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August 8, 1908

LAWYERS ARE TO DROP

RICHARDS-HUMES CASE.

There's No Money in Sight, So What's

the Use in Battering Reputa-

tions and Countenances?

One of the many lawyers in the alienation case of A. J. Richards against John Calvine Humes made the statement yesterday that there would be no more proceedings.

"There is no money in sight for most of us," the lawyer said. "The bankruptcy proceedings into which Humes was forced made the prospect of a judgment against him not worth getting. Even the stenographer has not been paid yet for the work he has done. In the face of such a plight as this there is not much incentive for a corps of lawyers to go battering each other up, not to mention wasting their valuable time chasing witnesses."

The allusion is to a personal encounter two of the lawyers had on the first day of taking depositions.

Labels: attorney, Lawsuit

June 10, 1908

WOUND MADE JUROR FAINT.

It Was on the Arm of Plaintiff in a

Damage Suit.

The sight of the wound and the odor of iodoform and other drugs used in its dressing proved to be too much for J. A. Lackey, a juror, who was sitting in the case of Durand Whyte against the Murray Machine Company yesterday afternoon in Judge J. E. Goodrich's division of the circuit court. He fainted. Whyte, who is suing for damages for injuries alleged to have been sustained while at work for the company, was on the stand giving his testimony when he was asked to show the wound he had received to the jury. Mr. Lackey was sitting close to the witness and the sight proved too much for him. The fainting juror was speedily revived and the taking of testimony continued.

Labels: circuit court, Judge Goodrich, Lawsuit

May 22, 1908

GAME LEG SPOILED HIS FUN.

Fireman Says He Can't Dance in

Time With It.

"I used to go to all the dances, but I can't hit a lick with my game leg. The last dance I attended was in Lamar in the winter of 1907. I was so awkward that I couldn't get a partner. So I quit for good."

J. B. McQuillen told this to a jury in Judge E. E. Porterfield's division of the circuit court yesterday afternoon. McQuillen was a locomotive fireman for the Kansas City Southern until February 24, 1906, when his hip was crushed while he was at work. He is suing for $10,000.

Labels: circuit court, dancing, Judge Porterfield, Kansas City Southern, Lawsuit, railroad

May 20, 1908

SUES HER FORMER HUSBAND.

Mrs. Smith Avers That T. W. Glynn

Falsely Accused Her of Bigamy.

Alleging that T. W. Glynn, to whom she formerly was married, has unlawfully charged her with bigamy and as a result she suffered the pain and humiliation of having to spend fourteen days in jail before her trial and release, Mrs. Margaret Smith has filed suit in the circuit court asking $20,000 damages against Glynn. She aleges that it was entirely due to the information filed by Glynn in the justice coucrt that she was served with a warrant charging bigamy because she had married Smith, and that the information was filed with a malicious motive.

Labels: circuit court, Divorce, jail, Lawsuit, marriage

May 19, 1908

READ SONGS OF SOLOMON

TO ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE.

B. C. Boyles Alleges That S. D. Bur-

nett Thus Won the Love of

Mrs. Boyles.

Reading passages from the Songs of Solomon and Old Testament romances to Mrs. B. C. Boyles was one means employed by S. D. Burnett to win the woman's affections, Boyles, the husband, yesterday declared on the stand in Judge J. H. Slover's division of the circuit court, where his suit against Burnett for $20,000 for the alienation of his wife's affections is on trial. Just what particular songs and stories Burnett read Boyles was unable to specify.

It was only a short while ago, Boyles said, that he discovered Burnett had been reading form the Scriptures to Mrs. Boyles. He might have seen them reading, he said but he gave no thought to it, because Burnett is a leader in the Presbyterian church at Independence, and Mrs. Boyles is a church woman. It was when he overheard, as he claims, Mrs. Boyles recalling to Burnett things he had once read to her, that he grew suspicious.

This will be denied today, probably, by Burnett, when his attorneys have their inning in which to present the defense. The plaintiff has beeen showing his side of the case to the jury for two days and it will take as long to give the defense.

