The San Francisco call., 1906-09-13
Transatlantic Jury Is.
Selected to Try
First Case.

Whether fire insurance companies
Will be exempt from paying fire losses
by reason of the earthquake of April
is is a question which will be solved
within a few days in the United States
Circuit Court by the jury sworn in yes
terday to try the case of the Levi
Strauss Realty Company against the
Transatlantic Fire Insurance Company
OF Hamburg, Germany. The suit was
brought to recover $4,000 on policies
covering the brick building 10 to "a
Battery street, and $4,000 on the build
ing at the corner of Kearny street and
Union Square avenue occupied by Ra-
phaels.
The following are the names of the
jurors: James C. n. Ferguson, Andrew
Forman, Hugh Frazer. Timothy Hop
kins. William Metzner,. Henry Quellen,
John p. Byrne, H. E. Brown, A Les
ter, P. S. McQuaid, H. c. Richardson
and Fred Shattler.
In his opening statement for the
plaintiff. Henry Ach emphasized that
the only point in issue was whether
the earthquake had weakened the
buildings so as to render them more
likely to be attacked by fire. This, he
said, was the gist OF the defense out
lined in the answer. At the outset yes
terday, Immediately after the jury had
been sworn in, Ach asked Attorney
A~-SniAOAAS OL COQnSSl LOT the QGI6nSG,
whether he would consent to the trial
of the other cases against the same
company before the present jury, but
Eickhoff would not consent to the pro-
position.
1t was not contended by the defense,
said Ach, that there was any provision
in the policies for the payment of loss
by earthquake or by fire directly
caused by earthquake, and the burden
of nr00f would fal1 he ~
company to prove that either of these
buildings was injured by the quake or
that the walls of either or both had
been thrown down by the temblor be-
fore the fire reached them. He pro-
posed to prove by two witnesses who
had visited the buildings after the
earthquake and before the fire that
they had not been injured at all by
the shock. He exhibited to the jury a
photograph, which he afterward in
troduced in evidence, showing the Ra-
phael building while the Call building
was burning and before the fire had
reached Kearny street. He said that
the picture showed that the Ra-
phael building was absolutely intact,
and that no part of the walls was down
and that even the chimneys were
standing.
Eickhof remarked that it was a well
known fact that ordinary photographs
were full of inaccuracies.
Jacob Stern, president of the Levi
Strauss Realty Company, identified the
building as shown in the photograph.
Then Lester Upfelder, a manufacturer
of curled hair, told how after the shock
he had gone to the Palace Hotel and
had seen the opera singers in prestis-
simo movement hauling their Sara
togas out of the hotel, and bewailing
their fate in soprano, contralto, tenor
and bass accents. Then he walked UP
Kearny street and noticed that the
Raphael building had not been injured
at all
On cross-examination by Eckhoff the
witness admitted that he did not enter
the building and did not know whether
the walls inside had been broken or
were intact. He was positive, how
ever, that on the Kearny street side
the structure was not damaged at ALL
The trial will be resumed at 10
o'clock this morning.