the official volume of the Statutes and Amendments as they came from the press at the State Printing Office. The usual application was timely made this year in the usual manner, by the editor's publisher, Bender-Moss Company, for a set of advance sheets to be used in preparation of the Biennial Supplement of 1915. Repeated efforts on the part of Bender-Moss Company failing to secure the usual courtesies, in despair, the publisher requested the editor to attempt to procure the usual advanced copies of signatures. Weeks of correspondence with the State Printer proving futile, the editor instructed his attorney, Hon. Francis J. Hency, to take up the matter; which he accordingly did, and on July 31, 1915, wrote a preliminary letter to the State Printer, inquiring whether there was any legal reason, or any reason of state, why the same accommodation, courtesies and privileges should not be extended to the editor of this work which had formerly been extended to him, and which were still being extended to a rival publisher. Promptly there came back a letter from the State Printer in reply, saying that the reason why the advance signatures applied for had not been furnished to the editor, as requested, and as they had been heretofore furnished, was because the State Printer had been informed that the editor, James M. Kerr, was working for the rival publisher, and that it was not necessary to grant his request for the usual advance copies of signatures of the Statutes and Amend ments. |