| Show IAf1Illff WITH THE BOX x Banker Whitmore Pound Guilty of Contempt of Court AN INTERESTING BY PLAY Arthur Brown Intimates That Somc thingWill Happen Before January Sentence Is Deterred and the Case Will T Ho Appealed Bartch Grants a t l > n orcc Verdict by Ten JurorsCourt Notes Judge Barlch rendered an opinion yesterday yes-terday morning in the VVhitmore contempt con-tempt case which has been on hearing before him for several days past He said in substance The principal question raised on this hearing was as to the jurisdiction of this f court the judge of the First district court Laving transferred it to this district on his own motion The defense claims that tho transfer was illegal that no objection was ever made to it prior to this hearing After being transferred the case was referred re-ferred to a referee by consent of parties and the referee tried and determined the issues The court then affirmed his decision de-cision I On the question as to the sufficiency of the transfer I took it that the court haying hay-ing original jurisdiction of the case had a right to transfer it and tho transfer is a judgment of that court This court has no right TO inquir into the transfer and this is especially true when neither of the 1 interested parties object The order of z4 this court then was binding even though not personally served on the defendant for he must have known of the decree Under these circumstances the court finds the defendant guilty On the trial considerable feeling was manifested by the witnesses on the respective sides of the case aud there is of course some question as to the amount of surplus water in the stream But the defendant had no right to take the matter into his own hand and destroy the box placed there by order of d this court Under the circumstances though I think the court should be lenient and if the defendant replaces the box as it was originally within the next I ten days that will be taken into consideration con-sideration when final judgment is passed Varian If I might make a suggestion your honor I would suggest that the box be replaced under the direction of the engineer appointed by the court and whose report is now on file awaiting conformation con-formation The Court Counsel should remember that I am not making any order as to that I have said that if the box is replaced re-placed within the next ton days that I shall take that into consideration in pass sing judgment Arthur Brown we believe this case is appealable and we intend to appeal it oat as we cannot do so until final judgment judg-ment is rendered we believe all parties would be better satisfied if judgment could be rendered now with a stay of twentyfour hours C S Yarian They seem to want an appeal immediately On this question I ques-tion we insist that if the court is disposed to render judgment I now the coercive powers of the court be exercised to compel tho defendant defend-ant to obey the decree of the court Counsel seems to be seeking to keep matters as they now are until the matter has been passed upon by the supreme court Ve desire that the rights of the plaintiff be protected and this is more important than the simple imposition or dollars and cents Judge Henderson seems thatcounsol wishes the court to punish the defendant for suggesting even that he intends to appeal ap-peal from the decision of this court If an appeal is given to us by law it is our Tight and I submit that it should not even be hinted that a party should suffer at the hands of the court because he intends in-tends to take an appeal Varian My meaning has been misapprehended misap-prehended I merely called attention to the fact that counsel anticipating the decision of the court has prepared for an an appeal They are asking for a decision offhand and in that event I merely ask that my suggestion be considered The Court Well you may present the matter tomorrow morning A question then arose as to the transfer of the matter to Judge Bartch by Judge Zane and it was suggested that the matter mat-ter ol the appeal from the original judgment judg-ment in the case should also be heard before be-fore the former to prevent the disqualification V disqualifi-cation of both judges r Judge Bartch Well it is important that the matter be so arranged as not to disqualify both judges Arthur Brown with grim humor Well I dont think that will trouble us by next January As Judge Bart h declined Jo take up any motions outside of the contempt proceedings pro-ceedings the matter was called up beforo Judge Zane at 2 oclock to determine the question as to which judge should hear the motions in the original case Judge Zane decided that the fixing of the supersedeas bond on appeal to the supreme su-preme court would not disqualify Judge Bartch from sitting on tho case in the supreme court and hence referred it to him The other motions will be taken up l before Judge Zane on July 3 |
