The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-09-27
THE GREAT JONES COUNTY CALF.
An Animal which Has Occupied the
Iowa Courts for Fourteen Years.

Iowa COurLS LOT fOurCS0Q SdESs
From the Neo York sun.
DIES MONIES, IA, Sept. 16.-The cele.
brated Jones county calf case is before
Judge Linehan at Waterloo this week. 1t
is a case with history. 1t had its origin
fourteen years ago, has been tried in several
district courts, been heard in the supreme
court two or three times, and now comes up
for adjudication once more. In 1874 the
case was started in Jones county by a
farmers society. A man named Potter, of
Green county, travelled through that section
buying young stock. Among the rest, five
calves were bought of one Johnson, who has
been the prominent figure in the litigation
which has consumed SO much time. The
calves which were sold were afterward
ide titled as belonging to farmers in the
vicinity. At meeting of the Jones County
Anti-Horse Thief Society, held soon after
ward, it was determined to charge johnson
with the theft of the animals, and suit was
accordingly entered. In December of 1874
he was indicted by the grand jury in ses-
sion in Jones county, but the court set the
indictment aside. In February of the fol
lowing year he was again indicted by the
grand Jury and on this Indictment he was
twice tried, taking change of venue to ad-
joining counties. In the first trial the jury
of conviction. But in the second trial,
which occurred in 1876, he was acquitted.
Soon after Johnson's acquittal he began
suit against farmers named Miller and
Foreman, and six o-her prominent mem
bers of the society, claiming $4,000 dam
ages for malicious prosecution. The case
was taken upon change OF venue from
Jones county to Clinton. There it was
twice tried, and then removed to Benton
oh of x.yhara c
once more before the courts. In each of
these trials the jury returned a verdict in
favor of johnson for sums ranging from
So, 500 to 81 600, and each time tie trial
Judge set the verdict aside on account of
alleged errors.
The case was next taken to Black Hawk
county in 1888, on another change of venue,
and there tried. A verdict of $1,000 was
rendered by the jury, and Judgment en-
tered. From this, however, an appeal was
taken to the supreme court, the decision
reversed, and the case was remanded back
for trial in 1884.
In 1886 the case was once more tried in
Black Hawk county, and again a decision
was rendered in favor of johnson for 81 600.
This was again appealed to the supreme
court, and once more the verdict was set
aside, and the case sent back for trial in
1887, And now the sixth trial of the case
Will Jake place III w dU0IlOO dlutT IOuIOcSH
years of litigation.
This litigation has been under the consid-
Grafton of thirty grand jurors and eighty
four petit jurors; it has been presented TO
nine different trial judges. and has twice
been before the supreme court, five judges
sitting upon the bench each time. The court
costs alone amount to more than S., 900, and
the attorneys fees are much more than that
amount. All of the eightyfour jurors have
decided in favor of johnson, but the courts
have uniformly set the verdicts aside on
| legal grounds because of the close question
as to whether there was probable cause on
the part of the members of the society for
startling prosecution.
The large part of a lifetime has been
spent in useless litigation over a few ami
mails, the entire value of which was about
| S45. A number of the farmers engaged in
the suits have become hopelessly ruined
but still johnson comes smilingly before the
court, begins his suits, and readily pays
| for them, though he is fast sinking into in
solvency, and is already an elderly man.
| Children of various ages who testified
when the litigation first began, now lead
| into court room their own children, who are
nearly as old as were their parents at the
| time they made their first bows to the
courts. The farmers are growing old, their
money has leaked away through the vari-
GUS legal crevices. and found its way into
other hands; homes have been broken up, a
community made poorer in every way, and
still the cases is dragging through the tedi-
GUS channels of the law with but little more
chance of a settlement than there was four.
teen years ago.