Joseph Chappell Hutcheson Jr.

Joseph Chappell Hutcheson Jr. (October 19, 1879 – January 18, 1973) was a United States federal judge.

Born in Houston, Texas, Hutcheson received an LL.B. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1900. He was in private practice in Houston from 1900 to 1918, and was the chief legal advisor to the City of Houston from 1913 to 1917. He was Mayor of Houston from 1917 to 1918.

On March 29, 1918, Hutcheson was nominated by President Woodrow Wilson to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas vacated by Waller T. Burns. Hutchenson was confirmed by the United States Senate on April 6, 1918, and received his commission the same day. On December 20, 1930, President Herbert Hoover elevated Hutcheson to a new seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit created by 46 Stat. 538. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 13, 1931, and received his commission on January 26, 1931. He served as chief judge from 1948–1959, assuming senior status on November 4, 1964. Hutcheson served in that capactity until his death, in Houston, Texas on January 18, 1973.

Hutcheson was also a member of the Anglo-American Committee on Displaced Persons that recommended in 1946 that Britain greatly increase the number of Jewish refugees it would let into Palestine.

Hutcheson built a large home in the Montrose neighborhood, now numbered 501 Lovett Boulevard. During his lifetime the home was numbered 500, at his request, although it was on the odd numbered side of the street. The home has been purchased by Hostelling International, which will operate it as a hostel from late August 2011. The home was previously the Lovett Inn, a bed and breakfast, and was rented as a yoga studio in the past.

Hutcheson previously lived at 2516 Commonwealth, and at 912 Truxillo in Houston.

He was a member of the Paul Carrington chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution and was himself a descendant of Carrington.

There is a Joseph C. Hutcheson Jr. endowed scholarship awarded at the University of Texas Law School.

A Hutcheson nephew, Thad Hutcheson, a Houston lawyer, was a Republican candidate in the 1957 special election for the U.S. Senate from Texas. He lost to the Democrat Ralph Yarborough. In 1958, Hutcheson served as the chairman of the Texas Republican Party.^[1]

Sources

• Joseph Chappell Hutcheson Jr. at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.