After the Mill Burned, the Neighbors Got Their Day in Court

Judgments aggregating $5,865 were rendered Tuesday at Spokane by Judge Sullivan against the White Pine Lumber Co., of Priest River, Idaho, in behalf of four claimants for damages resulting from the destruction of the lumber company's plant by fire on August 30, 1905. Four residences adjoining the lumber plant were burned, and the owners brought suit to recover damages, alleging that the fire was due to the carelessness of the lumber company.

Damages were awarded to claimants in the following amounts: J. C. Caswell, $1,300; George H. McCormack, $1,665; Casper Kock, $1,450; Gust A. Swanson, $1,450.

After the fire the White Pine Lumber Co. brought suit against the Great Northern Railroad Co. to recover damages, alleging that the fire was originally due to sparks from a locomotive. The lumber company then sought to recover $150,000, the value of the plant. The case was nonsuited in the federal court, it being held that there was no proof that a Great Northern engine had caused the fire. As a result of this suit several employees of the lumber company, who had testified to having seen an engine pass the lumber plant at a certain hour, were arrested, charged with perjury. The railroad company alleged that none of the men who testified were in the vicinity of the fire at the time of its occurrence, and consequently could not have been in a position to truthfully testify that an engine had passed at the time in question.