The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-01
'O'NEAL LOSES CASE
MONTGOMERY wHIsKEY MAN MUST PAY LICENSES.
Supreme Court Decides Numerous Civil Matters and Holds that Court
 is Legally Held in Heftu

supreme Court Decides Numerous Civi
 Matters and Holds that Court
 is Legally Held
 in Hentn.
 I Overruling the application for a re-
 hearing from its decision in the appeal of J, B. Gaston, as Probate Judge lasainst Jesse O'Neal, the Supreme Court yesterday made obligatory the contention of the Judge of Probate thai retail liquor dealers in Montgomery l must hold county as we'll as State and city licenses to conduct business.
 With this action on the part of the State tribunal ends a litigation which has occupied the attention of the Mont I gomery legal fraternity during the last rivo years. I In 1901 Judge Gaston entered a suit against o'Neal to make him pay 3
 county licenso to conduct retail liquor l,business. O'Neal already held city and State licenses. The Montgomery City Court held in the trial that O'NeaI was | exempt from the county license, and Issued a mandamus to that effect. An pealing the case to the Supreme Court. | that body, in 1903, handed down an | opipnion reversing the decision of the | lower court, and remanding the case. Since that time an application for re- !, hearing has been pending in the high | CT court.
 j In the overriding of the application which was announced yesterday, Jus 1 tices Tyson, Denson and Anderson dis I sented. The action in the oNeal case was
 announced yesterday, together with a l number of other important rulings of
 the Supreme Court in civil cases. One of these. which has attracted consid- erable attention throughout the State because of Its political bearing, is the ex parte petition of Bud Owens, of Cle- burne county. to prevent an action of l the lower courts in that section on a charge of removal of county proper- l ty.
 The petition was purely in the na- l ture of test. the Owens case being used to determine the legality of the removal of the court house in Cleburne I from Edwardsville to Heflin. In the | petition to the State tribunal. 1t was urged that Owens could not be legally 1 tried because the trial had been held | in Heflin. Edwardsvil1e, it was claim ed. was the seat of the court in the county. and the trial should be held there.
 Political interests have been closely allied with the location of the court house in Cieburne. and its removal has been the occasion of a split in the Dem- ocrattc party organization there, which has attracted the attention of the whole State and developed two political factions which have been seeking to gain control of the party organiza- ton.
 The petition to the snureme Court was for a writ of prohibition restrain ing Judge Pelham from trying Owens in Heflin. In It's opinion, the petition was refused, the expression or the court being as follows:
 Tt thus appears that Heflin Is the place fixed by law in which the courts of said county should be held. and decree will be rendered denying the petition"
 An application for rehearing. which was overruled was that in the ap- peal of c. N. Robinson and Company ct al, vs. Adam Green. Green was a negro. boy who, the Limestone Circuit Court decided, had been held in peon- age by employees of the Robinson yCompany, on an island in the Tennes- see River, At the trial in the lower courts, 1t was shown that the negro had been enticed to the island under promise of position driving cows. When he reached the island. he was held there, and forced to work, be- ing kept in a condition of peonage for a period covering more than a year. The jury in the lower court affixed damages against the Robinson Company in favor of Green to the amount of $1.500. In a previous opin- ion, the Supreme Court had affirmed the action of the lower court.
 In an appeal by the Birmingham Railway Light and Power Company the Court affirmed the finding of the Jefferson Circuit Court in awarding $1 ,000 damages to Morgan Brown for injuries received in a fall from street car belonging to the appellees. Be- fore the lower court Brown had asked for $10,000 damages
 Another damage suit in which the judgment of the lower court was af- Armed was that of T. l.. Lewis against the Montgomery Street Railway. In the Montgomery City Court Lewis was awarded S150 on a suit for S3,000 for injuries received in a fall from a car.
 The case of Balzorah Prickett vs. Luther Prickett, her husband, seeking to regain possession of portion of her property, which, she asserted, had been paid for largely with money furnished by her at the time of her marriage, was affirmed. In the Clay Chancery Court Mrs. Prickett had presented her own case. losing in the litigation.
 In response to an application for rehearing made by the Southern Ex- press Company on an appeal from the Judgment of the Anniston City Court, a suit entered by c. J. Owens, the Su- preme Court modified it's previous opinion, but left unchanged that DOT tion of it which gave to Mir. Owens S15O0. The suit in the lower court had been for damages for the loss of manuscripts of a book written by MT. Owens.
 Among other applications for re- hearings, were four in damage suit appeals from the Limestone Chancery Court in litigations against the Long Distance Telegraph and Telephone Company. Each involved an identical point over which. when the previous opinion of the Supreme Court was handed down. resulted in division Of the bench Justices Tyson and Denson disseN ag from their colleagues
 The spective suits were instituted by T. M Hobbs, James E. Hobbs Sr.. Ida H. er and Minnie H. Richard son agains< the telephone company. These parties sought damages for the erection of telegraph and telephone poles along roadways leading through their respective farms. The grounds upon which the suits were brought were that while the thoroughfare had been granted to the public by the land owners. the erection of poles along the side of the road created an additional servitude on the proper ty. The Supreme Court, in an opin- ion handed down recently, held other wise.