Recollections

By William F. F. Young

RECOLLECTIONS: 

Portraits  - The portraits are referable to Suffolk County, New York: a mid-20th century judge of the Surrogate’s Court; a mid-20th century law office; a foreshortened political career; and, the sole black couple at the Republican Party’s 1961 second annual $100-A-plate dinner.

Child Support Enforcement In Maine - Child support enforcement in Maine is addressed from the vantage point of the Case Review Unit of the Department of Health and Human Services Division of Support Enforcement and Recovery.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Outskirts Press
• Release date: May 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9781977265357

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Recollections

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Copyright © 2023 Warren Liburt

v3.0

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To Merry

Also by William F. F. Young

Thomas E. Dewey, et al.

The Suffolk County Scandals Investigations

A Reminiscence

Thomas E. Dewey, The Hanley Letter, and W. Kingsland Macy

Suffolk County Revisited

Anna and Sam

Jonathan and Nathaniel

Table of Contents

New York: Suffolk County Remembrances

The Surrogate

Kilbride & Shaw

A Career Cut Short

Charlie and Charlene

Maine: Child Support Enforcement

A view of child support enforcement from the vantage point of the Case Review Unit of the Division of Support Enforcement and Recovery of the Department of Health and Human Services

The Surrogate

The Surrogate’s Court is a New York State county court the primary subject jurisdiction of which is decedents’ estates. It also handles adoption proceedings.

Suffolk County’s Surrogate’s Court itself is in Riverhead, the county seat. At the time we are talking about, the Surrogate’s resident chambers, those maintained for the judge of the Surrogate’s Court in the locale of his residence, were in Northport, at the western end of the county, some fifty miles west of the county seat. Generally, the only hearings held at the resident chambers were those in adoption proceedings, although occasionally, there were hearings held there in proceedings in decedents’ estates for the location convenience of attorneys and their clients.

The Surrogate’s law assistant had a room—a very small room, actually a good-size closet which served as his room—in the Surrogate’s resident chambers. The law assistant’s cubby hole was reached by traversing the Surrogate’s secretary’s room, which was located on one side of a hallway, on the other side of which were the Surrogate’s chambers themselves. The cubby hole was pretty much filled by a very small table and its chair. Seated at the table was the law assistant, who was going back and forth among the memoranda submitted in support of their clients’ positions by the four lawyers appearing in the proceeding on which he was working.

The Surrogate’s secretary was typing the Surrogate’s decision in another proceeding: portions of the legal memorandum submitted on behalf of the prevailing party enclosed by the Surrogate’s opening and closing sentences.

The last of the adoption proceedings for that day had just terminated, and the attorney for the adoptive parents in that proceeding had accompanied them out of the building and walked them to their car, offering his felicitations upon the adoption. However, instead of then getting into his own car, he re-entered the building, took himself to the judge’s secretary’s room, and asked her if it would be possible to see the Surrogate for a moment. The secretary went to the door of the judge’s room, knocked on it, entered the room, closing the door behind herself, and almost immediately came back into her own room.

The Judge would be very happy to see you. She beckoned the lawyer to follow her, opened the door to the judge’s chambers, ushered the lawyer into the room and departed, closing the door behind her.

Judge, do you have a moment?

"All the time