Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1914-12-11

ADDISON COUNTY COURT.
Don A. Bisbee Indicted for Man
slaughter and Illegal Sale of
Liquor.

liam ID. Watson's estate was on trial
when our report closed last week. In
this case the claimant sought to re-
cover from the estate of his deceased
father-inlaw the sum of $l54, in ad-
dition to his costs. The general outline
of the case was sufficiently indicated
last week
The testimony was completed on
Thursday evening and before the night
recess Judge L. C. Russell made the
opening argument for the claimant and
Allen R. Sturtevant began his
plea for the defence. Mr.. Sturtevant
finished his argument Friday morning
and was followed by Judge Russell with
the closing plea for LaMorder. All of
the arguments to the jury were brief
and apparently to the point.
Judge Miles gave the case to the jury
at 1920 O. clock, in charge of only IL
minutes duration, and appointed w. B.
Child of Weybridge as their foreman
The jury came in again just before noon
with a verdict that the claimant re-
cover one cent damages, without costs
against the defendants estate.
When this case was got to the jury
the second, and as it turned out, the
last, civil jury trial of the term was i'm
medately begun. This case was Joseph
B. Cobb VS. the Western Union Tele-
graph company. In this case the plain
tiff, who owns a house and other
property near to the place known as
Cobb's crossing, few rods south from
the railroad station, on Seymour street,
damages for the cutting of tree and
the cutting of branches from other
trees by agents of the defendent COM
pany in January last.
Allan Calhoun Of Middlebury testified
that he was acquainted with the prem
ises and that in his opinion they had
been damaged by the cutting to the
amount of 5000. DIR. p l.. Dorey testi-
fled the damages at from $50 to 5000.
Under an order of the court the jury
went down Friday afternoon to look
over the scene of the cutting, and were
accompanied by Sheriff Smith and the
lawyers for both sides, who were Leroy
C. Russell of Middebury and Allen
Martin of Essex Junction for the plain
tiff, and Edwin w. Lawrence of Rut-
land for defence.
Upon the return of the expedition the
taking of testimony was resumed and
the evidence was all got in by O'Clock
Friday afternoon. The defence was
that in doing the admitted cutting the
telegraph company was within its
rights under quit-claim deed given in
1847 by Justus Cobb, father of the
plaintiff, to the Rutland railroad COM
pany, from which corporation the
Western Union company claims to have
derived its rights by lease.
Mr.. Russell made the opening plea
for the plaintiff, and Mr.. Lawrence be-
gan his argument for the defence before
court adjourned for the night. Mr..
Lawrence completed his talk to the
jury Saturday morning and Mr.. Martin
wound up the case for the plaintiff in an
address of only 10 minutes. The charge
to the jury took up 20 minutes and they
got the case at 9:45 o'clock, John F.
Stoddard of Ripton having been ap-
pointed their foreman.
The jury came back into court at IL
O. clock with verdict that the defend
ant company was not guilty of the al
legged trespass and that they recover
their costs. Exceptions had been taken
by the plaintiff during the trial and the
case will go to the supreme court.
All the petit jurors were excused un-
til 2 O. clock p. m, on Monday, Decem-
Der ID, and the court at once took re-
cess to 2 O'Clock p. M, on Monday.
Some of the cases on the court calen-
dar were taken up Monday afternoon
and considered in various aspects, but
there were no hearings on the merits.
In the cases of Norman S. Foote VS.
George M. Moore, app ppellant, and Moses
Vincent VS. Thomas S. brakes estate,
motions for non-suits which had been
previously filed were over ruled and the
cases were continued
There were no cases ready to come on
Tuesday forenoon. At the opening of
the afternoon session the special grand
jury case was called and all of the Is
members except two were present w.
S. King of Orwell had been excused and
r. NJ. Brown of Goshen failed to appear
to answer to his name. Fred c. Smith,
lately of Addison, now of Middlebury,
and Frank M. Rowe of Middlebury were
drawn from the court room to fill their
places; and the grand jury as thus COM
pleted was made up of the following