The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-05-06
LIQUOR HOUSES
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Continued from page u
the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe
railroad for a new trial in the Sedg-
wick county district court, the SUI
prene court Of Kansas today gave the
following opinion: 1T is within the
power of the legislature to require car
rfers to carry passengers upon freight
trains and to fix the measure of their
responsibility for injuries suffered by
passengers choosing that mode or
travel, and one who takes passage on
a freight train has no right to expect
greater precautions for his safety than
slight care nor to hold the carrier re
sponsible for any lack of care less than
gross negligence"
Jones was given Judgment against
received while trying to board a
freight train at Mayfield, Kan, in
1914.
Circus Must Pay Damages.
When people attend a circus, they
have right to presume that the seats
provided by the circus management
are safe and the individual patrons are
not required to examine the planks in
the bleachers to determine whether
there is danger. That was the deci-
sion of the supreme court today in af-
firning a decision of the Shawnee
county district court which gave Bes-
sic F. Lewis of Cherryvale a judgment
against the SeIls-Floto Shows COM
pany. The woman fell from the cir
Gus b1eachers at the Sells-Floto shows
in 1912 and broke an arm. She Sc
cured service and brought suit in
Shawnee county in : 911-
In her petition the plaintiff recited
that she fell twelve feet to the ground
when an unsupported board gave way
under her weight. The circus man.
agement urged thai the woman had
not used due diligence and care. The
supreme court took another view of
the matter. Justice West in an opin-
| ion said: ''lshose attending circus per-
formances need not assume that the
seats provided by the mana cement are
unsafe or make a critical examination
of their fitness for the use which pa
irons are invited to make of them"
| The supreme court affirmed the ac-
ton of the Shawnee county district
court both in giving the woman judg-
ment for damages and in overruling a
motion by the circus company for a
new trial.
Patterson Must Go to Prison.
| 1t is not reversible error for a
county attorney to tell a jury that ac-
quitta1 of a defendant in liquor pro-
secut1on will make impossible conric-
lions on succeeding prosecutions of
! other defendants. That was the inter-
probation o. the supreme court today
on an issue involving reversible error
| in the remarks of the county attorney
4
against Porter Patterson of Topeka, on
trial in the Shawnee county district
court, charged with persistent viola
ton of the prohibitory liquor law.
Patterson was charged with seven
distinct sales of liquor. He was con-
victed on three counts 1t was charged
/ that he had on three previous occa-
sions been convicted of violating the
prohibitory law The court refused to
compel the state to elect on which
violation it would stand in seeking to
prove the defendant persistent viola
] tor The county attorney in his argu-
/ ment declared that dismissal of the
case meant a bar TO further prosecu-
/ ton in this county. To this remark
| the defendant took exception and
! sought to reverse the case in the su-
preme court. The court affirmed the
decision of the lower court In his
| syllabus Justice Marshall said:
/ 1T is not such misconduct as will
cause a judgment of conviction to be
reversed for a county attorney in his
! closing argument to the jury to say
4 that if the jury should disregard the
evidence of certain witnesses and re-
turn a verdict of not guilty, it would
be of no use to try either criminal
cases and that he might as well dis
miss them, for the reason that the
! state depended on conviction in these
cases upon the same class of testimony
as that introduced on the trial in
. which the argument was made"
The testimony in the Patterson case
was that of spoilers"