A Courtroom Brawl Narrowly Averted
Tempers flared between attorneys John F. Dore and Will E. Humphrey outside the courthouse following a heated trial.
A collision between John Fairfield Dore and Will E. Humphrey was narrowly averted yesterday evening shortly after the case of Sarah McDonough vs. John F. Dore had been given to the jury in Judge Osborn's court. The cause was an ungentlemanly roasting given to Dore by Humphrey in his address to the jury as attorney for the plaintiff. Dore was standing outside the courthouse talking to James Hamilton Lewis and G. Mead Emory when Humphrey walked out. On seeing him, Dore took a firm grip on a large cane and started toward Humphrey. Lewis and Emory caught hold of Dore and told him not to do anything rash. Humphrey stood perfectly motionless and, seeing that Dore was taken charge of, continued his way down the steps. Not a word was spoken by either of the men.
“On seeing him, Dore took a firm grip on a large cane and started toward Humphrey.”
Legal theatrics and personal animosity between attorneys are as old as the profession itself, though modern bar associations would likely take a dimmer view of courthouse brawls than the colleagues who intervened here. The incident highlights the high-stakes, often personal nature of litigation in a growing city where reputations were the primary currency of the legal class.
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