| Show WIDOWS W I 1 AND AT HANNA H A NNA BRING ff Z F 6 alfi SUITS S union pacific coal company must defend claims that aggregate upwards of quarter of a million HANNA wyo feb 22 suits asking for damages aggregating nearly a quarter of a million dollars have been filed in the district court at cheyenne against the union pacific coal 1 company by widows and other heirs of miners who were ere killed in the two explosions that destroyed mine no 1 at hanna on an march 28 1903 several of the suits are for each and others for each in irv almost every instance the petition avers that the body of the deceased has not been recovered these cases involve six widows and twentysix twenty sik six orphans each suit is based upon the belief that the territorial law limiting death damages to was unconstitutional this law was repealed a few days ago by the state legislature and the bill has been signed by the governor the petitioners allege in almost every instance that the defendant corporation was and guilta of gross carelessness in operating mine aline no 1 in that it wolken the slope from the surface downward instead of running the slope a certain distance and then working upward w ard that an insufficient number ui fire bosses was employed that the mine was not properly ventilated and that the property was not only in a dangerous condition but that the company had full knowledge of this fact that the mine was not properly sprinkled to prevent explosions plo from dust also taht the mine had been on fire and that one week to the explosion a force of men u v as sent into the mine periodically to fight the flames and that fire brattices were torn down by order of the company thus endangering the lives of the miners |
