Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1916-06-30
ADDISON COUNTY COURT
Jury Returns Verdict in Favor Of
Defendant Hanks,

phHy W., WIDER II, HANKS was oc
cupylng the attention Of the court wheT
our report closed last week, The argu
ments to the jury for both sides were
all In before the recess was taken
on Thursday evening and the attorney
for the plaintiffs figured out that, look
ing at their claims from different angles
Judge Hanks owed their clients either
Sl2OO or $2iO0, the amount of damages
they wanted for the deception and
fraud which had been practced on them,
the $1,000 being the value Of the dis
puted land at the time Of the deal -four
years ago and the S2iOO its present
market value, as claimed But the de-
fence insisted that Judge Hanks had
never claimed to own or sell the dis
puted land.
Judge Miles gave the case to the
jury upon the opening Friday morning
and his charge was completed in half
an hour The jury took the case at
$3.50 o'clock and Richard H. Preble of
Shoreham was appointed their fore
man. In little more than two hours
they returned into court and the fore
man announced that they had agreed
The verdict was in favor Of the defend
ant that the defendant was not liable
to the plaintiffs in manner and form
as set up by them in their declaration,
AS soon as this case was got to the
jury another one was announced to be
ready to come on. The case was Arthur
c. Barnerd VS. Richard H. Leonard the
plaintiff living in Orwell and the
defendant in Benson,
The counsel for the case were mostly
made up Of foreign talent from Rutland
county. John S. Dorsey of Rutland and
Robert W. McCuen of Vergennes rep.
resenting Plaintiff Barnard and |. j.
/ Pratt and p NJ. Phelps of Fair Haven
representing Defendant Leonard.
In this case it was claimed by the
plaintiff that the defendent was owing
him for skidding and piing $1,000 feet
of logs in two lots in Benson in Novem-
Der and December last. The work was
done under written contract and
Barnard was to clean up the two lots
and get all the logs piled by March !.
He was to receive Sl.25 per thousand
feet; So per cent Of the amount due was
to be paid when the first $4,000 feet
were piled and a like proportion when
the second $4,000 feet had been handled.
The plaintiff got most of his pay when
the first lot of logs agreed upon had
been taken care of but after he had
got another 80, 600 feet attended to he
was unable to extract any more money
from the defendant. His men We're
clamorng for their pay and he could
get nothing to pay them with, So
about Christmas time he threw up the
job in disgust, and this suit was the re-
suit
1t was claimed for the defense that
the plaintiff had not done his work in a
good and workmanlike manner, but
that on the contrary many of the piles
of logs were not properly put up, and
that he had broken his contract by
abandoning the job before it was COM
pleted.
The taking of testimony for the
plaintiff mostly from fellow workmen,
went along until Saturday noon, when
recess was taken to Up. m. on Monday.
The defense had completed their evil
dence and the rebuttal testimony had
been got in before the adjournment
Tuesday noon, and in the after
noon brief arguments were made for
the plaintiff by Mr.. Dorsey and Mr..
McCuen and for the defendant by Mr..
Pratt and Mr.. Phelps. The jury got the
case from Judge Miles at 4:30 o'clock
and Mr. Smith of Starksboro was ap-
pointed foreman. At 5:l5 they came
into court with a verdict in favor of
the plaintiff, that he recover $93,25
damages and his costs.
When the Barnard jury had retired
to consult, another jury was called, as
another case was ready. 1t was
Josephine Ward vs. Alice Ward and
trustee, the Burlington Savings bank,
and it came up from the old general
docket, not being on the jury calen-
dar. The plaintiff is a resident of New
York city and the defendant is
at present living in Philadelphia,
but formerly was a resident of Middle
bury and later lived at Richville in
Shoreham. The plaintiffiis.married to
a son of the defendant and in 1914 was
keeping rooming flat in New York |
and Winter Ward, the husband, was a
Pullman conductor running between
New York and Buffalo. In May, 1914,
Ward went over to England and
brought back his mother, who had for
some time been living at her childhood
home in that country. Mrs. Ward. the |