Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1892-01-30 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

HEAVY DAMAGES AGAINST A RAILWAY  COMPANY.  In the Queen's Bench Division, on Tuesday, before Mr. Justice Day and a special jury, James Wilkie Adamson sued the London Brighton and South coast Railway Company for damages for personal injuries sustained whilst a passenger on the company's line on May Ist, 1891, through the negligence of the defendant's servants. Defendants admitted the facts and pail £350 into court as sufficient compensation. The Solicitor-General (Sir E. Clarke, QC.), and Mr. Hewitt appeared for the plaintiff, and Sir Charles Russell aild Mr. Lyon appeared for the defendants.—The Solieitor-General said the sole question was whether the defendants had paid into court a sufficient sum for the injuries sustained by the plaintiff, a young nian who, at the time of the accident, was in the employ of his father, a London shipbroker. On the day of the accident the plaintiff left Brishton, where he resided with his father, by the 8.45 a.m. train for London. 011 the train reaching Norwood Junction, the bridge, with regard to which the directors had been warned, gave way,and the guard's van fell through. In consequenve the train was pulled up sharply, and the plaintiff, who was in a carriage next to the guard's van, was thrown violently forward, the partition against which he had been seated was smashed to atoms, aid plaintiff received injuries to his knee,his chest, and his arm. He also received a severe shock and an injury to the spine, from which he had since suffered, and in consequence of the accident he hail not since been able to attend to his duties as he did formerly, which had been a very great pecuniary loss to him. The plaintiff was called, and stated that owing to the accident he had been unable to carry out certain engagements he had hail in band, in consequence of which he had lost over £4,000.— Mr. James Wilkie Adamson, the father of plaintiff, said he travelled in the same train with his son,bi,t being in the front portion he was uninjured. rrior to the accident his son ably assisted him in his business, but since the accident his son's activity and mental capacity had been much diermished.— Mr. Frederick William a surgeon residing at Brighton, said lie attended plaintiff after the accident, and found him braised on the uppi r part of the right thigh and below the left knee. His chest was sore, and the lett arm had been deprived of all sensation. Plaintiff was also in a very shaky and disturbed state from shock. He afterwards saw plaintiff every day for a considerable period, and eventually recommended a voyage to Australia. A f ter the plaintiff returnoil from that voyage he was much improved. Ile had recently examined plaintiff, who was still nervous, and still had a loss of sensation in the left arm. He believed plaintiff would recover his former state of health, but could nit state how long it would be before that happened.—Sir Charles Russell, after consultation with his clients, said he would not call any evidence. He submitted that, viewed by fairminded men, the accident could only he regarded as inflicting but slight injuries, for which flys plaintiff was entitled to compensation, and the payment of his reasonable expenses caused through the accident, but this, he contended, was amply provided for by the sum paid onto court by the defendant company. —After an absence of a quarter of an hour, the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, damages £l,OOO, including the sum paid into Court.—His lordship gave judgment accordingly, and certified for a spt cial jury.  A terrible crime is teported from the province of Riazan, one of the interior Russian governments most severely affected by the famine.. A priest named Sokoloff, on his way home from the town of Lgoff, was supposed to be in possession of funds belonging to the church, and some peasants determined to murder him in order to obtain the money. They fell upon the priest, and pushed him into a bole in the ice of the River Oka, where they drowned him. In ordinary times such a crime (says the Odessa correspondent of the Daily (hronicle), united as it is with sacrilege, would be impossible in Russia, and it exemplifies better than pages of description to what straits t;ie peasants are being driven.