armies, the building and maintenance of all the fleets, the transportation of troops, the recruiting and bounties, the arms and ammunition and war material in every form; in short, every itein of Government expenditure on account of that great struggle, except the interest on money borrowed wherewith to continue the fight. Four thousand million dollars in pensions alone! Almost four-fifths of the total estimated valuation-by the census of 1860, true valuation, not assessed--of all the property, real and personal, in all the eleven Southern States composing the Confederacy. Four thousand million dollars! More than ten times the total cost of the Panama Canal, the greatest work of peace ever undertaken by inan. Is it necessary for patriotism to blink the main fact when considering the question of Federal taxation and expenditure and delicit? Broadly speaking, one dollar in four of the nation's revenues from every source goes to the military pensioner. LEGAL TWISTS. Attorney General Wickersham was talking at the Lawyer' Club in New York about some of the absurd defenses that are set up in cases wherein rich men are involved. "Such defenses seem to indicate," he said, "that some law yers deem the public as ignorant of common law and common sense as Calhoun White was. "Calhoun White was a southern lawyer, and once in a case in a South Carolina court he made frequent references to 'de ex facto-post-hole' law. "The judge, with a quiet smile, at last set him right. "'You mean, Mr. White," he said, 'the ex-post-facto law.' "But Calhoun White drew himself up with dignity. "Ah begs pahdon ob de co't," he said, in a pitying voice, 'but Yo' Honah sartinly am lame on dat ar term. Why, gents, hit am dat law wot perhibits a man from diggin' de hole arter de post am set.' West Virginia Court of Appeals Decisions Handed Down at the Last Term REPORTED ESPECIALLY FOR THE BAR Appearing Here for the First Time in Print CHILDERS ET AL. v. MILAM ET AL. SYLLABUS. 1. In a suit under the provisions of Code 1906, ch. 77, sec. 32, to impeach the probate of a will, the validity of a subsequent probate of a wholly different paper cannot be established. 2. The absolute validity of the rights of plaintiff is not a question in such suit In this particular it is sufficient for plaintiff to show a bona fide interest in impeaching the will. 3. Admissions in answers of adult defendants cannot biud infant defendants in the cause. A decree against the rights of infants standing only on these admissions must be reversed. ALLEY AND BOGGS v. MUSICK AND BROWNING Mingo County. Alternative Writ Quashed; Peremptory Writ Refused. 1. Persons having wholly separate and distinct rights cannot join as relators in mandamus. 2. Political nominations made and elections held to fill two offices, in respect to each of which there is legally an unexpired term and to one of them also a regular term, which the voters could fill at the time by election, making as to one office a term of about two years and eight months and as to the other of about four years and eight months in a practical sense, are deemed to have been made and held for the purpose of filling the offices as fully and completely as the voters had right and power to fill them, such nominations having been made and elections held under designations of a "four year term," respectfully. BUTLER v. PRINTING COMMISSIONERS Mandamus Refused. Brannon, Judge. 1. A mandamus will not go to a bidder for state binding to compel the Commissioners of Printing to award him the contract for such binding after they have awarded it to another bidder, though the former was the lower bidder, the function of the board of commissioners involving discretion. 2. Quaere: Is this a suit against the State? WEST VIRGINIA ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS v. STEWART Cabell County. Reversed and Judgment for Plaintiff on the Demurrer to the Evidence. 1. Books of original entry of a contractor and builder kept by a bookkeeper, who, according to an established system or method of transacting the business, records the oral or written reports made to him by one or more persons in the regular course of business, of transactions lying in the personal knowledge of the latter, whether such bookkeeper have personal knowledge of such transaction or not, are admissible in evidence in connection with the testimony of such bookkeeper showing the regularity of the entries therein by him, to prove an account therein, without the evidence of the witnesses having persanal knowledge of the transactions, provided the testimony of such witnesses, because of death interest, incompetency, absence, inconvenience, or otherwise be unavailing. 2. Where on demurrer to the evidence the court below has not ruled on the question of excessiveness of the conditional verdict of the jury, this court will consider only the question whether the evidence sustains plaintiff's right to damages. MILLER V. JONES ET ALS. Marshall County. Reversed and Remanded SYLLABUS. 1. Where the vendor sells land by written contract providing for the payments of the purchase money in future installments, and for the making of a deed when all the purchase money is paid, and afterwards breaks, and wholly repudiates his contract, the vendee may have specific performance immediately, and without waiting until the time of complete performance. 2. But he can only have performance according to the terms of the contract. The court cannot compel the vendor to receive the purchase money until it is due and payable according to the terms of the agreement. ERIE CITY IRON WORKS v. MILLER SUPPLY COMPANY. 1. Though the vendor of an article knows it is intended for a particular use or purpose, the sale thereof carries no implied warranty of fitness for such purpose, if the purchaser has seen and inspected the article and secured just what he contracted for. 2. Oral evidence to prove an express warranty of the fitness of an article, constituting the subject matter of a sale, for a particular purpose, is inadmissible, when the contract, signed by the purchaser's agent though informal, definitely and specifically describes it and says it is in accordance with the instructions of such agent. 3. In such case, a letter from the purchaser, introducing the agent, and saying the article is to be "built according to his instructions," and a letter from the seller, completely and minutely describing the article, setting forth the price, terms and shipping directions, saying an order therefor has been entered in accordance with the agent's instructions, signed by the agent, and confirmed by an other letter from the purchaser, constitute a complete contract in writing. 4. Inadmissible evidence constituting the sole ground of defense, and erroneously let in over the objection of the defendant, does not preclude a peremptory instruction to find for the plaintiff. Though irregular and technically erroneous, such procedure is unavailing ir the appellato court, since it is not prejudicial. THE WEAVER MERCANTILE CO. v. THURMOND. Fayette County. Affirmed. Williams, President. SYLLABUS. 1. A man is bound to use his premises so as not to injure his neighbor's property. 2. A land owner who brings water upon his premises by artificial means and stores it in tanks or reservoirs for his use, is liable if the water escape and injure the property of an adjoining owner. 3. If a landlord have on his premises a water tank which supplies water to several houses occupied by several tenants he is bound at his peril to prevent the water from escaping and injuring the property of an adjoining proprietor. 4. If the tank hurɛts and the escaping water does injury to the property of an adjoining proprietor, negligence will be presumed. In such case the rule of res ipsa loquitor applies. 5. A trustee in bankruptcy may obtain permission from the bankrupt court to intervene and prosecute a suit brought in the state court by the bankrupt before his adjudication. But his failure to in. tervene will not abate the suit. 6. If the trustee fail to intervene in such suit in the lower court he can not do so by petition in this court after the case has been brought here on writ of error or appeal. Such petition presents original matter which does not belong to the jurisdistion of this court. THE BAR "It was the boast of Augustus that he found Rome of brick and left it of marble. But"-he added "how much nobler will be the sovereign's boast when he shall have it to say that he found law dear and left it cheap; found it a sealed book and left it a living letter; found it the patrimony of the rich, left it the inheritance of the poor; found it the two edged sword of craft and oppression, and left it the staff of honesty and the shield of innocence." PRICE, 10 CENTS. $1.00 A YEAR IN ADVANCE. NEW DOMINION PRINT, MORGANTOWN, W. VA. |