Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1899 — The Circuit Court. [ARTICLE]

The Circuit Court.

The jury was dismissed for the term, Thursday afternoon. Hannon Clark, of plead guilty to the charge of carrying concealed weapons, and was fined $lO and costs. Another indictment against him for allowing people to play pool at unlawful hours was dismissed. In the county’s suit to collect back from the petitioners the costs paid in the Iroquois ditch, after Judge Kent overruled the petitioners demurrer, they filed an answer in ten paragraphs. It is understood that the case will not be finally decided this term, although Judge Kent’s decision in overruling the demurrer is considered a virtual decision that the petitioners must pay the. costs. In the case of C. A. Weatherhogg, vs. the county commissioners. Realleged balance due onarch icommission, the attorneys for the commissioners made the plea that a contract made with an architect to pay him by a per cent, on the cost of the building was illegal and void, and this contention the court has sustained. This ruling, if it be finally sustained, will make a great change in the methods of hiring architects, the method of paying by a per cent, being long established and of almost universal practice. It is stated that a decision of the Supreme Court as well as a plain provision of law, makes such per cent, contracts illegal. The case is is not finally decided and probably will not be until the next term of court.