Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1899 — The Big Case Ended. [ARTICLE]

The Big Case Ended.

The big damage suit of John Brown vs. the C. I. & L. Ry. Company, otherwise the Monon, ended here at noon Saturday, having been on trial for twelve days. The case came here from Lake county op change of venne. It was the long* est trial ever held in our county and the suit was brought for the largest amount, although the amount of the verdict has been exceeded several times. So far as known it was the only trial ever held in the connty before a “struck jury.” On Oct. 7th or Bth, 1897, during a long and severe dry spell, fire started on or near the right of way of the Monon, some distance north of Shelby, from a locomotive. The fire spread rapidly, in spite of every effort to arrest it, and soon reached the land of John Brown, some mile and a half east from the railroad. Some 1834 acres were burned over. The land is a marsh lying so low that it becomes covered with water a considerable portion of every year, and is only useful as hay and pasture land, it not being, at present susceptible of sufficient drainage to fit it for farm land. Above the subsoil there are two or three feet of peaty soil, which in dry times becomes inflamable, and when the grass above it was burned over, at the time mentioned, this peaty soil took fire and bnrned for weeks and in fact months, leaving the surface covered with holes and pits, and not only too rough to be cut for hay, but was also practically ruined for pastnrage. Duriug the trial the great points of contention have been, whether the fire started on or off the railroad’s right of way, the condition of the same, as to whether it was kept clean of grass and weeds or not, the condition of the engine which was supposed to have started the fire, and the amount of damage done to the land. The plaintiff examined 44 witnesses and the defendant about 34. The plaintiff sued for $20,000. The jury found in his favor with a verdict of $5,411.44 and of which amount S2OO was for hay, $125 for fences, and $5059.40 for damage to the land, Tbe same fire burned over large scopes of land for other parties and two other suits, also sent from Lake county, are now pending in our court. Carman Brothers are tbe plaintiffs in one case and William Brown in the other. Both sue for about $20,000. Besides these there are several other claims resulting from the same fire which have not yet been sued for. The trial, it is needless to say, has cost money. The witness fees were over S2OO a side. Tbe jury costs were $300.80. The bailiff’s, sheriff’s, clerk’s, and stenographer’s costs amonnt to $135 more. In all the bill to be taxed to Lake Co. will be about $450. Ol this amount however, Lake connty can collect back from the railroad $199.65, owing to a peculiar provision 6f the strnok jury law.