The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-04-20
Settlement of Famous Case Reached Some Time Ago
 Just Made Public
$13O,0OO DAMAGES WERE
 ASKED BY CLABAUGH
sOnaIly and It Is Stated Does Not Affect Southern Wholesale
 GrOcers' Association

| The famous Clabaugh-Van Hoose case
 tried during the latter part of 1908 in the
 circuit court, has been compromised The litigation, which proved to be perhaps the
 most sensational and most generally in-
 teresting civil case ever tried in the
 courts of Jefferson county was settled
 out of court for $10000.
 The circuit court docket for Judge A.
 o. Lanes division, under date of January
 21, 1909 shows the following entry in the
 noted grocery suit, in which Hinton G.
 Clabaush was the plaintiff and James A.
 Van Hoose, as president of the Southern | Wholesale Grocers' association. was the defendant
 Judgment by consent for the plaintiff | for $10,000. Damages remitted."
 The announcement of the settlement of | the case will be of interest throughout the United States, especially among the grocers, inasmuch as the attention of this class of business men has been closely | fixed upon the progress of the litigation since 1t first began. The outcol,e of the
 trial has been withheld for reasons best
 known by the parties involved in the | case, and was made public in the first
 issue of monthly magazine which has | been started by MT. Clabaugh. as MT Van Hoose the defendant, when questioned last night, said he had noth- | ing to say in connection with the case. The compromise of the suit in the state court does not effect the litigation now pending in the federal court The settle
 ment simply releases MT. Van Hoose per na11 fha q J1A court being filed directly against him, as | president of the Southern Wholesale Gro cers association. The litigation in the United States court will be tried under | the sherman antitrust act. It was set for | trial on March 25, just past, but on re- | quest of counsel for the defense it was continued and will probably come up be- fore Judge Grubb in the federal court before the ending of this year.
 Review of the Case
 | It will be recalled that during 1907 MT. | Clabaugh. who had been conducting wholesale grocery business on Morris avenue, filed suit in the circuit court against the Southern Wholesale Grocers' | association, alleging s13o,0O0 damages, brought about by interference of the as- sociation with his business. It was charg- ed in the bill of complaint that the South | ern Wholesale Grocers' association was q trust or combine which fixed and man- tained prices on the necessities of life, in
 violation of the Sherman antitrust act,
 and in violation of certain Alabama acts of similar nature.
 After being twice continued the case &.s.
 and for several weeks there proceeded one of the sharpest legal battles ever fought l In the Jefferson county courts. A great
 mass of evidence, written and oral, was presented. Probably no such mass of tes- | timony was ever presented in a single case in the circuit court, the estimate of | the court stenographers running into the millions of words. Many letters and other documents of a sensational nature were laid before the trial jury and by | way of the agitation against high prices which immeditely preceded the case many people were attracted to the courtroom
 daily. Inquiries were received from all parts of the country regarding the case
 during the trial.
 | The case was finally submitted to the
 jury after more than two weeks had been consumed. The jury remained out for
 more than IS hours, and finally reported
 that it was unable to agree on verdict. | A mistrial was declared.
 | After the jury had been discharged,
 eleven members issued a signed statement explaining the report. It was stated that
 six of the jurors had agreed to award the full amount of damages sued for, $13O,000 Others thought this too much, but eleven
 of the jurymen finally agreed upon a yer
 dict of $10000o. The twelfth man, how Lever held out on the contention that if
 MT. vanIIoose was personally responsible CONTINUED ON PAGE 7.I