New Ulm review., 1913-06-04
Marion Proven
To Be Insane

District Court Ends Term
Without Completing Work.
After having been in session for
eleven days, court adjourned Saturday
at noon, having disposed of four civil
actions and one criminal proceeding
Not one of the court cases noticed
for this term was tried. Besides
that, two Of the jury cases had to go
over because the court did not have
time to continue this term over the
week, as the Lyon county term was
scheduled to convene yesterday.
The case of Fila NJ. Hutchings,
administratix of the estate of Chas.
Hutchings, deceased, against the
Sleepy Eye Telephone Co., which was
on trial at the time we went to press
last week, was concluded Thursday
morning shortly before ten o'clock.
In this case the paintiff brought
suit to recover damages in the SUM
of $75OO.0O for the death of her hus-.
band, who came to his death while
working, by taking hold of tele-
phone wire which was charged with
electricity. He was at that time in
the employ of the defendant and it
was claimed that his death was due
to the negligence of the Telephone
Co. When the pi:.intiff rested, the
defendant made motion to dismiss
the action, but this motion was de-
MED by Judge Pfau, who sat in the
case, Judge Olsen being disqualified
as stockholder Of the telephone
company. After deliberating until
two o'clock the jury agreed and re-
turned their verdict into court, find
ing in favor of the plaintiff and as
sessing her damages in the sum Of
$780, OJ. As this verdict is so s,ua,l
compared with the amount sued for,
it is hardly probable that an appeal
will be taken.
The next case on the docket for
trial was that of Susie Beckius
against Henry Beckius. When the
ney Informed the court that he was
not ready to go to trial and for that
reason the action was dismissed.
This was slander suit brought by
Susie Beckius against her own ia
ther. The chances are that this will
dispose Of the case and that it will
not be revived. The County Attor-
ney then moved the criminal calen
dar and the trial of George Maroon
of Springfield, accused by the grand
jury of arson in the first degree was
proceeded with. The defense was in
sanity. The trail of this action con-
sumed only about four hours and the
case was given to the jury at four
o'clock Thursday afternoon. They
had the choice Of three verdicts,
"guilty," mot guilty and mot guilty
on the ground that at the time Of
the alleged offense the defendant was
insane, and that he had homicidal
tendencies" After deliberating less
than ten minutes, the jury brought
in their verdict finding that the de-
fendant was insane at the time Of
the commission of the offense and
that he then had homicidal tenden-
cies. Saturday shortly before noon,
Judge Olsen sentenced Marion to the
criminal ward for the insane at St.
Peter.
All that was done Thursday after
noon was to impanel jury in the
last civil case to be tried, that of
Albert w. Schmid against Frederick
Thompson. On account of Decoration
Day, the court took recess until
Friday afternoon at 2 o'clock, dis
charging all jurors on the regular
panel not drawn as jurors on this
case, in which the plaintiff sought to
recover damages in the sum of $4,000
for injuries received by his daugh-
ter caused thru the negligence of
the defendant. The little girl was
injured in Anderson's livery barn at
Springfield while Thompson was
manipulating large hay loading
fork. Her hand was severly injured
and as a result of the injury her
right thumb is stiff and will remain
so. By II o'clock Saturday morning
the case went to the jury and before
the noon hour they returned into
court with verdict in favor of the
plaintiff, fixing the amount Of dam
age at the sum of $25O.OO.
While Judge Olsen was trying the
Marion case with a jury on Thurs
day in the court room, another action
was being tried before Judge A. R.
Pfau in the Judges chambers. This
was probably the first time in the
history of the county that two dis
trict judges were holding court at
the same time. The case tried be-
fore Judge Pfau was that of Ed
ward F. Berkner against William
Schmidt, Dudley D'Evelyn and Mar
tin Sherman. In reality there are
three cases, one against each of the
defendants, but they were tried to-
gether, because the same questions
are involved in each case. At q
previous trial, the court found in
favor of the defendants and upon an
appeal to the supreme court, there
was reversal and therefore this
new trial. After the evidence was
all in, Judge Pfau took the case
under advisement and the decision
will be filed later.