George Martin (Michigan judge)

[1] He was a justice of the peace of the village of Grand Rapids,[2] and was a prosecuting attorney for a time, but held no other important office until in 1851, at the age of thirty-six, he was made a circuit judge to succeed Edward Mundy.

[2] Martin continued for more than sixteen years to hold that post under the two following judicial systems.

[1] When the independent court was organized, he drew the chief-justiceship by lot, and afterwards was chosen to that post by his associates, and held it until his death, which took place sixteen days before the close of his term.

He was described as having "extra ordinary gifts, and with them the vices that were common to many of his predecessors and contemporaries, — intemperance and unthrift", and that he was "keen to detect in a record some technical defect that would enable him to get rid of the case without taking the trouble to study it".

[1] In one noted case, Twitchell v. Blodgett, he stated that he "could not allow to judicial doubts more potency than to legislative certainty".