Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1888 — A CELEBRATED CASE. [ARTICLE]

A CELEBRATED CASE.

A Law Suit Involving 845 Fourteen Years on Trial —Litigants Bankrupt and Communities Impoverished. [Waterloo (Iowa) special.) The celebrated Jones County calf case came up again for hearing, this time in this city. It is a case with a history. It had its origin fourteen years ago; has been tried in several District Courts: been heard in the Supreme Court two or three times, and now comes up for adjudication once more. In 1874 the case was started in Jones County by a farmers’ society. A man by the name of Potter, of Greene County traveled through that section buying young stock. Among the rest five calves were bought of one Johnson, who has been the prominent figure in the litigation which has consumed so much time. The calves which were sold were afterward identified as belonging to farmers in the vicinity. At a meeting of the Jones County Anti-Horse Thief Society, held shortly after, it was determined to charge Johnson with the theft of the animats, and suit was accordingly entered. In December. 1874, he was indicted by the Grand Jury in session in Jones County, but the Court set the indictment aside. In February of the following year he was again indicted by the Grand Tury, and oi> this indictment he was twice ied, taking change of venue to adjoining counties. In the first trial the jury disagreed, one man remaining firm in favor of conviction. but in the second trial, which occurred in 1876, he was acquitted. Soon after his acquittal he began suits against farmers by the names of Miller and Foreman, and six other prominent members of the society, claiming SIO,OOO damages for malicious prosecution. This case was taken up on a change of venue from Jones County to Clinton. There it was twice tried, and then removed to Benton County on a change of venue, where it was once more before the courts. In each of these trials the jury returned a verdict in favor of Johnsoi’i for amounts ranging from $3,000 to $7,000, and each time the Judge set the verdict aside on account of alleged errors.

The case was next taken to Blackhawk Gounty in 1883, on another change of venue, and there tried, a verdict of $5,000 rendered by the jury and judgment entered. From this, however, an appeal was taken to the Supreme Court, the decision reversed, and the case remanded back for trial in 1884. In 1886 the case was once more tried in Blackhawk County, and again a decision was rendered in favor of Johnson for $7,000. This was again appealed to the Supremo Court, and once more the verdict was set aside and the case sent back for trial in 1887, and the sixth trial of the case occurs after fourteen years bf litigation. This litigation has been under the consideration of thirty grand jurors and eighty-four petit jurors. It has been presented to nine different trial judges, and has twice been before the Supreme Court, five judges sitting upon the bench each time. The court costs alone amount to more than $5,000, and the attorneys’ fees are much more than that amount. All of the eighty-four jurors have decided in favor of Johnson, but the courts have uniformly set the verdicts aside on legal grounds, because of the close question as to whether there was probable cause on the part of the members of the society for starting prosecution.

The large part of a lifetime has been spent in useless litigation over a few animals, the entire value of which was about $45. A number of the farmers engaged in the suits have become hopelessly ruined, but still Johnson comes smilingly before the court, begins his suits, and readily pays for them, and is already an old man. Children of various ages, who testified when the legislation first began, now lead into court their own children, who are nearly as old as were their parents at the time they made their first bow to the courts. The farmers are growing old. their money has leaked away through the various legal crevices, and found its way into other hands; homes have been broken up, a community made poorer in every way, and still the case is dragged through the tedious channels of the law, with but little more chance of settlement than there was fourteen years ago.