Edmund W. Wells - Associate Justice

Associate Justice

Wells began his service as an Associate Justice to the Arizona Territorial Supreme Court on March 6, 1891. He was appointed to the newly created 4th district by President Benjamin Harrison and his nomination was supported by U.S. Senator William B. Allison of Iowa, Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen J. Field, Arizona Territorial Governors Richard C. McCormick, Anson P. K. Safford, and Lewis Wolfley, Arizona Territorial Justices Charles G. W. French and William W. Porter, Arizona Territorial Secretary John J. Gosper, and Oakes Murphy. His district covered Apache, Coconino, Mohave, and Yavapai counties.

During his service as a judge, Wells ruled on about a dozen cases that were recording in Arizona Reports. Among his rulings was the finding in Yavapai County v. O'Neill, 3 Arizona 363, (1892), that Sheriff Buckey O'Neill did not have to make an arrest to receive mileage expenses but merely had to make a good faith effort to effect one. In Reilly v. Atchison, 4 Arizona 72, (1892), the judge upheld an appellate court ruling stating that an attorney's claim that an error was located between page 13 through 18 of a transcript was not specific enough to show that said error existed. Wells submitted his resignation on March 6, 1893 claiming "business matters require my attention" and asking for a replacement to be quickly appointed.