The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-28
MODERN CASE OF JARNDYCE VS..
JARNDYCE.


that the modern case of Jarndyce VS..
Jarndyce has at last reached the Supreme
Court of the United States. It's title III
the courts is James VS.. Western. N. c.
Railroad Something like eight years
ago Mr.. James, capable engineer, was
killed on the Western North Carolina
Railroad. His widow brought suit in Ro-
wan Superior Court and obtained YER
dict for $4,000. And then her troubles be-
gan. The Supreme Court of North Caro-
lima has affirmed the judment twice, but
the Southern got the case into the Fed.
eral court-thanks to Judge Simonton-
and it has been dragging its slow length
along all these years. In the meantime
Mrs. James has been kept out OF the
stages Of delay and technicalities which
the ingenuity of the Southern Railway
lawyers has been able to employ.
No matter how the case may terminate,
the Southern has made money by keeping
the suit hung up. Every time the widow
OF an engineer or fireman who is killed on
the Southern-and it has happened very
often in the record-breaking accident year
oil 1903-begins a suit against the railroad,
smart claw agents or attorneys of the
Southern offer a small sum in payment.
If the widow demurs and demands just
and reasonable sum-an amount which
fair minded jury would fix, taking into
consideration the age and earning ca
pacity OF the person kiiled-the law
agent" or attorney, in friendly way,
points out that it will be better for tie
widow to take a small sum in cash than
run the gauntlet of the uncertain courts.
The average widow knows nothing of
courts, is fearful of the ordeal OF a trial.
and often IS persuaded to accept ridi'
culously small sum to avoid the vexations
and publicity OF a trial. In case she is
not influenced by the aforesaid persua-
sicns of the law agent, he contrives co
let her know the history of the James
case. Nine times out of ten repetition
"a
we say, infamous?-case will cause tie
widow to settle upon a sum much smaller
| than should be paid. The James case
has been for six or seven years held By
the Southern Railway in terro"em over
every dead engineers or firemens widow.
It has been a mighty persuader, for in
nearly every instance the widow is in sore
need of ready money and cannot afford
to wait the slow process of the courts,
The story of the delays in the James case
is enough to cause almost any widow to
settle upon the terms of the railroad
And so, no matter if the railroad loses,
the long delay in the James case has put
hundreds Of thousands of dollars into the
Golfers of the Southern Railway which
should have gone into the pockets of the
widows of engineers and other railroad
employees killed in railroad accidents OF
course the Southern wishes to win its
case, because it will then, though hold
ing a charter from the State of North
Carolina for the Western North Carolina
Railroad, be able to snap its fingers in
the State courts and remove all like
cases into the Federal court. The ad
vantage in removal to the Federal court
consists chiefly in the fact that most of
the judges of the lower Federal courts,
| who have been appointed III this section,
were railroad attorneys before appoint
| ,1,ci,,
appointment chiefly to the Southern Rail
way political managers and the managers
! of other railroads. Even it, after ap-
pointed, the judge is uninfuenced by graf
itude to the men who obtained his Gle
walton to the bench, in almost every case
his long training as railroad lawyer
mas given his mind natural bias in
favor of the railroads and against the
recovery OF large amounts for the death
OF employees. And that is why the South
ern Railway regards Federal court as
place where cases can be heard almost as
if lin the family as a prominent South
ern attorney once put it,
1t is to be hoped that plucky Mrs.
James will win her case, not only be-
cause she deserves to win it, but also
because her success will prevent the
transfer of all such cases into iurisdic-
ton that is too often made up of ex-rail-
read lawyers who cannot rio themselves
of the bias in favor of the railroads
obtained by long practise, where they were
always against the widow who was suing
1.-THE railroads. She should win also to
preserve the right of State court to hear
causes against corporation that owes
its very existence to State charter. The
States ought to have some rights over
railroads chartered by the State. even if
they are leased by outside corporations
JAMES MADISON LEACH IR,