Boyles is a brother of Mrs. Burnett The two families were intimate until last autumn when Boyles filed suit against his brother-in-law. Burnett owns a section or so of land north of Independence. Boyles operates a dairy farm at Seventy-third street and Brooklyn avenue. Boyles secured a divorce last June on the ground that his wife's love for him had waned. He did not mention Burnett in that suit.

Labels: Brooklyn avenue, circuit court, Divorce, Judge Slover, Lawsuit, Seventy-third street

May 5, 1908

PLAYED AN EXPENSIVE JOKE.

Fathers of Boys Who Tripped a Girl

Are Sued.

Sarah Kincaid, 15-year-old daughter of Mrs. Katherine A. Kincaid of Independence, yesterday brought suit in the circuit court for $2,000 against the fathers of Ellis Short and Ellis Bailey, boys, who, the girl claims, caused her to trip and fall while she was walking along Walnut street near Eighth street in Kansas City a month ago, by stretching a rope across the sidewalk.

The boys were holding the rope so that it lay on the walk when she came near it and just as she was abreast of them they suddenly jerked it taut, she avers. Their fathers, Ellis Short and Earle Bailey, are made defendants in the damage suit The girl says she was permanently injured. The Short boy's father is president of the Jackson County bank at Independence.

Labels: banking, children, Eighth street, Independence, Lawsuit, Walnut Street

April 22, 1908

HORSEWHIPPINGS COME HIGH.

One Cost Farmer Klapmeyer $7,000

in Independence Yesterday.

Benjamin D. Kerr was awarded $4,000 actual and $3,000 punitive damages against James M. Klapmeyer, a wealthy farmer living near Little Santa Fe, in the circuit court at Independence yesterday, on account of a horsewhipping.

The testimony showed that the defendant met Kerr near the residence of William Short, another farmer. Klapmeyer stopped Kerr and they engaged in a conversation about trouble with another man. Klapmeyer admitted striking Kerr with a whip but stated that the matter was settled between them before any real injury was inflicted. Kerr alleged that the cracker of the whip struck him in the eye, injuring it.

Labels: circuit court, farmers, Independence, Lawsuit, violence

April 15, 1908

FARMER LOSES DAMAGE SUIT.

Angie Harnish Had Sued Motor Cycle

Club for Scaring Horse.

The horse lost again yesterday in a legal battle with motor vehicles. A jury in Justice Young's court decided there was no cause for action in the case of Angie Harnish against the Kansas City Motor Cycle Club, which the plaintiff alleged on November 3 last caused his driving horse to run away, injuring him and endangering the life of his wife and 2-year-old baby.

Just on the outskirts of Greenwood, this county, he testified, eighteen club members, with their motors exhausting loudly, overtook him and ran around, in front of and behind him. To better hold his frantic horse, Harnish attempted to dismount and was thrown. Then the horse ran half a mile with the woman and baby before crashing into a fence. A party of farmers intercepted the Motor Cycle Club on its return run, and, it is said, threats were made which have prevented the club's returning there on any subsequent runs. The affair had the effect of practically disorganizing the club, but the members were jubilant yesterday that a jury conceded them road rights.

"Now I'm sure we'll get our men together again," the club president, R. D. Martin, said yesterday after the decision.

Harnish's suit was for $300 damages. One of Harnish's ankles was dislocated, a knee bruised and a Sunday suit ruined.

Labels: Lawsuit, motorcycles, organizations

April 1, 1908

WILL TEST NEW SALOON LAW.

Parent May Collect Damages if Li-

quor Is Sold to Minor.

Whether saloons must pay $50 for every offense of selling liquor to a minor with out a parent's written consent is to have its first decision in a justice's court April 3. Yesterday Mrs. Ida M. Carson filed suit in Judge Remley's court against the Kansas City Breweries Company, owners of a saloon at 324 West Sixth street, and James Meaney, a bartender, for $300 damages. Six offenses in the month of March were charged, the minor involved being Claud, the 16-year-old son of Mrs. Carson.

