The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-11-08
Supreme Court Reverses His
Chicken Stealing Case Today.
Webb McNall Also Gets Favor
able Decision.
WON'T HAVE TO PAY
Insurance Company Judgment
for 2 Per Cent Tax Reversed.
One Topeka Joint Case Affirmed
One Reversed.

time.
In the first place A. F. Poole, who
was convicted in the Shawnee county /
district court of burglary in the second |
degree and larceny for breaking into a
hen house and stealing four hens, and |
was given sentence of seven years in
the penitentiary, gets new trial The
case hinged on whether or not breaking
into a hen house constituted second de-
gree burglary. 1t was contended that
hen house is not in the class of build
ings breaking into which constitutes
second degree burglary and the supreme
court took that view of it. The court
says it must be a building in which
there is a human being or goods, mer-
chandise or valuable merchandise, and
1t does not seem to consider that four
hens constitute valuable merchandise.
The suit of the Metropolitan Life In
surance company against Webb McNall,
formerly superintendent of insurance,
to recover the per cent tax paid on Its
1898 premiums in February, 1899, is also
reversed. McNan made the insurance
companies pay the tax Immediately
after the passage of the law and he took
the volume of their business in 1898 as
a basis for making the collection. The
supreme court holds that this was prop
er; that the tax was not really upon the
1898 business, but was a fee for doing
business during 1899, and that McNal
was right in collecting it in advance
and using the 1898 business as basis
for levying the tax.
L
a technicality When he appealed from
the justice court to the district court the
information against him was not GER
tilted to him by the justice until after
| his trial began in the district court. The
supreme court holds that this was an
! error.
The Gates Chesney liquor case was
affirmed, and Chesney will have to go
to jail-perhaps.
Down in Bourbon county ]. W. Davis
and other owners of lots in a cemetery
brought an action to compel NJ. J. Gov
! entry to allow them to have a voice in
1.-The election Of officers in the cemetery
| association. Coventry and his family
owned all the cemetery stock and ran
things to suit themselves. The supreme
| court says:
Public cemeteries are not authorized
to issue and sell stock The owners of
the lots are members of the corporation
and are entitled to vote in the election
of its officers and upon all other mat
ters to the same extent as stockholders
| in other corporations.
Robert Hawthorn Burton, who has
been twice convicted of murder in the
first degree in Marion county for killing
a man named Hoffman, is given a new
trial by the supreme court This is the
second time the court has reversed the
trial court in this case. The killing was
the result of a quarrel over girl The
| new trial is granted on the ground that
| there was misconduct among the jurors.
One of them slept all night during the
trial with a brother of the murdered
man, and others gave their personal
knowledge of the affair in the jury ROOM
Chief Justice Doster and Justice Pol
lock take occasion to call down jurors
who tell afterwards what was done in
/ the jury room, as happened in this case.
Doster says in specially cQncurring:
ITO my mind the practice of allowing
I jurors to expose the secrets of the jury
room and relate matters occurring there
while sanctioned in such cases as this
! by former decisions, is radically wrong
| 1t is allowing jurors to impeach their
verdict as to matters inhering in it, and
| it should not be permitted"
A matter of interest to holders of in
surance policies is a decision in suit
| brought by Charles L. Hoover against
the Royal Neighobrs of America in
brown county. 1t was alleged that some
| of the answers given by the insured in
the medical examination were untrue,
and while the answers were not material
in the cause of the death of the insured
later they invalidated the policy be-
| cause it was so stated in the policy. The
trial court ordered verdict for the n
surance company, and the supreme
court upholdS it.
S. A. Daniels. sheriff of Cowley coun-
ty, wins the case in which he was
charged with official misconduct for al
lowing a prisoner a certain degree of
liberty. The prisoner in the case was
George w. Miller, who was accused of
the murder of George Q. Montgomery
the noted Winfield murder case. Miller
/ was bound over for trial for murder in
the first degree without bond, but he
was not kept closely confined by Sheriff
Daniels. For this reason the county at
torney began action against him for
misconduct. but the lower court found
I in favor of Daniels and the supreme
| court SustainS it.
The suit of Richard Roesner against
James F. Darrah in Mcpherson county
for alternating his wife's affections, is
reversed and sent back for new trial
In the trial of the case the lower court
held that the husband. RoeSner, could
not testify as to his wife's actions, al
though the plaintiff in the case. The
supreme court holds that this was
wrong in a case of this kind. Darrah
won in the lower court, but the case
goes back for another trial and ROesner
may get judgment against Darrah
yet.
The following is the full list of de-
cisions handed down by the supreme
DOSTER, C. J.
i Richard sRoesner VS.. James r. Dar-
rah; error from Mcpherson county Re
versed and remanded for new trial
Hardgadine- McKittrick Dry Goods Co.
VS.. Swofford Bros. Dry Goods Co.; err
ror from Douglas county. Reversed and
new trial ordered.
Adrian F. Sherman. trustee, etc, VS.
NJ. NJ Lockhardt: error from Morris
county. Affirmed. Doster C. j., Pollock,
J. and Burch, J. dissenting
National Bank of America VS.. Home
Security company ct al: error from Sa-
| line county. Affirmed. Bureh J. not sit :
ting, having been of counsel.
State vs. Fritz Durein; appeal from