Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-05-04
DAMAGES AWARDED.
The Jury Gives Frances Dykes
Fifteen Thousand Dollars.

The Jury Gives Frances Dykes
Fifteen Thousand Dollars.
The case OF Frances Dykes against Geo.
J. Van Every, of Santa Monica, to re-
cover 500 900 for breach of promise, came
to an end yesterday afternoon about .
O'Clock, after having been on trial for
week. This case has attracted an unusu.
ally large number of people to the court
room, which has been crowded ever
since the first day. Miss Dykes was on
the stand two days, and told her story as
published in the HERALD, and public
sentiment was decidedly in her favor from
that time on, and when verdict was
given in her favor by the jury, it was the
general opinion that justice had been
dora
Yesterday morning, when Court
opened, Mr.. Williams, attorney for the
defendant, continued his argument, IN
which he held that his client had acted
in manner perfectly proper, and that,
while he might have been indiscreet, he
had done oil in his power to make
amends. He held that there had been
no promise OF marriage, and that Frances
Dykes had not been virtuous when the
engagement was said to have taken
place. He reviewed the testimony from
his standooin and closed at noon.
Judge Campbell made the closing ar
gument on behalf of Miss Dykes, aud in
going over the testimony given during
the trial he showed the weak points In
the de fense very clearly. He developed the
fact that Van Every had presented Miss
Dykes with the Bible after he had taken
her ND to the lawyers Office in Kansas
CITY and induced her to sign the state
ment that she had been seduced
by Johns. His remarks about
the conduct of the defendant aud his
brothers were scathing, and at one time
something he said caused the lobby to
applaud. This angered the attorney for
the defendant and be said that he had
heard on the street that the courtroom
would be packed" This statement
riled Judge Campbell and he demanded
that the person who said such thing be
brought into court. He did not want
such insinuations made while he was
arguing the case. Judge Wade said that
during Mr.. Williams argument he had
taken no action when the spectators had
smiled in an audible manner, and so far
he had heard no Objectionable noises in
the courtroom. He warned those pres
emit, however, that the County Jail was
near at hand for those who committed a
contempt of court.
Judge Campbell finished his argument
at 80 o'clock, and Judge WADE read
his instructions to the jury, which re-
tired. Very few of the spectators left
the courtroom and the plaintiff, who had
been sitting all day in the judges cham
bers, did not depart, but conversed with
her attorneys while the jury was out.
The defendant, his brothers and attorney,
went to Judge Van Dykes courtroom,
where they remained until it was an
nounced that the jury was ready to re-
port. The Van Everys then took seats
at the back part Of the courtroom.
When the Jury returned, its foreman,
g. E. Day, announced that verdict had
been agreed upon. Before it was read
Judge Wade called upon the attorneys
for the plaintiff for the fees for the jury
men. These were paid and the clerk OF the
court read the following verdict: "We, the
jury in the above entitled cause find fer
the plaintiff, and assess the damages at
SIS 000."
Upon the announcement of the verdict
all eyes we're turned toward the defend
ant, who turned red in the face and
nervously twisted his hat. The attor-
neys for the plaintiff, after demanding
that the verdict be recorded, congratu-
lated Miss Dykes upon her verdict, and
she was affected to tears. The jury was
then polled, and it was found that ten
had agreed upon SIS 900 and that George
Sadeckar and D. Botiller had not. 1t |
was afterward stated that these two were
not in favor of awarding SO large an
amount of damages, but that they we're
not very much lower than the others.