Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1913-07-18
ADDISON COUNTY COURT
jury Returned Sealed Verdict
Wednesday Niqht.

of the county court last week and it has
court in the meanwhile. DR.. Walter
B. Berry of Burlington, an expert for
the contestants, completed his testi-
mony last Friday forenoon and was
treal for the same side. Mr.. Smith
was an inmate of DR.. Berry's retreat
for about month in the fall of 1904
and the doctor testified that in his
opinion he was then afflicted with senile
dementia, or weakening of the mind,
due to old age.
DR.. Shirves is lecturer on mental
diseases at McGill university in Mon
treal He had never seen Columbus
Smith, but testified as an expert that
in his judgment Columbus Smith was
insane when he made the will of 1897
and the codicils of 1899, 1900 and 1903.
| The cross-eXamination of Drs. Berry
and Shirves was conducted by Lawyer
Stickney.
DR.. F. E. Reed of Salisbury was the
last physician on the stand and his
testimony, which was not of great i'm
portance, brought the evidence to a
close on Friday afternoon. The court
left 1t to the jury to say whether there
should be session of court for the
beginning of the arguments on Satur-
day forenoon and they thought it would
be better to take that day off; accord
ingly at 80 O'Clock recess was taken
until 2 p. m. on Monday.
At that time James B. Donoway of
Middlebury began the argument for the
| proponents of the will. He talked for
an hour and half and made a very
strong plea from the standpoint of the
upholders of the validity of the will.
He was followed by H. w. Blake of
Gardner, Mass, who made an excel
lent argument in favor of the contest
ants, and his able team-mate, R. M.
Simmonds of St. Johnsbury, made the
closing address on that side Tuesday
forenoon. The final plea for the pro-
ponents was made by w. B. C. Stick
ney and it was masterful effort Mr.
Stickney closed at 4:20 o'clock and
Judge Taylor gave the case to the jury
in charge of one hour and ten minutes
duration. c. E. Walker of Orwall was
appointed their forenoon and at $50
O'Clock the jury returned to deliberate
upon their verdict, in charge of Deputy
Sheriff Fred f. Rowley of New Haven.
In all there were over a hundred wit
nesses examined during the trial and
about 300 letters and other documents
the jury. About half of the witnesses
thought Mr.. Smith was of sound mind |
when he executed the will and codicils, !
and the other half thought the other
way.
Court did not convene until 10 o'clock |
Wednesday at which time the jury who
had been out all night came in and re-
quested that the will of 1897 and the |
codcils of 1899, 1900 and 1903 should be
read to them in their entirety. This |
was done by Lawyer Stickney, and the
reading took up an hour; and this made
the third time that this will was read to
the jury during the trial. The jury
also called for the reading of the testi-
mony of Harriet j. Smith, widow of
Columbus Smith, which was taken dur
ing the trial last winter at her home in
Salisbury and which, on account of her
state of health, was also offered in
court and read once before. The jury
further called for the reading of por-
tions of the charge of Judge Taylor,
delivered only the previous evening and
this took up most of the rest of the
days work.
At 4:15 O'Clock the jury again retired
to consider the case and at o'clock
summoned in the court to inquire
whether they could sustain and uphold
a part of the will and throw out the
rest. Judge Taylor politely informed
them that such course was out of the
question, and they retired.
The jury reached verdict at about
10 o'clock Wednesday night and it was
delivered in court at o'clock Thursday
morning. The verdict was that Colum-
bus Smith was of sound mind when he
executed the original will of 1897, but
that he was not of sound mind at the
time when he executed each of the
three codicils. The jurors were then
discharged for the term with the thanks
of the court, and especially for their
attention to this particular case.
Mr.. Stickney, for the proponents,
filed written motion that the court
should accept the yes answer to the
first question propounded to the jury
and reject the mo" answer to the
other three questions. The contest
ants, on the other hand, asked the
court to reject the first answer of