Under this statute, which has never been tested in Kansas City, if saloonists are found guilty the jury has no power to lessen the amount to be paid. Also under conviction there is a penalty that the criminal court may assess for each offense, to say nothing of the forfeiture of license which such conviction would bring with it.

Labels: alcohol, breweries, Judge Remley, Lawsuit, saloon, Sixth street

February 26, 1908

THEIR NOISE RUINED

HIS GENTLE HORSE.

SCARED HIS WIFE, HURT HIS

BABY, INJURED HIM.

So Farmer Harnish Sues Members of

the Motorcycle Club for Dam-

ages Done Him Last

Fall.

The Kansas City Motorcycle Club members, nineteen strong, have avoided the road to Greenwood, this county, since November 3. That day eighteen of them were waylaid by a mob of twenty-five farmers armed with stones. Only one escaped. And County Judge George J. Dodd was chief spokesman for the beseiging party.

It all came out yesterday when suit was filed in Justice Young's court by Angie Harnish against the club members for $800 damages.

Harnish, according to the papers filed, was driving in a top buggy with his wife and 2-year-old child to Greenwood, when just at the outskirts of the town the "the defendants in a body known as the Kansas City Motorcycle Club, mounted on motorcycles," bore down on his rear "at high speed," carelessly and negligently running upon and by him, the loud and explosive exhaust noises, frightening until he became unmanagable, the horse, which was "not acquainted with motorcycles."

Harnish attempted to alight to seize the horse's bits, and the lunging of the animal threw him into the rock road. The woman, busy with the lines, dropped the baby between her feet and frantically begged the cyclists to stop for the sake of hersef and the baby. Instead of this it is alleged the cyclists only laughed, and trying to outrun the maddened horses, allowing the whirr of the explosive sounds to continue until the horse and buggy smashed into a fence. The baby and Harnish were seriously bruised, the horse, formerly gentle, was ruined, its owner says, and the harness and buggy broken.

A few hours later, when the cycle club members came back that way, they were helf up with a threat of stoning Only one cyclist had the fear or the nerve to run the gauntlet. The others stopped and took their medicine in the form of threats as to what would happen if they ever came back -- and they haven't been back.

The cyclists say that udge Dodd, though an officer of the law, declared to them that he would take the law into his own hands if they did return. Nineteen of them are named, and the amount asked is $800, half of it for actual damages and half for exemplary damages. The case was set for March 3.

Those named as defendants are: R. D. Martin, president of the club; L. J. Vogel, F. J. Hahn, C. Hanson, J. B. Porter, Ned D. Bahr, O. V. Newby, J. N. Glass, Lloyd C. Shielaberger, Fred Berry, Oscar J. Plummer and Dan Patterson.

Bucknew and Houston are attorneys for the plaintiff, and they furnished the court constable with all the addresses of the defendants.

"I know the eighteen of us should have licked those two dozen farmers if the fight had really got started," said R. D. Martin, president of the club, last night, "but we are always considerate of people we meet, and we told them so then, instead of being ugly."

Labels: animals, Judges, Lawsuit, motorcycles, organizations

February 8, 1908

SUING ON PLUMBERS'S BOND.

City Wants Martin & Keck to Make

Good a Judgment.

Suit for $1,246.50 against Martin & Keck, plumbers, and their bondsmen, the National Security Company, was brought in the circuit court yesterday by Kansas City. The plumbing firm, it is alleged, left an excavation in front of house number 2824 Olive street unguarded on January 8, 1906, so that Maud G. Norris drove a buggy into it, overturning the buggy and breaking her arm. She sued the city and last June got a verdict for $750 damages.

The city wants the plumbing company to pay this judgment and the incidental costs, because the company is under $1,500 bond, through the National Security Company, to the city to put the dirt back in excavations it digs in the streets or to barricade the excavations.

Labels: circuit court, Lawsuit, Olive street, public works

February 7, 1908

HOTEL LOST THE PACKAGE.

