Background

Frederick Evan Crane was born on March 2, 1869 in Brooklyn, New York, United States. He was the son of Frederic William Hotchkiss Crane and Mary Elizabeth (Jones) Crane. His father was a manufacturer of printing presses.

Education

After attending Adelphi Academy, he went directly to Columbia Law School, where he received his LL. B. in 1889.

Career

In 1890 he was admitted to the bar and began work in Brooklyn with the law firm of Bailey and Bell. In 1896 he left private practice to become assistant district attorney of Kings County. In 1901 he was elected county judge on the Republican ticket, and five years later became a trial judge on the state supreme court. In 1917 Gov. Charles S. Whitman elevated him to the Court of Appeals, the highest tribunal in the state. He was elected to a full fourteen-year term in 1920, with Democratic as well as Republican endorsement. As a result of another bipartisan nomination, he was elected chief judge of the court in 1934, serving from 1935 through 1939, when he was required to retire on account of age.

During his more than two decades on the Court of Appeals, Crane acquired a reputation as a judge of stature alongside such respected colleagues as Frank Harris Hiscock, Benjamin Cardozo, and Cuthbert W. Pound. In 1934, anticipating his promotion to the chief judgeship, the New York Times proclaimed it "a worthy--one would almost say apostolic--succession in this high judicial office. " Although leery of being classified liberal or conservative in his judicial philosophy and critical of what he considered to be extremes espoused by the "ultra-utilitarian" and the "ossified constructionist, " Crane placed himself squarely in the middle of the broad movement to revise twentieth-century American law to meet new social needs. "The law, " Crane observed in 1930, "following public opinion, is more interested today in the general welfare of society than in merely individual rights". Curiously, two of his most publicized opinions as chief judge, in each case on behalf of the majority of a divided court, argued the constitutional necessity of voiding social legislation on narrow grounds, first the state NRA Act and then the state minimum-wage law for women.

Apart from his opinions as a member of the Court of Appeals, Crane's influence was felt in the field of judicial administration. Before he became chief judge he had regularly expressed concern over the cumbersome machinery of the courts and the "breakdown" of the criminal justice system, but his administrative interests intensified in 1935, when as chief judge he had to preside over a state judicial council created the previous year by the legislature. Under Crane's vigorous leadership the judicial council moved to improve the state court system by recommending such measures as severe restriction of the privilege of exemption from jury duty, extension of procedures for pretrial examination, and regulation of publicity during trials. By 1937 the council reported that delay in the state courts had been "substantially eliminated, " following the passage of legislation proposed by Crane and others. Administration was congenial to Crane, it seemed.

Crane himself hesitated to plunge into the practical affairs of politics, yet often in his career he appeared on the verge of doing so. Early in 1924 his name figured prominently in speculation about a successor to Harry M. Daugherty, President Coolidge's attorney general. For a time that same year he was generally considered to be the front-runner in the preconvention scrambling for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Eventually he professed disinterest, but the story was that he had been prepared to run until upstate rank-and-file party opposition made it clear that he could not have a unanimous nomination, despite promises to the contrary by party leaders. In 1925 he was mentioned as a candidate for mayor of New York, and the next year his name again surfaced in gubernatorial discussions. As late as 1938, in spite of his age, the governorship remained at least a remote possibility. Then, having been chosen by the Republican leadership to serve as president of the first state constitutional convention to be held since 1915, Crane was at the center of state politics for half a year.

After retiring as chief judge and resuming the practice of law, Crane was appointed Moreland Act commissioner to investigate state printing-contract frauds. Otherwise, he did not remain noticeably active in public life. He died in his home in Garden City.

Achievements

• He served as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Real Daniel Webster

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

Politics

Although he spoke impressively of the convention as "an experiment in true democracy, " undertaken at a time of world political crisis, he worked closely as president with the leaders of his party, who ran the proceedings much like an ordinary legislative session.

Views

Quotations: "Unless there is something radically wrong, striking at the very fundamentals of constitutional government, courts should not interfere with these attempts in the exercise of the reserve power of the state to meet dangers which threaten the entire common weal and affect every home".

"Most of us here are living for the children".

Personality

A former associate, Albert Conway, paying tribute to his memory, observed that for years he was "the most beloved lawyer and judge in Brooklyn. " Crane had indeed been a judge of easily familiar manner, regarding it as important that there be less reserve between bench and bar than had been the custom. Tall and direct of speech, he sang regularly with the Apollo Glee Club in Brooklyn.

Crane's style was informal and affable.

Connections

On December 13, 1893, he married Gertrude Mary Craven, the daughter of a Montreal merchant. He was the father of two children.

Father:

Frederic William Hotchkiss Crane

manufacturer

Mother:

Mary Elizabeth (Jones) Crane

Spouse:

Gertrude Mary Craven