The Russellville Democrat., 1888-05-31
of the Observation-Disclosures
Controversy I'm johnson
County.


To the Editor of the Gazette:
The article signed "Fair Play" in
the Gazette of the 23d instant does
me an injustice, and demands at my
hands a statement of the facts of the
difficulty between A. 5. McKennon
and myself. At the December term,
1SS7,of the circuit court of johnson
county, the case of Blythe vs.. Jet
was tried. 1t was an action of re.
plevin for the possession of lot of
goods. At the commencement of the
action, Blythe executed delivery
bond and took possession Of the
goods. The case was tried before q
jury and they returned a verdict
against Blythe, but failed to assess
the value of the goods. called at.
tention of the counsel to the fact that
that thejury's ,verdict was incomplete
because it failed to assess the value
of the property, and asked them If
they could agree on its value. And
upon their statement that they could
not, / told them to call Witnesses TO
prove its value. The attorneys in
troduced one witness, and examining
him awhile stated that they bad
agreed that the jury might assess
the value as it was stated to be in
Blythe's affidavit, which was made
at the commencement of the suit, and
this the jury accordingly did. That
this is a correct statement OF the
facts about the admission on this
point, / call as witnesses Mr.. r. G.
Redding, Hugh Basham, Sheriff Jett,
Deputy Clerk Champion, FL. S. Car
ter and every juryman who sat in
the case.
1t is we'll known by every lawyer
that in trials OF causes for the pos
session of property where the losing
party has bonded the property aud
is in possession OF 1t, as was the case
in this instance, that the value of the
property should be stated in the YER
dict so that in case the property had
been disposed of or converted into
money, judgment might be render
ed against him for Its value. About
three weeks afterwards | was down
on my farm attending to some i'm
provements, when q gentlemen came
down in a buggy and said that Mr..
Blythe of GAINESVILLE, wanted to see
me at my office. i got into my bug
gy and went to my office and Mr..
Blythe handed me bill of excep-
tions in the above mentioned case,
which had been written by A. S.
McKennon, counsel for Blythe. /
was little surprised that Mr.. Blythe
should come down to Dardanelle to
get bill Of exceptions signed, and
so expressed myself to him. Told
him that he might have sent it by
mail as is most always done. He
seemed anxious to have it signed
Immediately and stated that coun-
sci on both sides had agreed to it
and that he wanted to get back on
the afternoon train. l looked over
the bill and made some additional
statements, signed it and delivered
it to Mr.. Blythe, who returned that
afternoon. Several days after this
Mr.. +. r. McKennon, counsel for
defendant, Jett, came to Dardanelle
with the the bill of exceptions in the
Blythe case and said we had all over
looked the fact that the bill nowhere
stated that the value of the goods
had been proven or admitted, as was
found by the jury, and produced a
new bill Of exceptions, which he ask
ed me to sign. l declined to do SO,
and told him that / would not sign
two bills of exceptions in the same
case, but that / thought | had the
power to amend the original bill of
exceptions so as to make it speak
the truth, and thersupon Interpolat
ed the following statement, as we'll
as remember In the history of facts ::
There was evidence tending toprove
the value of the goods as found by
the jury"
A few days after thls,you may mag
inc my shock, when received let
ter from A. S. McKennon strongly
intimating to me that it was not on
ly Illegal but dishonorable to thus
change the bill of exceptions. Upon
receipt Of which sharp correspond
ence followed. AS | have stated A..
S. McKennon wrote this bill of ex-
ceptions and it was his duty TO have
written fair one. 1t was not fair
in this, that 1T omitted TO state that
proof had been taken or an admis-
sion had been made, that the value
of the goods was as found by the
jury. Ifthat commission occurred by
accident, it would seem that the first
act of candid and fairminded law
yer would have been to have it
speedily corrected to the end that
justice might be done. A bill of ex
ceptions is nothing but certificate
of the presiding Judge of the facts
as they occurred at the trial, and
anything 1T fails to state
is treated by the su-
preme court as not proven. So if /
had failed TO correct the bill, 1t
should have in effect certified that
there was no evidence before the
jury upon which they
could have based their
finding of the value of the goods.
Hence the case would have been re-
versed by neglect of duty on my
part. / amended the bill to speak
the truth and think / did right.
AT the term of the court of John
son county, which has just adjourn
4