Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-12-09
GIRLS INJURY'S IN
 'P|E-EATING CONTEST z STILL IN COURTS
Half Dozen Decisions Already Given in the Famous
 Action.

Omaha, Neb., Dec. GA girls leg, injured in a pie-eating con- test, is giving the seven sta:d members of the Nebraska supreme court all sorts of worry. It's up to the court to decide how much she is injured by having an injur- ed leg. Lower courts of the state have been wrangling over this particular damaged leg for four years.
 Nebraska's pie-eating suit bids fair to take it's place beside the famous calf case, the Wisconsin chicken case and the Ohio pig case. Half a dozen court decis- ions have already been given in the pie-eating case and this is the first time the question has reach ed the supreme court. Ten thou sand dollars is the amount involv ed, and costs. The costs already nearly equal the amount sued for. Four years of Having" costs mon- ey.
 Occurred at Riverton. The pie-eating contest took place at Riverton, Neb., July ,, 1915. It was a fourth of July eel ebration. But that year the fourth fell on Sunday, so Monday was celebrated as Independence day. The pie-eating contest was the climax, the piece-de-desistance of the celebration. It came toward the close of the day.
 Riverton is not very large town. It has only 369 inhabitants. But every one of these 369 were at the contest and half of Frank lin county was in Riverton that day.
 The pie-eaters were on a raised platform so that all could see. Ana there were enough contestants Oh that platform to have filled a space three times as large. Not all contestants could win the prize, of course, but each could get all the pies he wanted, at least. And that was prize in itself, they thought.
 The word was given and the eat ing began. Pies disappeared with startling rapidity. One contes- tant announced the finish of his tenth pie. His closest rival was half through with his ninth. The crowd pressed closer. Some of the audience even climped up on the platform.
 Then the platform gave way and boys, men, girls, women and pies were thrown into one jumbled mass. It was in this mass that the girls leg became injured. Miss Josie Chaney was the girl in question. According to her court petition she was an 'inno- cent spectator Her leg was per- manently injured. she tells the court in her prayer.
 That leg has been in court ever since. Once she secured judg- ment of $4000 against the village of Roverton, against which her suit was brought. But this judg- ment was overturned by the dis. trict court.
 Public Opinion Divided.
 At first, the case was thought out in village public opinion. And public opinion divided. Riverton society split in twain. "She ought to h:ye $10.O00-she oughtn't to have a cent" became the general trend of conversation. Miss Chaney claimed that the village had invited her people to come to the pie-eating contest and that the village was in duty bound to pro- tect those who did come. She claims that the platform erectel for the pie-eaters was nuisance, since it obstructed the street.
 The village says in its answer that Miss Clancy should have served written notice upon the board that the platform was a nui- sance and that since she failed to do so the village is not liable for damage to her leg. The village further answers that Miss Chaney herself contributed to the accident by crowding too close to the plat form. Then the story becomes en. meshed in maze of legal phrase ology that it is difficult to fol- low.
 "A street is a walled-in strip of ground extending indefinitely in length and reaching from the earth to the sky" is the way in which Mss Chaney's attorney describes street in the village.
 And all because Riverton had