The Perjured Plaintiff
A lumber mill worker's $30,000 lawsuit collapses after he is caught lying under oath about the origin of his injuries.
W. B. Wilkins, whose personal injury suit for $30,000 damages against the Hague Box Lumber Company was commenced in Judge Clifford's court, was cornered in his testimony and admitted that he had perjured himself. The judge immediately declared the case a non-suit, and the attorneys for the lumber company announced that they would sue Wilkins for the amount spent in gathering their defensive evidence. In his complaint, Wilkins stated that he had been injured on October 12, 1908, by the careless handling of machinery in the lumber mill. After being branded a perjurer, he admitted that the injury had actually been received while he was in the employ of the Northern Pacific Railroad two years prior.
“After being branded a perjurer, he admitted that the injury had been received while he was in the employ of the Northern Pacific railroad two years ago.”
This case highlights the high-stakes world of early industrial litigation in Tacoma. While modern workers' compensation laws have largely replaced the need for such precarious personal injury lawsuits, the tension between labor and capital in the industrial sector remains a core feature of the region's civic story.
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