The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-01-11
COURT DECISIONS
 OF INTEREST

CWest Publishing Co.,. St. Paul, Minn0
 sIyRvIVORSHIP IN COMMON CA
 TASTROPHE. A question of fact for the courts as difficult as the old CO., nundrurn If a swiftly moving fires istfble body meets with a stationary limmovabqe sphere, what happens7 may
 be briefly stated thusly: Where sey-
 eraR persons of kin perish in a com mon calamity, apparently simultan- eous'y, did they all die at the same
 moment, or did any one survive long
 CT than the rest, and, if the latter,
 which one? The reason for an ans
 wer IS often of the utmost importance in questions of descent of property,
 and therefore have the courts been called upon to answer this most intri- cate question. It has arisen in var
 ious ways, such as murder, shipwreck, fire, disappearance of persons and the like. The recent case Of In re Doucks'
 Estate, IF Pacific Reporter, 673. pre-
 sents this issueF and the question is a
 close one I4oucks, his wife, and their
 infant daughter were killed in a collis- ion between a train and the automo-
 bile in which thy were riding. Mrs.
 Loucks died instantly. The contro-
 yersy then Is upon the question wheth-
 CT or not Loucks survived his daugh- ter. The evidence showed that after
 striking the automobile the train pro
 ceeded but a. short distance and then
 The baby, who showed signs Of life,
 was picked up and placed in a carriage
 and taken to a nearby town in lieu Of waiting for the train- Ioucks, who
 was alive, was placed on the train and taken to the same time. The train and the buggy reached their destination
 about the same time, and it was then learned that both father and child had expired. Which survived the other, is the alI-important question. The last sS gn of life in LoGcks was testified to
 muscular relaxation just before the body-was placed on the train. No one saw any movement Or indication Of
 life thereafter. The man who brought the baby to town testified that she
 was alive when he started, and that
 she was breathing when he arrived at
 point one block from his destination.
 On this evidence. the Supreme Court train and buggy reached the town to-
 Rether Loucks expired first, because he last showed signs of life before the train started for the town, while
 the child was alive after the buggy was in the town.
 BOY USES AXE ON EXPLOSIVES
 In Bennett vs Oden Manufacturing dants are sued for personal injuries to a boy Defendants maintained a store house wherein they kept supplies for their business, including dynamite ard copper caps. Ralph Bennett, boy about nine years old, happened along
 one day, and upon seeing the door to the StOrehouSe open and no one in side, entered, and picked up and car ried away some of the copper explod- CTS witch he saw lying about He took
 the caps home and did the most hatur-
 al thing that a boy would be expected ] to do, nancy, placed one of the caps
 on a block, got an axe and struck it.
 That strike came near being the end of Ralph, for he was injured and now l seeks damages. The Supreme Court of | New Hampshire holds that the unlaw- full storing of explosives was not a proxtmate cause of the injury.
 | RIGHT OF RELATIVES TO COUN- SEL MARRIED COUPLES parent. | brother, or sister, has the right to J counsel a married son, daughter, | brother, or sister in good faith, with | in reasonable limits, when not mali i, ciouEIy done, and when done for the | apparent best interest of the party advised, without the person so advis- ] ing being liable to an action for in jury caused one party to the marriage,