Then DeLapp Sued the Centropolis

and Got a Verdict of $500.

Clyde DeLapp was awarded $500 damages against John H. Van Closter, proprietor of the Centropolis hotel, by a circuit court jury yesterday. De Lapp claimed he left a package, valued at $500, with B. Williams, clerk of the hotel, for safe keeping last June. When he called for the package it could not be found.

Labels: Centropolis, circuit court, hotels, Lawsuit

February 5, 1908

BECAUSE HE HIT A LAWYER.

B. T. Hardin Is Being Sued by T. B.

Buckner, Also and Attorney.

"Yes, I slapped him and I will hit any man who charges me with what he did," was the statement of B. T. Hardin on the witness stand in Judge Goodrich's division of the circuit court yesterday when the trial of the suit of T. B. Buckner against Hardin for $1,000 actual and $5,000 punitive damages for assault was in progress.

The suit is the outgrowth of a quarrel in Judge Seehorn's division of the circuit court in January, 1907, when these attorneys acted as counsel in a damage suit against the Metropolitan street railway. According to the evidence introduced in trial Buckner accused Hardin of appropriating certain papers connected with the former trial. Hardin resonted the statement and called Buckner a liar, at the same time hitting him with his fist, according to Buckner's statements. John T. Mathis, who was at that time connected with the Metropolitan street railway, and who was assisting Hardin in trying the case, also hit Buckner.

Mathis was at first one of the defendants but yesterday afternoon he was dismissed by Judge Goodrich and the trial proceeded with Hardin as the only defendant.

Besides the plaintiff and the defendant there were several prominent witnesses in the case yesterday. Among these were Judge T. J. Seehorn, John Tobin, clerk of the circuit court; Deputy Sheriff Harvey and jurors who were serving on the case in Judge Seehorn's division of the court at the time of the alleged assault. All were witnesses of the affair.

Labels: attorney, courtroom, Judge Goodrich, Judge Seehorn, Lawsuit, Metropolitan Street Railway Company

December 29, 1907

CLAIMS DEPUTIES BEAT HIM.

Jack C. Taylor Sues Marshal Heslip

on His Bond.

Charging that County Marshal Al Heslip, by his deputies, took him from his cell in the county jail by force and assaulted him in another room in the jail, Jack C. Taylor, who for more than a year was confined in the jail on a charge of arson and wsa released without trial a few days ago, brought suit in the circuit court yesterday against Al Heslip, W. H. Dixon and H. Matthias, who are on Heslip's bond, for $10,000 damages. This is the amount of the bond.

Taylor was arrested in July, 1906, charged with setting fire to a restaurant which he owned and operated on Twelfth street, for the purpose of collecting the insurance. A waiter named Smith was tried in the criminal court and was found not guilty. Taylor was then discharged. Taylor appealed to the circuit court some time ago for release because he claimed he had not been allowed trial at the proper time in the criminal court, but he failed to secure the release.

According to the petition filed in his suit yesterday against Heslip and his bondsmen. Helsip, by his deputies, made the alleged assault in October, 1906, although nothing was ever said about the assault at that time.

Marshal Heslip said last night: "As far as our beating Taylor is concerned, there is no truth in it. When prisoners adopt the plan of being mute in the jail we take them out of their cell and put them in the dungeon. We did this with Taylor, but he was not assaulted. My deputies do not assault prisoners, and that part of the story is not true in any particular."

Labels: arson, circuit court, County Marshal Heslip, jail, Lawsuit

October 29, 1907

SAYS HIS PUZZLE WAS SPOILED.

Advertising Man Sues Jewelry Con-

cern on a Wrong Guess.

Because a jewelry company published what S. G. Lindeman, who describes himself as "an advertising generalist," says is a wrong answer to the puzzle: "7 for 7. What's the answer?" Lindeman sued in the circuit court yesterday afternoon for $25,000 damages.

