Norwich bulletin., 1921-02-11
FISHING CASE
 NOW IN JUDGES HANDS

Evidence and arguments were finished here Thursday in the superior court be- fore Judge George E. Hinman in the trial of the suit of the Southern Men Haden Go. of Jacksonville. Fla, against the Mantle Menhaden Oil and Guano Co.
 Judge Hinman held court till o'clock in the afternoon in order to have the arguments finished. He reserved deci- sion and directed counsel to file their &C., counts of the financial claims in the case i by next Tuesday. Al the same time counsel with exchange copies of their claims and if there are any answers fur ther are to be submitted to the judge by the following Friday.
 Both sides rested at 12:35 and Attor- ney G. c. Morgan began the first argu- | ment for the plaintiff at :32 in its claim for $10,000 damages for breach of contract over the leasing of one of the Southern Menhaden Co. boats-to the Mi antic company to catch bony fish in the | fall of 1918. The attorney spoke for nearly an hour and in the course of his argument claimed that the Jacksonville boats crew did better in fishing with its i own seines than with the nets that were l furnished it by c. M. Shay of the Mi antfc Co. He also claimed that catching i bony fish was So uncertain that the com plaint of the defendant company about the size of the catch that was made in 1 the time from Sept. 15 to Oct. 26 did not furnish an adequate ground of complaint. 1 c. Hadlai Hull opened the arguments | for the defendant company which makes a counter claim for s70,000 against the Jacksonville company for failure to mske
 a good catch of fish. Attorney Hull ar
 gued that the Mantle company had a i right to expect that the Jacksonville boat would catch at the least 2;O00 bar rels of bony fish per week, whereas the catch dropped dowIf to 150 or 200 barrels a week at times. If the catch had ma terialized the way the Mantle company had expected it would. said MT. Hull, the iseason's receipts to the Mantle company
 would have reached S94,000, with hsl
 oil at s1.11 per gallon and fish scrap at SIT a ton Major Hull closed the argu-
 ments for the defendant. He blamed the small catch of fish on an Incompetent
 captain and crew and poorly equipped
 boat which was furnished by the South ern Menhaden Company, an1 said it was significant that the Southern Menhaden Co. ha@ been dissolved with a $1O,000 claim or its books and then the books disappear ed.
 Attorney Tracy Waller closed the ar
 guments for the Southern Menhaden Co.
 taking up the details of the money in volved in the charger and counter
 charges between the two concerns
 When the court came in Thursday 3 10 Major Hull began to cross examin r Capt Davis. He halls from the sout
 and is a deep sea fisherman and Il now employed by the Fisheries Produt Il Co., of New York He is in New Londo looking after boats that are being repair
 ed. He said that he was allowed to com ; here at the request of MT. Delaney ( : Jacksonville. and denied he is getting $a day for his court work.
 He was told by Ma ior Hull of tt > low record of the southern steamer her
 and the witness said it is possible for T . steamer to enter a fleet ,andl not gt > much fish when other boats are gettin
 even deck loads He said if he was II control he would try and locate tf trouble if there was any Asked abo,
 the ca tch of about 150 barrels a wee
 by the Southern Menhaden Co.,, boat I
 said he would call it the worst he fla 6 ever known.
 He said that when he went aboal = boats that did not get fish he general t found a reason and corrected the troubl -' He stated that fast steamer might 2 j. as much fish as a slow one and fish boa
 gers rally make eight miles an hour E He said he has fished as far north n Rookaway. There were three fish plan E. at Lewes, Del, but there are only tv >, now.
 Henry Langworthy was the lac. wi ness and he told what he knew about t
 case
 n big chart of Long Island sound h d been used in the case.