Daily inter mountain., 1900-12-04
DISMISSES THE APPEAL,
Supreme Court Acts in Butte Conso!::-
dated Company Case-Favors
Woods.

Helena, Dec. 3.-(SpecaD-Gov g. Smith
today commuted the sentence of Peter
Woods. now serving a life sentence at
Deer Lodge for murder in the second
degree. to twenty years. Woods killed
a simple minded fellow named Short at
a section house along the railroad in
Jefferson county.
He was convicted at the October term
of the court at Boulder. in 1891. In a
letter to the state board of pardons the
governor says: Il am led to this cOnclu-
sion by thhe letter of Judge NJ. II. Park
or, who was prosecuting attorney in the
case, and also by the request of seven
of the jurors, all that are alive or can be
found, of the jury tina; tried him. These
are reinforced by all of the officers, ana
many of the prominent citizens of Jeffer-
son county, where the offense was conf
mitted." In addition to these facts it
appears that Woods had no lawyer to de-
fend him at his trial.
This fact is referred to by Judge Park
er. who describes this as one of the reas-
ons why the man received such severe
sentence.
trial is filed with the petition for Woods
release. Judge Henry N. Blake testifies
in letter that the man who defended
Woods had no standing as a lawyer,
and was refused admission to the bar.
The supreme court today dismissed the
appeal in the case of the Butte Console
dated Mining company, plaintiff and re-
spondent, against Louis Frank and
Charles B. Lowenson defendants and ap-
pellants.
This was an appeal from the order of
the district court of Silver Bow county,
refusing to modify the temporary injunc-
tion it had issued. The plaintiff is the
owner of the Bordeaux placer claim in
Silver Bow county. The defendants on
November 9Th, 1899, located the Cincin-
natl quartz lode claim on Bordeaux s
ground. He asked the district court for
an injunction restraining the defendants
from doing any work on the location.
man named Gemmell thereafter
bought from the defendants their Quartz
location and then asked the court to
modify it's injunction SO as to permit him
to complete his location of the Cincinnati
claim alleged not to have been done by
! the defendants The district court refus-
ed to modify and the appeal followed.
The respondents thereafter moved the
supreme court to dismiss the appeal but
the court in an opinion by Associate
Justice Pigott holds that the remedy of
! the defendants was to appeal from the
| order of the district court granting the
injunction and not by appeal from the
order refusing to modify it. The motion
to dismiss was therefore granted.
The district court of Gailatin county
was reversed by the Supreme Court in
| the case of j. F. Ogle and A. J. Walrath
plaintiffs and appellants, against William
| Potter, defendant and respondent. This
| was an action to obtain dissolution of a
partnership existing between the plain
tiff and the defendant. The matter was
| given to a referee to try, who made q
finding in favor Of the plaintiff. He left
| the state for parts unknown SShortly af-
ter making findings. and the defendant
moved for a new trial. In his motion
he failed to state the grounds on which
he asked a new trial. Besides this the
motion was made long time after il
should have been presented. The dist.
rict court granted new trial and plain
tiff's appealed to the Supreme Court fol
the reason that statutory steps had moi
! been taken to secure an appeal to the
district court.
The November term of the Unite,
States district and circuit court wa
opened this afternoon by Judge Hira !,
Knowles. A number of bankruptcy cas-
es We're set for hearing and orders wer,
handed down in several suits.
The calendar for the term will be Gale;
| at 10 o'clock tomorrow.