Lindeman says he originated the puzzle and has spent $3,500, since October 10, in putting it on billboards and in newspapers for the public to wonder over. In his suit he doesn't disclose the answer, but admits that it is something to sell and that he is to be paid for his work.

Since October 23 the jewelry company has been telling the people through the press that the answer is "a seven-jeweled watch for $7." Lindeman claims that this isn't the right answer at all, and that the publishing of it as such has injured the value of his scheme.

If the jewelry company had guessed the right answer it would have received, according to Lindeman, $25.

Labels: circuit court, Lawsuit

August 15, 1907

BLAMES THE WIFE'S SISTER.

J. S. Evans Sues Nellie Edwards for

$25,000 Damages.

J. S. Evans, owner of a livery barn at 8533 Independence avenue, brought suit in the circuit court yesterday afternoon for $25,000 damages against Miss Mellie Edwards, a sister of his wife, charging her with having alienated his wife's affections, and instigated a divorce suit sought by his wife on July 16, this year.

Miss Edwards lives in Bevier, Mo., but has visited her sister, Mrs. Evans, at the Evans home, 3617 Thompson avenue, frequently during the Evans' twenty-three years of married life. Miss Edwards owns considerable property in Bevier. She is now living with her sister at 3517 Thompson avenue, while Mr. Evans is rooming away from home.

"I have ordered Miss Edwards away from my house on more than one occasion," Evans said last evening, "but she is still there. She came in December on her last visit and I left home April 1. She is still in my house."

Mrs. Evans, in her petition for divorce, which is set for trial next fall, alleges that her husband drinks and uses abusive language toward her.

Labels: Divorce, Independence avenue, Lawsuit, Thompson avenue

June 29, 1907

FOR RUNNING DOWN BOY.

Three Autoists Confess a Judgement

of $500.

Elmer Williams, Charles H. Williams and John Anderson of the Williams Realty Company, yesterday afternoon confessed judgement in the circuit court to $500 damages for running down Halma G. Dixon, a messenger boy, in their automobile at Fourteenth street and Troost avenue May 11, 1907. The Dixon boy, who lives at 1312 Cherry street, was riding a bicycle.

Labels: Cherry street, children, circuit court, Fourteenth street, Lawsuit, Troost avenue

June 29, 1907

LOST HUSBAND'S AFFECTION.

Leavenworth Woman Sues Her
Father-in-Law for $20,000.

LEAVENWORTH, KAS., June 28. -- (Special.) Edward Roser, Sr., a wealthy capitalist of Leavenworth, was sued today for $20,000 by Sara Roser, the wife of Edward Roser Jr., who alleges that he alienated the affections of her husband. She alleges that the senior Roser caused the junior Roser to desert her. She is now living with her brother, Patrick Clarkin, in Kansas City, Mo. G. G. Wright of Kansas City, Mo., is Mrs. Roser's attorney.

Labels: Lawsuit, Leavenworth

June 4, 1907

FAINTS, GETS A NEW JURY.

Judge Goodrich Believes Nerves

Might Influence in Damage Case.

A few minutes after Rose Stauffer, of Moberly, Mo., took the witness chair in Judge J. E. Goodrich's division of the circuit court yesterday afternoon to testify regarding how she had been injured in a street car accident in Rosedale two years and a half ago she went into hysterics and fainted. Dr. E. L. Mathias, who was attending juvenile court, across the hall, was summoned and succeeded in restoring the woman to consciousness.

Inasmuch as the plaintiff alleges that one permanent result of the injury, because of which she wants $20,000 damages, is that her nerves are affected. Judge Goodrich thinks that her fainting may prejudice the jury. He adjourned the case until this morning, when a new jury will be secured.

Labels: circuit court, courtroom, doctors, Judge Goodrich, Judges, Lawsuit, Rosedale, streetcar

June 2, 1907

Gets $3,000 for His Foot.

George W. Tucker was given $3,000 for his right foot by a jury in Judge Brumback's division of the circuit court yesterday afternoon. Tucker was employed by the Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company, when a pole rolled from a pile and hit his right leg, smashing his foot. The telephone company will appeal from the verdict.

