Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1913-06-27
ADDISON COUNTY COURT
Columbus Smith Will Case Again
Before Court.

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was brought to close Friday forenoon.
Brief arguments were made by James
B. Donoway for the plaintiff and by
Messrs. Thomas w. Moloney and Edwin
Lawrence for the defendants, 1t will
be remembered that the plaintiff sued
to recover balance claimed to be due
him on salary while acting as superin-
tendent on the work of building the
railroad underpass in this village last
fall and winter. A recess was taken
at 1925 o clock to 8 o'clock a. m. on
Tuesday.
At 10 o'clock oil Tuesday morning
the court re-assembled and the case set
for 8 O'Clock was got started without
delay. This is the somewhat celebrated
will case known on the docket as In re
will of Columbus Smith, Anna M.
Perry ct al, contestants and appellants,
which was tried at the last December
term with the result of disagreement
of the jury.
The same array of able counsel who
conducted the case on both sides at the
former trial were all on hand. These
included w. B. c. Stickney, Patrick
M. Meldon and Edwin Lawrence of
Rutland and Judge Donoway of Middle
bury for the proponents, or upholders,
of the will offered, and H. w. Blake of
Gardner, Mass, where Mrs. Perry re-
sides, R. w. Simonds of st. Johns
bury and Leroy C. Russell of Middle
bury for the contestants, who are Mrs.
Perry, neice, and Frank w. Page of
Ludlow, nephew.
The task of getting jury was at
once begun and proved to be quite big
one, as it took up two hours of the
forenoon session and an hour and half
in the afternoon. In anticipation of the
probability that jury to try the case
could not be secured from the regular
panel, an additional panel of Is tales
men has been summoned and this turned
out to be lucky foresight, as three of
the additional jurymen were given seats
in the box.
The examination of candidates for the
jury box was particularly searching and
was conducted for the proponents by
Mr.. Donoway and for the contestants
by Mr.. Simonds. Forty jurymen
were closely examined as to their resi-
dences, occupation, knowledge, etc,
of this case. At 3:40 in the afternoon
the following twelve men were agreed
upon: Charles W. Otis of Cornwall,
Charles Reed of Addison, Alta Dutton
of Goshen, Andrew II. Thomas of Monk
ton, Frank c. Smith of Starksboro, c.
T. Coats of Orwell, George Casey of
Vergennes, Frank H. Eldredge of Brid-
port, c. E. Walker of Orwell, H. B.
Boies of Weybridge, Selden z. Walker
of Shore ham and Z. l.. Martin of Han
cock. The last three were drawn in
from the additional panel of talesmen.
When this panel had been completed
all the other jurors on the new sum-
mons were excused for the term, and
the remainder of the regular panel
were excused for the term, subject to
recall. These jurymen were at once
paid off for their services by Clerk
Wainwright
Only brief time was occupied after
the recess in taking testimony for the
proponents, and the real trial was we'll
got under way on Wednesday morning.
Testimony of many witnesses and de-
positions of others were offered to
prove the due execution of the will of
1897 and the subsequent codicils.
The most important witness of the
day was DR.. E. II. Martin of Middle
bury, who began to treat Mr.. Smith at
his home in Salisbury in 1903, when he
was confined to the house with an
injured limb, the result of an accident.
DIR. Martin thought that the testator
was not insane when he made his will
and the codicils.
Other important witnesses on this
point were Joseph M. Burke, Julius O.
Seeley, sr., Lancy w. Forbes and John
Houston, all of Middlebury and all of
whom testified that they had done busi-
ness with Mr.. Smith at various times
and that they always considered him in
his right mind and not suffering from
senile dementia at the time of the exc
cution of the will and codicils. Mr..
Forbes business relations with Mr..
Smith ran back to 1869.
The will in contest, with the three
codicils, was read to the jury, in eX-
tense, at the Thursday forenoon ses-
sion by Lawyer Stickney, and was Of
fered as the last will and testament of
Columbus Smith. 1t is a voluminous
document and it's reading occupied
nearly an hour. 1t covers property
now estimated to be worth about $400,-
900 and includes real estate located in
.oL.