THIS WAS A CANDID JUROR.
"I'd Blame the Railroad," Said He,
Before Hearing Evidence.
After three laborious hours had been spent by attorneys in Judge J. H. Slover's division of the circuit court yesterday afternoon in securing a jury to try a damage suit, a few words from a juror nullified the whole proceeding.
As Frank Walsh, attorney for Elizabeth Freeman in her suit against the Missouri Pacific and Frisco railways, was stating his client's side to the jury and showing a diagram of the location of the accident on which the case was based, Joe Stine, a juror, remarked:
"Why don't they fix that like they have it at Dodson? I'd blame the railroad."
Immediately there was a commotion. Mr. Walsh and Elijah Robinson, W. S. Cowherd and R. J. Ingraham, the three last named representing the defendants, were on their feet at once. The court discharged the jury and excused Stine. He lives in the county south of Kansas City.
The petition alleges injuries as the result of a collision at a crossing. Two trains collided. Mr. Walsh was showing a diagram of the crossing when Stine made his remark. A new jury will have to be impanelled.
