The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1916-11-09
NEWSPAPER MAN HAS RIGHTS
Kenosha County Jury Holds He Has
Same Right to Expect Confidential
Handling Of Dispatches as Other
People Company to Appeal Case.

After considering the question at is
sue for more than four hours, the jury
in the Circuit Court which heard the
evidence in the suit of Marlatt VS.. the
Western Union Telegraph Company, re-
turned a verdict late Thursday after
noon awarding the plaintiff damages in
the sum Of $3.50. Of this amount
$4,000 was allowed as compensatory
damages and $4,000 was assessed
against the company as punishment for
the alleged ruthless violation of the
confidence imposed in it when the plain
tiff submitted to the operator messages
to' be transmitted from the Kenosha
Office to the office in Milwaukee for
delivery to the Milwaukee Free Press.
The evidence clearly showed that
against the will of the plaintiff and
the Milwaukee Free Press these
messages had been delivered to the
Milwaukee Journal
The verdict as reached by the jury
was compromise, number Of the
members of the panel voting to give
the newspaper correspondent much
larger damages. The verdict is what
the lawyers call a perfect" verdict
and attorneys who heard the case de-
clare that there is little chance of the
case being reversed by a higher court
on account of "errors'' in the trial
of it. After the verdict had been re-
ceived it was announced that later the
attorneys for the company would move
to set aside the verdict and ask for a
new trial and these motions will pave
thelway for the company to carry the
case to the Supreme Court
The plaintiff in the action when in
terviewed-by himself-said: "The
verdict of the jury is exceeding
ly gratifying to me on account of the
fact that the men Of Kenosha county
have declared that newspaper man
has the same rights as other human
beings and that newspaper copy is just
as much protected under the telegraph
code as the messages of a stock broker.
1t has been generally supposed that
big corporations, like the defendant,
look on newspaper and newspaper copy
In the same light as a formal national
political leader who at one time was
accustomed to preface his remarks by
the greeting: "Fellow Citizens, Ladies
and Gentlemen, and Newspaper Re
porters.' It was with a view of dis
pelling this idea of the newspaper man
that the plaintiff in the case insisted
that this action be brought against the
Western Union Company and that it
be contested in the courts instead of
settled for nominal damages offered by
the company. The financial return of
the case is gratifying it ever really
arrives-but of far greater value is the
fact that it is now a matter of record
that the newspaper man who sells his
wares in the common market is en-.
titled to the same protection as is
thrown about the citizen not connect
ed with the Fourth Estate. This case
will have an echo in many offices
throughout the country and the fact
that the Kenosha county jury has de-
cided that company which violates
confidence of it's patrons must pay, may
bring some real result in establishing
the rule that the business of the news
paper man and with it the business of
the general public must be protected. =
No date has been set for the argu-
ment of such motions as may be made
by the attorneys for the defendant
company, but these will probably
be heard at the present term of the
Circuit Court.