Albert Haight (February 20, 1842 – October 1926) was an American lawyer and politician from New York.

Life

He was born on February 20, 1842, in Ellicottville,

Cattaraugus County, New York Cattaraugus County (locally known as Catt County) is a county in Western New York, with one side bordering Pennsylvania. As of the United States 2020 census, the population was 77,042. The county seat is Little Valley. The county was created ...

, the son of Henry Haight (born c. 1815) and Sarah Maria (Sisson) Haight (1817–1868). He was admitted to the bar in 1863, and practiced in Buffalo. He was Judge of the Erie County Court from 1873 to 1877. He was a justice of the

New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

(8th D.) from 1877 to 1894, and was appointed to the General Term (5th Dept.) in 1884. In 1887, he made a controversial decision in a trial involving

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

and

John D. Archbold John Dustin Archbold (July 26, 1848 – December 6, 1916) was an American businessman and one of the United States' earliest oil refiners. His small oil company was bought out by John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company. Archbold rose rapidl ...

, and was severely censured in the press for it. Subsequently Standard Oil pushed his campaign for the Court of Appeals, but it did not work out. At the

New York state election, 1889 The 1889 New York state election was held on November 5, 1889, to elect the Secretary of State, the State Comptroller, the Attorney General, the State Treasurer, the State Engineer and a judge of the New York Court of Appeals, as well as all ...

, he ran on the

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

ticket for the

New York Court of Appeals The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six Associate Judges who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by t ...

but was defeated by Democrat

Denis O'Brien Denis O'Brien (born 19 April 1958) is an Irish billionaire businessman, and the founder and owner of Digicel. He was listed among the World's Top 200 Billionaires in 2015 and was Ireland's richest native-born citizen for a period of several ye ...

. At the

New York state election, 1894 The 1894 New York state election was held on November 6, 1894, to elect the governor, the lieutenant governor and a judge of the New York Court of Appeals, as well as all members of the New York State Assembly. Besides, a new State Constituti ...

, he ran again and this time was elected. He was re-elected at the

New York state election, 1908 The 1908 New York state election was held on November 3, 1908, to elect the governor, the lieutenant governor, the Secretary of State, the state comptroller, the attorney general, the state treasurer, the state engineer and a judge of the ...

, and retired from the bench at the end of 1912 when he reached the constitutional age limit. He died in October 1926.''JUDGE ALBERT HAIGHT DEAD AT AGE OF 84''
in ''The New York Times'' on October 7, 1926 (subscription required)

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haight, Albert 1842 births 1926 deaths People from Ellicottville, New York Politicians from Buffalo, New York Judges of the New York Court of Appeals New York Supreme Court Justices New York (state) Republicans Lawyers from Buffalo, New York 19th-century American lawyers