The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-11-10
HOW A GREAT CORPORATION
ROBBED INNOCENT YOUNG GIRL
a Verdict of Five Thousand Dollars Against Street
Railway Company, Helpless Harriet Nugent Seeks
Death as Relief From Misery.

ION III ldNOI Ok I1dIIltI ANuSCit. las |
was the third time the law had de-
clared that the Metropolitan Street
Railway Company must pay Harriet
Nugent $1,000.
The metropolitan at once carried
the case to the Appellate Division of
the State Supreme Court, where it
won. the court ruling that the referee
had been in a better position than
Justice TrlaX to pass OF the facts.
The practical effect of this decision
was to destroy any chance that Har-
riet might have had of securing from
the Metropolitan Street Railway
Company any compensation for hav-
ing lost one leg and the sight of one
eye through the negligence OF one or
its servants.
Their the matter might nave rested
if the Metropolitan had been satisfied
with it's triumph in swindling a Grip
pied child out of $1,000. But 1t
yearned for n last trophy of VIC
tory, for a scalp which could be nailed
up as a warning to all who might be
tempted to place an obstacle in the
path of it's cupidity. Oppenheim, the
lawyer who had stood by Harriet Nu-
gent through thick and thin, must be
! ruined.
The necessary steps were taken, the
perjured witnesses were produced and
on March %, 1901. Benjamin Open
helm was disbarred.
In 1905 the Metropolitan Street
Railway Company found itself in the
limelight during the course Of some
Investigations into the work of the
Observation-Disclosures office. 1t became
necessary for the company to get rid
of a lumber of discriminating dOcu-
mentS, and these were given to a mar
named BOgg with Instructions to burn
them.
BOgg, however, was a philosopher,
and, rejecting that anything which
was worth burning was worth keep
ing, he took the papers home with
him and put them away in his trunk.
Among these papers were discov-
cred later the actual vouchers for the
money paid by the Metropolitan
Street Railway Company for the false
evidence by means Of which it had
swindled Harriet Nugent and driven
Benjamin Oppenheim from his pro-
~fession.
With these documents in his hands
O%ppenheim saw his way clear to OBJ
tain q public v~indicatiOn Of his char
acter and also to revive Harriet Nu-
gents claim against the railway COM
pany.
On February Z, 1913, the Appellate
Division of the Supreme court signed
an order restoring O~ppenheim as a
member Of the bar and a few weeks
IdlGI JuStlCe JOlll I'll Tx gu
preme court revived the origina
judgment Of Harriet Nugent agains,
the Metropolitan Street Railway Com.
: pany.
This was the fourth time that {
court of New York State a directed
: the Metropolitan people to a Har
! riet Nugent $1,000.
r On April 3, 1913, Benjamin Open
= helm and Benjamin E. Messler. rep
! r~esenting Harriet Nugent, applied t.
@ Judge E. H. Lacombe for an order in
structing the receiver Of the Metro
r politan Street Railway Company t.
pay to Harriet Nugent the amount o
e her judgment, with interest.
In support Of this application coun
e sci argued that the money had bee
made available for this payment b
an order Of court dated June Is
1912, signed by Judge Lacombe him
t self, who had also granted permits
y sion to Harriet Nugent to file tn
Judgment Of her claims, pendin
0 their confirmation by the Suprem
court, and that as his confirmatio
had now been received, the order
n pay the money would merely Civ
n execution to a judgment already f
a nally recorded.
= 1t was further pointed out hat tn
debt owing to Harriet Nugent was nc
It based upon a business transaction j
e WHICH llle ClSClloI toOh al Iullld
a commercial risk, but represented pay
4. ment in legally-determined recon
pense for terrible injuries inflicted Q
r the petitioner; that the deb ha
.e arisen many years g and wOul
have been paid many years g ha
not the debtor, by means Of the mo
IS vile and corrupt methods. succeede
J. in defying the DEGREES of h State
re courts, and, finally, that the effect
If a refusal to grant the order wOu1
l. be to allow the Metropolitan Sire
is Railway Company to be the bene1
Sc ciary of it's own proved criminal act
r But Judge E. H. Lacombe refuse
y, to grant the order, on the ground tn;
if he did so he would be inflicting {
ed injustice upon the business credito
o. Of the railway
re The spectacle with which the pu'
ed lie Is now confronted is that of Il
us Metropolitan Street Railway Cor