BABY’S DEATH BASIS OF SUIT 1931

REED, MATTOCKS, HARZMAN, OWENS

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 3/10/2017 at 13:39:00

Dubuque Telegraph Herald-November 4, 1931

BABY’S DEATH
BASIS OF SUIT

Waterloo Newspaper
Defendant in Tow Actions

West Union, Ia. Nov. 4. – Special: Two damage suits against a Waterloo newspaper, growing out of the death of a baby in an automobile accident, hangs on the decision of a jury in Judge Carl W. Reed’s court. Judge W. Reed as administrator of the estate of the deceased infant daughter, Bonnie Lou Reed, as $5,193 damages, and Miss Donna Mattocks ask damages for $1,035 for personal injuries and expense growing out of the same accident, which happened July 20, 1929. A car driven on North Fredericks Street in Oelwein by Ben F. Owens, a newspaper distribution man, collided with a car driven by Miss Mattocks, and the baby nine months old, sitting on its mothers lap, was thrown to the pavement and injured so severely that it died three days later.

The Reed case is on trial to a jury of then men and two women, swore Tuesday forenoon. It has been assumed that the decision on that case will govern the Mattock’s case.

The plaintiff was under necessity on putting on the defendant Owens as first witness, to prove his agency for the Harzman Company. The company sets up as a defense that Owens had an independent contract and that even if he is liable the company is not. Miss Mattocks, the other main witness, is now a deputy sheriff of Fayette County.