The times., 1901-06-19
DECISIONS IN FOUR CASES.
The Court of Appeals Heverses
Judgment in Three Instances.

1
| In the Court of Appeals yesterday an
| opinion was announced by Justice Shep-
| ard granting a new trial to George R.
Davis. who was convicted in the Supreme
Court of the District of the larceny of
! 81 900 from the Southern Express Com
pany. The principal ground for the re-
Yersing of the judgment of the lower
court is stated to be that the jury was
left to infer that if the defendant stole
the money of the express company else
where than in the District that he after
ward brought it here. To infer from
such statement that Davis brought the
money into the District, in the absence
Of proof to the contrary, was clearly
erroneous, the court held. 1t was even
more erroneous. the court held, because
such inference imposed upon the defend
ant the burden of disproving or over
turning this impression.
Davis was employed by the Southern
Express Company as a railway messen-
ger running between this city and Mo-
bile, Ala. On July 3, 1893, a package
containing $1,000 was lost by the COM
pany in transportation from the South
10 New York. Money packages had been
lost before, and suspicion had pointed to
Davis as the person responsible for their
work on the case and it was discovered
that a person had employed Arthur
Baumgarten. local workman, TO make
him a seal similar to those used by the
Southern Express Company Ia sealing its
money packages. In the presence of the
officers of the company in this city
Baumgarten identified Davis as the man
for WHOM. he had made the duplicate
seal
Upon being thus accused Davis pulled
a pistol from his pocket and fired at
Baumgarten. The ball did not take ef-
feet. Davis. however, was indicted by
the grand jury for assault with intent to
kill. and upon conviction was sentenced
to two and one-half years imprisonment
IN the penitentiary. He was afterward
pardoned by President Mckinley. Soon
afterward Davis was put on trial on the
charge Of larceny and convicted.
In the case Of the District against the
Washington, Alexandria and Mount Yer
nor Railway Company in which the
latter secured an order from the lower
court restraining the former from exc
cution of in order for the removal of
certain switches and electrical appliances
at the corner of Fourteenth Street and
Maryland Avenue southwest. the Court
Of Appeals held that il was an error for
the lower court to decline to dissolve the
injunction. The order of the Supreme
Court of the District continuing the re-
and the case remanded to the lower court
with directions to vacate the restraining
order. The opinion was announced by
Justice Shepard.
In the case of Samuel ". Augenstein
against Aulick Palmer, in his official
capacity as United States Marshal for
the District, to recover 81 ,250 claimed as
damages for the seizure and detention of
certain personal property, the Judgment
Of the lower court was reversed, with
costs and a new trial ordered. In the
lower court the plaintiff was awarded
judgment for the amount asked.
In the case of Edward =. Mertz against
the District of Columbia, which was an
appeal from the judgment of the Police
Court the decision of the latter was sus-
tanned. Mertz was charged in the Police
Court with violation of the building regu-
latiOns, in that he cut door between his
store and the f Street entrance to the
Columbia Theatre without permission.
For this he was fined $40 in the Police
Court and took an appeal 10 the Court
of Appeals for the District. The decision
in this case was announced by Justice
Barnard, who sat in the Court of APP /
peaIs during the absence of Chief JUS
tice Alvey, and heard the argument on |
the question involved.