St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-02-14
Two Attorneys Use Warm
Language in a Damage
Suit,
In Which the City is Defend
ant and Six Cents the
Verdict. q:
City Officials Inspect the New
Method Of Garbage Dis
poSal. .'
A West Side Butcher Disap-
pears With His Wife's =
Wealth.

The $4,000 damage cases brought by
A. b. WIlgus and James NJ. WEIGH
against the city came to an abrupt and
ignominious ending yesterday, the jury
returning averdictin each case in favor
of the plaintiff for the princely amount
of cents. Wilgus, and Welch, his
brother-in-law, were the owners of a
couple of lots in the vicinity of the ball
grounds, in West st. Paul. In grading
State street quantity of earth from the
slopes was placed on the property in
question, and it was this trespass that
formed the basis of the suits. Mr..
Pierce, who has monopoly, so far as
conducting cases against the municipal
lty is concerned, conducted the plain
tiffs' cases, while Mr.. II Gilman looked
after the interests of the city, and
great deal Of feeling cropped out be-
tween the two during the trial. Mr..
Pierce contended that the plaintiffs
were entitled TO damages in the amount
necessary to remove the earth, build a
retaining wall. drive piling, and other
incidentslS. On the other hand wit
nesses were put on the stand who swore
that that the property, far from hay
ing suffered any dimunition in
value. was actually benefited in
value by the surplus earth.
In summing up. MIR. Holman was I'M
able to restrain his pent-up anger at be-
ing compelled to try such an outlandish
case. and the way he pitched into
Brother Pierce, Mr.. Wilgus and Archi-
tect Schlcllling was worth going miles
to hear. He said the Ramsey county
bar was sadly deteriorating when law
yer could be found to father such an
action as the one at bar. He accused
Wiigus of being willy and INSCRIPTIONS,
and referred to Schickling as man
who was willing and ready to swear to
anything. There should be law, he
continued, to punish both attorney and
client who should descend so low as to
engage in specuIationS Of this sort. At
this point Mr.. Pierce greatly enraged,
interrupted the speaker and called upon
the court to compel the corporation at
t0rney to stick to his text, and not lug
in eXtraneouS matter. Judge Kerr ad-
ministered slight rebuke to both AZ
t0rneys, and Mr.. Holman went on with
his argument, concluding with an APP
peal to the jury to Smite Pierce, Wilgus
d Co. by bringing i'll a verdict for an in
finitiSimal sum.
1t was MIR. Pierce's last inning, and
when he rose to speak there was blood
in his eye. He said he had lived in st.
Paul for over thirty years. and he chal-
lenged any man to impugn his honesty
or integrity. He referred to Holman
as creature of circumstance,
who never would have been
heard of but for an accident.
The latter bit his lip at this home thrust,
but refrained from putting in his oar,
evidently satisfied that the jury would
give Mr.. Pierce an upper cut when the
verdict, and he was not mistaken. as
was evidenced when the twelve good
men and true returned into court a
moment after leaving the box with a
verdict awarding damages for six post
age stamps. And thus ended two suits.