The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-04-13
$3.50 PER DAY
Is What Some of the Big At
t0rneys of the State
Are Working For In the Feder-
al Court This Week.
LAWYERS SUBPENAED
Fifty of Them From Kansas
City and Topeka
Giving Expert Testimony In the
100000 Attorney Fee Case.

There is the largest and most select
collection of lawyers in attendance at
the federal court this week that has
gathered in one case in Topeka in
long time. The court room has the
appearance of being the meeting place
of some big bar association, only the
lawyers are nearly all from Kansas
City or Topeka.
One peculiar thing about this collee
ton of lawyers is that they are nearly
all witnesses instead of counsel. They
have no direct interest in the verdict
of the jury, and the most of them spend
their time sitting around and telling
stories.
The court is still laboring with the
first case that was taken up last Mon
day-that of McGrew, Watson & Wat
son, the Kansas City attorneys, against
Wyandotte county for the collection of
$780, 900 attorneys fee. There are about
fifty attorneys subpoenaed as expert
witnesses to testify as to the usual
method of charging fees.
AS told in Tuesdays State Journal
the county commissioners of WyandOtte
county employed the plaintiffs to defend
the county in road certificate suits, in
Volving something over $600,000, and
they won the suits, twenty-one in num-
Der, some of which were fought through
the federal court here in Topeka and
carried to the United States court of
appeals. The plaintiffs charged 10 per
county as their attorney fee, and it is
to this that the county objects. To
prove that the fee is or is not excessive
about fifty attorneys have thus far been
summoned and still more may be. In
addition to these, there is about bushel
basket full of dispositions from various
attorneys all over the country bearing
on the same subject.
There are about twenty-five attor-
neys subpOenaed from Kansas City,
Kan, among them some of the leading
legal lights of the State-men who are
accustomed to receiving large fees for
telling what they know about law, but
in this case they are spending their time
around the federal building in giving
expert testimony and receiving the
magnificent sum of $3.50 per day for
their services, the amount that is fixed
by law for witness fees.
Some of these men have big lawsuits
on hand involving thousands of dollars
in which their own fees would amount
into hundreds, and their time is valua-
BILE; but they have to be content with
$50 per day in this case.
1t might be expected that there would
be a great deal of grumbling among
them over this state of affairs, but such
is not the case. They are accustomed
to compelling other people to come into
court as witnesses against their will,
and consequently they are simply TAX
ing some of their own medicine. They
they can stand it, and then go out in
the corridors and smoke and swap
stories.
Among the Kansas City contingent
that is up here as witnesses are Silas
Porter, ex-Congressman o. L. Miller, J.
F. Getty, Nathan Cree, c. Angevine, A.
L. Berger. Samuel Maher, T. P. AndeF-
son, Judge Carol and many others.
In addition to these, there are ten or
a dozen Kansas City attorneys mixed
up in the case as counsel for one side
or the other.
There are not many of the Topeka
lawyers around the federal building, be-
cause most of them can reach the court
room on short notice when they are
wanted to testify. Among those who
have been subpoenaed are Judge Hor-
ton, Attorney General GODDARD, J. G.
Slonecker, w. H. Rossington. David
Overmyer, c. S. Gleed, ]. w. .Gleed, L.
c. Boyle, R. B WEIGH. Capt. Waters.
N. H. Loomis, 2. H. Coney, J. D. Nc
Farland, J. B. Larimer, Ed. Austin,
John w. Day and Howell Jones.
1t has been a sort of a race between
the two sides to see which could sum-
mon the most lawyers to testify on it's
side. Neither side would tell the other
what attorneys it had subpoenaed, and