Labels: circuit court, Judges, Lawsuit

April 14, 1907

NOW DANNAHOWER SUES.

Alleges Conspiracy Prompted His
Prosecution and Asks $20,000.

After a three days' trial before Justice Shoemaker on a charge of stealing $30 worth of lumber, W. L. Dannahower, a real estate man, was acquitted yesterday. W. C. Carson, a contractor, was the complainant.

As a result of the action in Judge Shoemaker's court, a suit was filed in the circuit court by Dannahower yesterday afternoon against Homer B. Mann, Clyde Taylor, James H. Richardson, L. Rosenfield, W. C. Carson, C. A. Shawver, I. N. Wagner, Al Heslip and N. B. Olson. Dannahower asks for $20,000 damages and alleges that a conspiracy was entered into by the defendants in causing his arrest and in causing Anna Trestrail, the principal witness against Dannahower, to swear to an affidavit charging him with stealing a quantity of shingles.

County Marshal Heslip and Deputies Olson, Shawver and Wagner are made defendants as arresting officers, it being alleged that the complaint was not properly drawn.

Labels: circuit court, Judge Shoemaker, Lawsuit, police, real estate

April 12, 1907

CITY WINS "GLASS EYE" SUIT.

Laborer Washed Optic in Water

Impregnated With Dynamite.

John McCann became an employe of the city in 1902 as a member of the water works department. He had at the time only one good eye, the sight of the other having been destroyed and instead of a seeing pupil he had a glass substitute. After working hours one day he discovered, by the aid of a looking glass and the sight of his good eye, that his artificial eye was covered with dirt and he took it out of the socket and gave it a thorough washing in a bucket of water, which it was learned later had been used to wash off several sticks of dynamite. Following this act on the part of Mr. McCann, his other eye became blind and he filed suit against the city for $25,000, alleging that the dynamite washed in the bucket poisoned the water and thus caused the loss of his second eye.

After a trial lasting the entire day Judge McCune, in whose division of the circuit court the case was heard, instructed the jury to return a verdict in favor of the city. He held that the city was not responsible for the water in which its employes washed their glass eyes. The case has been in the courts for several years, the city in the last trial being represented by Charles Bush, assistant city counselor.

Labels: circuit court, Judge McCune, laborer, Lawsuit

March 2, 1907

SUES HIS WIFE'S RELATIVES.

Mother-in-Law One of those
Blamed for Alienation

William T. Dunlap, a telegraph operator in the employ of the Postal Telegraph Company, yesterday filed suit in the district co urt, Kansas City, Kas., against his mother-in-law, Sarah A. Brown, and his sister-in-law, Mattie L. Brown, for $30,000. He charges that his sister-in-law and his mother-in-law together alienated the affecitons of his wife.

Dunlap says he married Jessie Brown in Piper, Kas, June 28, 1899. Since that time he and his wife have lived in various parts of the United States. Mrs. Dunlap insisted upon making frequent visits to her mother and sister. After each visit, Dunlap says he noticed a lessening in his wife's affections for him. The last visit made to the Browns, who live at Piper, Kas., was in July, 1906. But a orrespondence continued.

"I wish I had the money to buy him out and let him go," is one of the remarks which Dunlap says his mother-in-law used to disparge him in the eyes of his wife. Besides this, he alleges that both mother-in-law and sister-in-law told his wife that he was a fool, continually found fault with him to her, told her that he did not provide decent furniture for their home, and that he was not good enough for her, anyway.

Because of these uncomplimentary remarks, Dunlap says that his wife left him January 7, 1907. But in a day or two she came back to take most of the furniture, not even leaving him a bed. All she allowed him was a cook stove, a small stove, four chairs and a wire couch, but no bed clothes.

And so, as Dunlap says, "disgraced and rendered homeless," he filed suit for $30,000 against his mother-in-law and his sister-in-law, who live on a farm near Piper, Kas.

Labels: Divorce, Lawsuit, telegraph