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Show SUITS AGAINST CF.HJMPi Suits aggregating a quarter of a million dollars have been filed In tho district court at Morgan against the Union Portland Cement company by Attorney A J. Weber of Salt Lake-. The action Is the rosult of the explosion, ex-plosion, which occurred at tho defendant's defen-dant's quarries June 1, 1910, In which seventeen men lost their lives. In the present suit there are thirteen thir-teen claimants, each of which seeks the payment of $20,000 damages. Six of the suits are brought through tho Italian consul at Donver who has hp-polnted hp-polnted Moses PaggI as the administrator adminis-trator of tho estate of tho six Italians, who mot death at the time of tho accident. ac-cident. Seven of the claims aro made through tho advice of the Austrian consul of Donvor, thoro having been seven of his countrymen killed In the quarries. Antonc Basetlch has been appointed administrator in these estates es-tates The explosion out of which the suit3 grow, Is said to have been causod by a premature explosion of powder. Foreman Magulre, whose home was in Ogden, was one of tho victims of the fatallty It is complained in the suits filed that the oxplosion which resulted In tho death of these thirteen men was due to the negligence of tho Utah Portland Cement company. The men were engaged as laborers in the quarries quar-ries of the company Tho defendant company, it is pointed out, had run a tunnol into the rock of the quarry to a distance of about fifty-six feet from Its faco. At the inner end of this there wero two other short tunnels running at right angles to tho roam drift, forming a "T" shaped opening In the rock. Those tunnels wero about thirty inches high and twenty-four inches wide. In tho two ineido offshoots off-shoots from tho main tunnol -cfwere stored large quantities of black powder pow-der and dynamite. On June 1. 1910. it islset out, the foreman nnd sixteen men woro ordered order-ed to go into tho tunnel and station themselves at given distances for tho purpose of passing in to the foreman an additional supply of black powdor and dynamite. The tunnel opening boing small the men were obliged to creep into it in uncomfortable postures pos-tures inconvenient to the performance of the work. Light was supplied to the tunnel by means of electric wires that, it Is complained, com-plained, were dragged in by tho workmen work-men nnd rubbed against the sharp and jagged rock wall of the orifice in tho prosecution of their work to such an extent that the insulation was worn off. permitting a short circuit of the electric current. It is alleged that resultant sparks ignited the black powder, pow-der, and that concussion from the explosion ex-plosion of this Instantly exploded the dynamite. As a result of this explosion the men In the tunnol were literally torn to pieces, some of them belug dismembered dis-membered to sucn an extent that it was almost Impossible to bring the nroner parts of their bodies togetbor again. Others weie burned beyond any manner of recognition, besides boing mangled in a frightful manner. Tho only means of knowing who had been killed, In the main, lay in knowledge knowl-edge of tho names of tho men. ordered to the work of storing the powrer Jn the tunnel. All of the complaints allege that the defendant company failed to exercise duo care and proper precaution In providing pro-viding for this work of moving and storing the powdor, and that as a result re-sult of its carelessness the accideut occurred and thirteen men lost their lives. The cement company is insured In the Guardian and Casuality company, and tho suit will bo handled by tho Insurance company, rather than by tho Union Cement companj again?t which It Is aimed. . |