The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-12-05
YESTERDAY IN THE COURTS
DECISION IN CASE OF DR. WRITTEN
 YS. DOOLITTLE ESTATE.

Judge Townsend In United States Court sustains Two Demurrers of the Plaintiff Peck Brothers & Co.'S Receivers Want a 94.2O0 Claim Disallowed-R Receivers Bond Reduced from S75, 900 to S1O,OOO. Judge Townsend of the United States district court yesterday handed down a decision in the case of Dr. George E. Whitten against William L. Bennett as eXecutor of the estate of the late I'll ton E. Doolittle and John R. Leete, which practically, if not absolutely, ends the litigation.
 The suit was brought to recover S100,- 900 damages, which Whitten claimed he suffered by the injury done his char acter, and for financial losses incidental to the action of the late MT. Doolittle while state attorney for New Haven county, in having obtained by fraud an indictment for murder in the second degree from grand jury against Whit ten.
 It was further charged that Dr. Whitten was taken from Massachu- setts by Detective Leete under false pretences, stating to the officials that he (Whitten) was wanted for murder in the first degree, an unbailable offence. That he was taken to this state with out having been given an opportunity to take advantage of habeas corpus.
 Counsel for the defendant set up a demurrer first in the case against MT. Bennett among others, that an action of tort in this state does not survive the testator and in the case against MT. Leete that the papers served on the complainant were valid or their face.
 Judge Townsend, after carefully re- viewing the cases, sustains both de- murrers, and this ends, undoubtedly, the long line of prosecutions and liti- gation growing out of the death of Maggie Schloss, the Ansonia girl who died of malpractice in the summer of 1893, after having been attended by Dr. J. Edward Lee and the complainant in this case.
 Judge Townsend, in his opinion, does not agree with the complainant's at torney and decides that the suit is a common law action for personal wrong
 
 defendant testator who was domiciled in this state, and that, therefore, the procedure must be governed by the law of this state
 Regarding the case against MT. Leete Judge Townsend states that an officer should not be obliged to inquire wheth- CT the grand jury was justified in do- ing what it did.
 Superior Court-Civil side-Judge Shum-
 way.
 Motion was made in the superior court yesterday in behalf of the receiv- allowance of the claim of $4 200 against the concern by Amos Bradley of South ington.
 MT. Bradley is seventy years old, and in January, 1S96 bought of Broker Charles w Scranton of this city some s4,20O worth of Peck Bros. & Go. stock. The deal was made with the option that If Mr. Bradley did not find his venture paying investment he could return the stock and get back his mon- ey, This option was to hold good until January 1, 1897.
 When the company went into the hands of the receiver, March Il, 1896, three months after MT Bradley's pur- chase, MT. Bradley claimed his money under the clause allowing him until January, 1897, to decide upon the stock. The receivers claimed that by the terms of the contract he should have claimed the money immediately after the de- claring of the dividend. They say that the clause naming the date January 1897. does not affect the contract, and want the claim disallowed, as by his holding the stock for some time after the dividend was declared MT Bradley lost the privileges of creditor and became stockholder.
 Henry F. Peck asks that the claim of S4.200 be disallowed on the ground that there was no agreement with MT. Scranton to sell stock under the above option.
 w S. Downs, one of the receivers, testified that he had made no such con- tract with the broker, but his testi- mony was contradicted on the stand by MT. Scranton.
 Judge Shumway reserved his decis- ion.
 TWO AWARDS OF DAMAGES.
 Judge Shumway handed down two de- cisions yesterday morning in the su- nerior court. In one Daniel R. Budd of Meriden was awarded s1,500 damages against the Meriden Electric Railroad company
 On August 3O 1895, Wizer E. Budd, aged twenty-one months, was killed on Pratt street, Meriden, by one of the company's cars, and Daniel R. Budd, the father, brought suit, alleging negli- gence.
 In the other decision James Hogan, a driver, was awarded nominal dam- ages of 1925 against the New Haven Clock company. On October 30, 1895 Hogan. who was delivering coal to the company, had a leg injured by slipping through a rotten board onto the shaft ing.
 RECEIVERS BOND REDUCED.
 In the superior court yesterday morn ing motion was granted by Judge Shumway for the reduction of the bond of F. C. Lum, the receiver of B. H. Douglass & Sons. The bond of the re- ceiver was fixed at S75,000, but it was shown that he had already paid out A per. cent. dividend to creditors, and would soon pay another dividend of :
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