James Vincent Coffey

Background

James Vincent Coffey was born on December 14, 1846 in New York City, New York, United States. He was the son of James and Catherine Coffey. His father was an Irish Nationalist and his mother a devout Catholic.

Education

James had some ten years of formal schooling, in New York, Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Nevada City, California. His legal education he received in law offices in New York City, Virginia City, Nevada, and San Francisco, being admitted to the bar of California in 1869. Despite his brief formal education he became a master of Latin classics.

Career

At the start of his legal career, Coffey was engaged in journalism, being for six years the leading editorial writer on the San Francisco Examiner. His editorials won recognition from many Eastern journals. He had a quality of rightness and of fair judgment that showed itself in this field of his labors as it later did in his legal career. His early editorials, like his later legal papers, were ably written in pure English.

He was a staunch Democrat, spending two sessions in the California legislature (1875 - 1878) where he was notable as a fighter against special privilege. He sponsored many important measures during these sessions, such as those which placed the police and fire departments on a civil service basis, which reduced the car-fare from ten cents to five cents, and which subjected the rates of common carriers to state regulation. Few better speeches have been made on the question of protecting the public from corporate greed than that by Coffey in resisting the attempted “grab” of the San Francisco waterfront by railroads. His party never forgot his record in the legislature and proffered him many favors, among others: the Democratic nomination for the California constitutional convention; the nomination for attorney-general in 1879, which he declined; the judgeship of the superior court of San Francisco; the nomination for justice of the supreme court in 1890; and the nomination for Congress in the 4th California district in 1900, which he declined. He was also the choice of Democratic members of the legislature for United States senator in 1899, but failed of election.

In 1882 he was elected judge of the superior court of San Francisco County and was assigned to the probate department. He held this position continuously for thirty-six years and was responsible for many new features of probate administration.

Achievements

• During Coffey's tenure in judicial system, he established the practise of setting attorney’s fees by using a regular schedule based upon the value of the estate. Over $600, 000, 000 in estates was administered in his court during his career on the bench. Among these estates were those of Spreckles, Sharon, DeLaveaga, Leland Stanford, and Mark Hopkins. Coffey wrote several articles urging reforms—many of them since adopted— to decrease the cost and complexity of legal procedure. His opinions as trial judge were published in six volumes known as Coffey’s Probate Reports. They were extensively used as authority in California courts to-day. They reflected a noble and generous nature combined with a mastery of English diction and law.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Reports of Decisions in Probate, Volume 1

    (This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before ...)

  • Reports of Decisions in Probate, Volume 3

    (This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before ...)

  • Reports of Decisions in Probate, Volume 2

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Reports Of Decisions In Probate, Volume 5...

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Reports Of Decisions In Probate, Volume 6...

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Connections

Coffey never married.

Father:

James Coffey

Mother:

Catherine Coffey