The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1912-04-25
Supreme Court Ends Long
Fight Against Telephone
Company Tuesday.
MUST PAY LACONTE JUDGMENT
State Supreme Court Holds Against
City in Both Cases Appealed from De-
cision of Circuit oourt-city Must
Pay up Old Bills Now.

The supreme court Of Wisconsin
gave the city of Kenosha two hard
bumps in rapid succession on Tuesday
when the court handed down decisions
affirming the decision of the circuit
court of Ken6sha county in the suits
of the City Of Kenosha against the
Kenosha Home Tele phone Company
and the suit of Sam LaConte against
the City of Kenosha. The result Of
the first decision Is that the city must
pay lot of long standing telephone
bills and reinquish the right of re-
ceiving free telephone service in the
future. The result of the other is.
that the city must pay to the heirs
of Niccoli LaConte the sum of $4,000
as damages for personal injuries sus-
tanned by LaConte when he fell into
an open cellar on Market Square sew
eral years ago.
The decision in the telephone case
did not came as a surprise to the of
icials of the city as a large majority
of the members of the council who had
taken the trouble to look into the case
were of the opinion that the city
could not force the telephone company
to supply free phones to the city. This
suit was inaugurated nearly four years
ago and since it was fled in court the
city has declined to pay any bills of
the Kenosha Home Telephone Com
pany. The city sought an injunction
to prevent the Kerosha Home Tele-
phone making any effort to remove its
instruments from the various city Of
fees on account of the refusal of the
city to pay the bills of the company.
1t was the opinion of former City At
torney Stewart that the city had the
eight to receive free phones on ac-
count Of provision of the franchle
of the Citizen s Telephone Company
The telephone company held that I'M
der the ruling of the Wisconsin Rail
road Commission it could not furnish
the city with FREQ phones and held
further that the contract with the
Citizen s company was not binding ON
the Kenosha Home Telephone Company
on account of the fact that the new
company had not taken over the fran
chise Of The Citizen S Telephone Com
pany.
While this case has been in court
the bills of the company for all phone
stations connected in any way VITA
the municipality have been held up
and as result the city viii have to
provide for the payment of all Of
these telephone bills at this time
There is ano.her suit pending
against the telephone company in
which the city attorney seeks to es-
tablish conspiracy to defraud the
city, but it is thought that the deci-
sion of the court in the injunction suit
practically disposes of this case as
well. There is no reason to believe
that the city will send good money
after bad by pushing this second ac-
ton against the company, but the
city may make an appeal to the
state railroad commission and seek
to have the commission find some
way by which free phone service may.
be supplied to the various city Offices.
The LaConte case was an ordinary
suit for damages for personal injuries
brought by the heirs to the estate Of
Niccoli LaConte. LaConte fell into an
excavation for building on the prop
erty Of John Monaghan on Market
Square and died from the injuries he
received. At ehe trial Of the case tic
attorneys for baGonte established til
fact that mis- fall was the result of I
defect in the sidewalk and the city
was held liable on account of insult
fcient care in protecting the walk
about the excavation. The city had
sought to have the verdict of the low
Ell court set aside on the grounds that
the party seeking to recover was a
nonresident alien. The court has held
in several cases that nonresident
alien can not recover for personal
damages, but evidently in this case the
court found a reason for reversing its
own decision in the former cases.