Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-10-09
FAMOUS JENNINGS CASE.
BRIEF REVIEW OF ELEVGN-YEAR
LACkAWANNA CONTEST.

Damage Suit Which Was Tried and Re-
Tried and in Which the Regulations of
Prominent Men Were Often Involved.
End Came Last Week.
As announced in the TRIBUNE on
| Thursday the case of John G. Jennings,
of Minooka, against the Lehigh Valley
Railroad Company had been settled out
OF court The settlement was announc-
ed at Stroudsburg, where the case was
to have been tried by certification from
the courts of Lackawanna county.
Nothing definite has leaked out as to
the terms of the settlement, but there
is fairly well authenticated rumor,
says the Scranton Times, that Mr.
Jennings ,received a substantial sum OF
money and most people will be glad
that he did.
No legal proceedings ever instituted
in the courts of Lackawanna county
gave rise to so many sensational incl
dents as the cases based on the injury
to young John Jennings in the disaster
at Mud Run on October 10, 1888. The
OF the case of the injured young man,
when, after a verdict had been render
ed in favor of the defendant, the late
Judge Connolly summarily set the YER
dict aside as being against the evidence.
After that sensation followed sensation
in such quick succession as to make
the case celebrated, not only in the
county, but throughout the state. 1t
even received columns of space in the
great metropolitan newspapers.
There was q direct clash of expert
testimony as to the seriousness of
young Jennings injuries, and Mr. Jen-
nings and his attorneys claimed that
the railroad company had procured
somebody to falsely personate the in
jured boy and undergo examination be-
fore the doctors whose testimony in
dicated that the injuries were slight,
and that the malformation of the
breast, the chief basis for damages, was
congential and not a result of the acci-
dent. The truth of this allegation was
never established.
DR.. f. b. Gulick, a physician of good
repute, was witness at one of the
trials. He testified on the part of the
company and was severely crosS-eXamin-
ed. On the day following the city was
stunned by the announcement that he
was dead from the result of a gunshot
wound. The gun was in his own hands
and it was claimed by his friends to be
accidentally discharged while he was
cleaning it. But he was known to be in
a highly nervous condition and there
has always been an impression among
the public that the ordeal of the witness
stand unbalanced his mind and that he
shot himself while in an irresponsible
condition.
There were direct charges of jury
packing in the case and charges of
conspiracy against the plaintiff, in
which all the judges of the Lackawanna
courts, all the county officers who had
anything to do with, the case, and
about a dozen of the foremost attor-
neys of the city were arranged as the
consprators. A number of the per-
sons so charged brought suit for dam
ages against Cornelius Smith and John
G.. Jennings for defamation of charac-
ter and a Judgment which was recovered
for large amount against Mr.. Smith
was set aside and the case is still pend
ing in the courts, as is also a suit for
damages brought by Mr.. Smith against
his opponents.
The upshot of the many charges
against the court was the dsbarment of
Cornelius Smith, the attorney of Jen-
nings. Mr.. Smith appealed from the
Judgment of the lower court to the
supreme court and got favorable de-
cision to the extent that he should be re-
admitted after one year, if he should not
offend within that time. A much longer
time than a year found him still on the
outside and it was only after making an
apology satisfactory to the court that he
was allowed to take up the practice of
his profession once again.
Other incidents of this most remark
able case were two petitions to the
legislature asking for the impeachment
of all the judges of the Lackawanna
courts and the candidacy of Cornelius
Smith for judge last fall. Now that
the cause of all the trouble has been
amicably arranged between the parties
in interest, the collateral litigation
will probably be settled, too, and the
Jennings-Lehigh Valley cases will pass
into history. 1t will be very lively and
entertaining history at that.
Meeting of Borough Council.