Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-10-12
The Liability OF Liquor Sellers.

We find in the Rutland Herald detailed
statement of tie already noted case Of
Ophelia Snow vs.. Daniel and Daniel C. Car
penter. recently tried in the Windham
County Court. 1t was first tried at the Sep
TENDER term of the Windham County Court
in 1876, and verdict rendered for the plain
tiff for 81 800. Exceptions were taken and
the case was carried to the Supreme Court
at the February term, JS77, and remanded
BY that court to the County Court for new
trial. 1t has lately been tried again before
Judge Dunton, the jury returning a
verdict for the plaintiff for $2,00S.G0.
1t appears that the elder defendant, an old
man of 20, was the town liquor agent of
Readsboro and that, on the occasion OF a
town fair, his son, d. C. Carpenter, took
quantity Of liquor to barn near the fair
ground, where it was sold by the drink, the
younger Carpenter acting as a decoy to en-
tice people into the barn to buy liquor. Ira
A. Snow, a deputy sheriff for Windham
county, was at the barn several times and
purchased liquor of both the Carpenters.
After he was very much intoxicated he took
three men to the barn to treat them, and or
dered three glasses of liquor, but he was so
drunk they refused to drink with him,
whereupon he drank the three glasses Of
liquor himself. Soon after he had his horse
hitched up and started off with his wife. Snow
cyan to whip the horse, which was spirited
one. Mrs. Snow, seeing that the lines were
loose, caught hold of them. This made her
husband angry and he took the lines away
from her, struck the horse several blows
with the whip and drove him furiously upon
a rock or bank by the side of the road,
which turned over the carriage and threw
both down bank about twenty feet Her
breast bone and two or three of her ribs were
broken by the fall. While in this helpless
condition her husband struck and shook her
and swore at her. In consequence Of the
injuries thus received she was confined to her
bed about eight months and is probably u
cripple for life, as her spine was injured.
The defendant, Daniel Carpenter, claimed
that he sold Snow but single drink Of whis-
key; that as town agent he had right to
sell it to him. The younger Carpenter denied
selling or furnishing any liquor to Snow,
Judge Dunton ruled that whatever liquor was
sold at the barn was unlawfully sold that
it made no difference how much intoxicating
liquor Snow might have obtained from other
parties than the defendants, provided the
liquor sold by them, or either Of them, was
portion of the liquor causing his intoxica-
ton; that to entitle the plaintiff to recover
she must not only show that the liquor upon
which her husband became intoxicated was
unlawfully sold or furnished, in whole or in
part, by the defendants. but also that the
of her husband while in such state of in
to1icatiOn that is, that her husband, on
sho OOShoioh buS'hioht MS hOi0e,
drove on to the rock and tipped over his
wagon Intentionally, and not by acct
dent or mere careless driving. After the
jury had been out awhile they came in and
asked whether the court intended to in
struct the jury that Snow must have wilfully
driven over that particular rock that upset
the carriage. The Judge replied that in
order for the plaintiff to make out her case,
they must find that Snow Intentionally
whipped the horse and drove on to the rock
or bank in such way az to tip over the
wagon that is, that he must have inten-
tionally done it, as a drunken man is capable
of intending to do an act. The word will
fully, as used in the statute, does not mean
wickedly, but simply means Intentionally,
purposely.
The Jury. th sreup9p retired, and returned