Warner v. Talbot

66 L.R.A. 336, 36 So. 743, 112 La. 817, 1903 La. LEXIS 475
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedDecember 14, 1903
DocketNo. 14,814
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 66 L.R.A. 336 (Warner v. Talbot) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Warner v. Talbot, 66 L.R.A. 336, 36 So. 743, 112 La. 817, 1903 La. LEXIS 475 (La. 1903).

Opinions

MONROE, J.

Plaintiff alleges that he recently resided, and was engaged in the livery stable business, at Dodson, in the parish of Winn; that the business was prosperous, and that he conducted himself in an orderly and peaceable manner; that upon July 1 and 2, 1902, the defendants, whom he names (48 in number), conspiring together for that purpose, inflicted upon him certain injuries, the particulars of which are set forth as follows:

“That, in pursuance of a common design, purpose, and conspiracy agreed upon and formulated by said defendants, the said defendants, violently, forcibly, without warrant of law, with force and arms, and in direct violation of the criminal statutes of the state, assaulted, arrested, and detained your petitioner, marched him, by force and threats, into a lone forest, unfrequented by civilized [819]*819man, where he was by said defendants threatened, violently abused, ill treated, wronged, kicked, cuffed, and assaulted, by being struck on the head and body with a loaded pistol, and in other ways; and, finally, after being subjected to the most wicked and cruel outrages, the said defendants tied a rope around your petitioner’s neck, threw one end thereof over the limb of a forest tree, and, by pulling thereon, petitioner was painfully drawn from the ground and suspended in the ah', where he was allowed to remain until life was almost extinct before being released. That this hanging process was several times repeated and inflicted upon petitioner by defendants, in different places, and, when finally released, he was peremptorily ordered by said defendants to leave his family, his home, and business, and the state of Louisiana, and never to return, under penalty of immediate * * * death. Petitioner avers that all such wrongful, tortious, wicked, and outrageous acts of said defendants were done with a common purpose and intent, in pursuance of a common plan and idea, and in consequence of a conspiracy deliberately, wickedly, and feloniously entered into between all of said defendants, and that they are all bound in solido for the acts of each other, and for the damages caused by the acts of any one or all of the respective co-conspirators. Petitioner avers that, in consequence of the outrages and threats and the number of said defendant conspirators, he has been forced, througn fear of his life, to abandon his business, his house, and his family, and to seek refuge in different parts of the state; that he is afraid either to return to his home and his family, or to let his present residence be known to said defendants. He avers that his business has been completely broken up by said defendants, that he has suffered great bodily pain and mental agony, and is entitled to reparation therefor.”

He demands $3,000 for damage to his business, $5,000 for damage to his reputation, and $22,000 for physical and mental suffering.

Exceptions of “no cause of action” and “vagueness” were filed on behalf of all the defendants, and were overruled. The defendants Thomas Walker, William Anders, William Dillard, D. E. Gaar, William Radescieh, E. M. Warren, Thomas Montgomery, Silas Wasson, H. Hall, J. T. Payne, and Alonzo Lee then filed a general denial. Joel Smith, J. W. Gaar, P. E. Grisham, A. Smith, Thomas Anders, George Anders, J. G. Smith, M. Dillard, T. L. Jones, C. R. Jones, W. M. Preston, W. H. Mann, Thomas Busby, Lee Busby, J. It. Sykes, P. F. Smith, William Terral, F. F. Walker, H. E. Walker, L. Anders, R. R. Gentry, Fox Deloney, John Deloney, and R. E. Hughes, by way of answer, after denying the allegations of the petition, save as admitted, allege, in substance, that about the 20th of June, 1902, a number of buildings in the town of Dodson were destroyed by a fire, which was generally believed to have been of incendiary origin, and that, as citizens of the town and neighborhood, they determined to make an investigation, and, with that end in view, convened in mass meeting. ' They aver that there was no intention to injure any one or to violate the law, and they specially deny that they did so. John Terral, B. H. Talbot, Z. T. Faith, Mike Gaar, B. M. Stovall, J. A. Dean, Jule Waters, J. R. Lee, and J. B. Milam amplify the defense as set up in the foregoing answers, as follows: “That the citizens of Dodson came together in mass meeting, and decided and resolved to investigate the origin of the fire and to get all the information that could be obtained for the purpose of prosecuting the guilty parties. That the defendants herein at once proceeded to investigate the matter and get up evidence, and in the course of the investigations were led to believe from the facts ascertained, and from the previous character and reputation of the plaintiff and of Ed. Warner [821]*821and Rube Brown, that they were the guilty parties, aud that they were in a conspiracy to do the burning, and that they thought it best to interview those parties, separate and apart from each other, before they had time to concoct a scheme or tale for defense, and before they were arrested and put in jail together. That defendants proceeded to interview these plaintiffs separately and apart, and for that purpose they placed Rube Brown and Pete Warner under temporary restraint, and that Ed. Warner was not found, but came up afterwards, and was also put under temporary restraint. That these parties were all questioned, and that Pete Warner, in the presence of plaintiff, acknowledged that Rube Brown told him that he was going to burn the town, and that Rube Brown also told him, after the fire, that ‘we got some of the damned old shacks.’ This statement was repeated to Rube Brown in the presence of the other plaintiffs, and Rube Brown did not deny it, but simply said, ‘Tell it all, Pete,’' or words to that effect. Defendants deny that they inflicted any cruel treatment upon plaintiff, or that they swung him up to a limb, or that he was in any way hurt or injured, and aver that they had no intention to do him bodily harm, but that they were zealous and honest in their investigations, as law-abiding citizens, and that they acted, as the emergency demanded, to save the burning of the balance of the town, as they believed, and to ascertain the origin of the fire, and kept plaintiff in temporary restraint in the course of their investigations, believing, in good faith, that he and the other two parties were connected with the fire in a guilty way. That, when the investigation was over, defendants told the plaintiff and the other two parties that they would have to turn them over to the officers of the law, to which proposition Ed. Warner, the spokesman of the three, suggested, in the presence of Pete Warner and Rube Brown, that all three of them would leave the community rather than be put in jail, to which suggestion defendants assented, and they did leave the parish for a time. Defendants deny that plaintiff had a good reputation in the community before or after the fire, but allege that his reputation was not good, and defendants specially deny that plaintiff’s character or reputation was injured by them.”

It may be stated in this connection that separate suits for damages were filed by Ed. Warner and the plaintiff, and that the testimony taken seems to have been used indifferently in either case. This intimate relation between the two suits will perhaps explain some peculiarities in the language of the answer from which the foregoing excerpt is taken.

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Bluebook (online)
66 L.R.A. 336, 36 So. 743, 112 La. 817, 1903 La. LEXIS 475, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/warner-v-talbot-la-1903.