The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-12
CLAIM AGENTS LIFE
FULL OF INCIDENTS
How People Can Imagine
Themselves Injured
SOME LOSSES OF GOODS
Weaknesses of Human Nature Are
strikingly shown When People
Get Into Controversy with
Corporation
BY WALTER HARPER

The railroad claim agent Is past
master in the science of human nature.
He gets onto all the warps and twists
of mental depravity, human deception or
honesty, as the case may be.
His perception is equal to the violet
points of the X-ray when he trains his
eagle eye on the claims of some man
or woman with a grievance against the
company he represents.
His life is full of romantic marvellous
and pathetic experiences Some of the
stories that are unfolded to him are like
the historic dreams of Munchausen while
others are full of soulful weeps that
would do credit to Bertha NJ. Clay.
But the railroad claim agent is not,
as many suppose. an enemy to the griev-
ing public. He is the mediator between
the corporation and the man with a
grievance. 1t is his business to seek and
weigh facts and recommend justice. The
railroads are always willing and anxious
to settle all just claims on a just basis
without recourse to the courts. But the
claim must be just and the demands fair
or they will fight it forever
Always on Ground
The claim agent gets to an accident
almost as soon as the wrecking crew and
is the last man to leave. II anything
escapes him 1t never shows anywhere
near the surface.
"A grievance against the railroad or
other corporation brings out the true
character of any man or woman" said
a Birmingham claim agent as he leaned
back In his chair and lit fresh cigar
that had been furnished him by the re-
porter
Some claimants who before they had
a grievance were considered as absolute
ly honest, seem to lose all regard for
accuracy, decency and justice. But few
people are reasonable In their claims and
small things are exaggerated into noun
tains. We have had a few cases where
damages have been demanded where there
was no injury whatever. Tn fact, some
claims have no shadow of basis in fact
IAN instance of this has just occurred
in. Birmingham. A negro presented a
claim for personal damages alleged to
have been received on my road in q
western part of the state on certain
day l began an investigation. Five wit
nesses two of them white men, came for
ward and testified to the alleged facts
in the case. They saw the negro when
he was hurt
Claims Are Identical
Some days after these witnesses were
in my office ] accidentally stumbled on
the claim agent of another road. He
was looking up the evidence in an al
legged accident on his road that seemed
to be Identical with mine We compared
notes and were both astonished and. of
course, pleased to find, in short. that
the same negro had filed claims for the
identical accident against the two differ
ent roads. The date of the alleged acct
dent on both roads was Identical. The
places where 1t was claimed the injuries
had been received are more than 50 miles
apart On further investigation it was
established that the negro was at neither
place on the day of the alleged accidents.
but was at an ore mine on Red noun
tain.
This same negro later filed suit for
for the death of a brother in
one of the recent coal mine disasters. 1t
was found that the negro had never had
a brother
This is one of the peculiar and exas
perating conditions with which the claim
agent has to deal.
Feigned ExaggeratiOn
Another feature of the business is the
feigned exaggeration of an accident that
may be real but of little consequence.
We have some of the most puzzling ex-
periences of this kind People who stand
high In the world will sometimes resort
to high-handed deception In their efforts
to get damages from corporation.
1.-The most striking case of this kind
happened in Alabama not long ago.
woman was really injured in a railroad
accident 1t was perhaps necessary for
her to go on crutches for while, but
she did not relinquish them In what
seemed a reasonable time to our physi-
clans The company offered to compro-
mise the case by paying good large
sum of money, but this was declined, and
the case went to the courts and was
awaiting trial.
1--WE were suspicious of the case and
when it was learned that the claimant
would spend the summer in the noun
tains in the east we arranged to send a
man and a woman unknown to the claim
ant on the same outing.
Discards Clutches
after the claimant got well out of
the state she discarded her crutches and
began to timber up. By the time she
reached the mountain resort hundreds of
miles from Alabama she was in fine
condition and entered into all the sports
with zeal and all the activity of the
other tourists. She climbed mountains
swan, rode horseback played golf,
danced and had a glorious summer. The
man we sent along on the trip made
her acquaintance and was her partner
at q number of dances and other amuse-
ments. His partner. the woman in our
employ, was an agreeable companion and
learned many things to our advantage
and to the discredit of the claimant.
ION her way back to Alabama the in
valid resumed her crutches. She was
met at the depot by solicitous relatives
and members of the family who helped
her tenderly home.
when the case came up for trial this
woman went on the stand and swore that
she used clutches all the time during her
summer vacation and was helpless
invalid. She went into court on the
crutches.
when called into private consulta-
the woman readily accepted the COM
the woman readil yaccepted the COM
promise formerly offered by the road
and the case was taken from the dockets
of the court
ut is proverbial that stock is worth
more after being killed or injured by a
railroad locomotive than while alive. Our
experiences are brim full of amusing
and amazing instances Of this fact.