A Verdict Secured Against Hespeler Hotel Men

Article printed in the Toronto Star on Wednesday April 4, 1895

Must Pay a Widow Whose Husband Was Drowned

Special to the Star.
Guelph, April 4 -- At the Assize Court here yesterday, at which Justice Rose presided, a peculiar case was tried.

Last December James A. Crane was returning home from Hespeler, where he had imbibed rather freely, and when a short distance from the village fell into Kribs' dam, and was drowned.

While in Hespeler he had been drinking at Thomas Hunt's and Josh Wayper's hotels, and his widow, claiming that the accident was directly due to the liquor, brought action against the publicans, claiming $500 damages from each.

Mrs. Crane told of the departure of her husband from home Friday morning. She told of the circumstances in which the family were left, living on a rented farm, and how the claims against the estate overbalanced the insurance and all that was coming to them. She had three girls and a boy.

DRUNK WHEN DROWNED

Henry Kribs gave evidence as to the distance of the edge of the dam from the road and the ??ading of the body. Crane had entered the dam from the Guelph end, having evidently driven past it from Hespeler and then returned. He could not see how a man in possession of his senses could drive into the dam, even if it was dark: the horses would keep the road themselves.

Further evidence was produced showing that the unfortunate Crane was drunk at the time of his death, and had been sold liquor by the two hotelkeepers sued.

The jury found a verdict against the defendants with damages assessed at $600 in the case of Hunt and $300 against Wayper.