Monday, Aug. 30, 1937

Intricacies & Variations

P: In the State of Sirmur, India, a barber shaving a customer told such a funny story that the customer jounced with mirth, pushed his cheek into the barber's razor, suffered a disfiguring wound, sued the barber for 200 rupees. Ruled the court: no recovery; the barber was following the traditional practice of his profession; the story was to mitigate the ordeal of the shave; the customer should have restrained his mirth.

P: In Graz, Styria, Austria, one Johann Fuchs, accused of killing a woman of whose child he was the father, came to trial at 9 a. m. in one of the Austrian emergency courts originally established in 1934 to combat political terrorism, pleaded guilty, was sentenced at 11 a. m., was executed at 2 p. m.

P: In Manhattan last week the U. S. Government won the right to reopen a claim involving $4,976,722 against Guaranty Trust Co. That sum was on deposit at the Guaranty Trust by the Russian Government Dec. 17, 1917. On Feb. 25, 1918 the bank closed the account, charging against it sums of money which were then due it from the Russian Government as successor to certain nationalized concerns which had been in debt to the bank. When, by the Litvinov Agreement of 1933, Russia turned over its accounts to the U. S., the Guaranty Trust claimed the $4,976,722 could not be collected because of New York's statute of limitations. The bank won in the lower court, lost last week in the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Ruled Judge Thomas W. Swan: a statute of limitations cannot be invoked against the U. S. Government; to permit it against a sovereign foreign government would be to deny its sovereignty; therefore Russia's claim was adjudicable; therefore that claim can now be prosecuted by the U. S.

P: In a Federal District Court in Illinois last week, Dr. Andrew C. Kelly sued the Mercyville Sanatorium and St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital, both of Aurora, for $200,000. While a patient, Dr. Kelly tried to kill himself, was restrained, he claimed, by use of leather and metal straps "so unskilfully adjusted" as to cause his hand to be permanently crippled.

P: In Florida several years ago the Legislature, by constitutional amendment designed to attract new industries to the State, exempted a list of manufacturers from ad valorem taxes, State, county or local, for 15 years after establishment. Included were manufacturers of "steel vessels." Later Florida's Supreme Court ruled that tin can manufacturers were exempt because a tin can is a steel vessel tincoated. Last week County Attorney J. W. Cone of Tampa ruled the Tampa Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. not exempt from taxation because their RFC-financed, 10,000-ton drydock is not exclusively or chiefly used for the manufacture of "steel vessels."

P: In Georgia last week the State of Florida paid its taxes, $367.50 to cover that portion of the Florida State Hospital for the insane on the interstate line at Chattahoochee which extends into Georgia.

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