The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1925-04-09
Case in Circuit Court Ends
Friday Night--Verdict
for Plaintiff.
LONGEST CIVIL SUIT
Trial Lasted Two Weeks in
Circuit Court with E. E.
Better as Defendant.

The longest drawn-out civil suit that
has ever taken place in the circuit
court here in its history of twenty
five years, came to close finally with
the verdict of jury returned Fri
day night, with the jury finding for
the plaintiffs.
There were really two suits of the
same nature and tried together, with
Exydore Halicke and wife the plain
tiffs in the one action and John
Mikolaicyk and wife the plaintiffs in
the other, and Edwin E. Better, the
defendant in both.
Clear Verdict for Plaintiff.
The jury after dreary two weeks
Of trial, had rather large task be-
fore them when on Friday morning
Judge Belden gave them their instruc-
tions and they retired with fifty-six
questions to answer, twenty-eight for
either side.
The questions in special verdicts
sometimes read like intelligence tests
for the army, and juries sometimes
fail to "Binet," but in this case the
jury brought in an intelligent special
verdict, with all the questions ans
wered clearly and precisely.
Find False Representations.
The plaintiffs were sueing Better
as the result Of an exchange of prop
erty which they owned separately in
Kenosha for farm which Better own
ed in 1921 in Wayne county, southern
Illinois. They charged that Better
had made false representations about
the condition of the soil on his farm
and about the crops it could produce.
The jury sustained the plaintiffs.
"Did the defendant represent the soil
on the farm to be rich and uniform
to induce the plaintiff Halicke to ex-
change the Kenosha property for the
farm ?" was one of the questions SUBJ
mitted the jury in the Halicke case,
and thew answered eyes" The next
question was "Was such representa-
ton false" which they also ans
swered Eyes"
They were asked if Better repre-
sented to Halicke that the farm pro-
duced 35 bushels of oats and If such
representation we're false, both Of
which questions were answered Eyes"
Incident of the Corn.
A good deal of the case turned
about certain ears of corn which
Halicke claimed Better had shown
him and represented to have grown
on the Better farm. This corn was
SO beautiful and of such an unusual
size that Halicke took a couple ears
away, and some of this corn was
placed on the counter on the Office of
the real estate man in the deal. Dur
ing the trial the defense for Better
acknowledged that this corn was not
grown on the Better farm, but was
seed corn grown in that county; how
ever, the defense maintained that this
was always understood and that no false
representations were made.
Here again the jury sustained the
plaintiffs, finding that Better did
represent the corn il question to be
grown on his own farm, and that such
representation was false.
The farm was sold to Halicke and
the other plaintiff for 500 an acre.
The Jury found that the fair market
value at the time Of the sale was $40
an acre, and that had the repI
tations made by Better been true 1t
would have had a fair market value
of s125 an acre. They found that the
value of Halicke's property in Keno
sha which he exchanged was 1920
and that the fair value of Mikolaicyk's
property in Kenosha was $4,000.
Attorney Alfred L. Drury repre-
sented the plaintiffs in the action to-
gether with Attorneys Conway and
King of Wisconsin Rapids.