The case of "Dolan v. the London and North-Western Railway
Company" should be a warning to jurymen not to accept so im- plicitly as they often do the statements of persons who apply for compensation from railway companies for injuries received in rail-. wayaccidents. Mr. Dolan was a horse-dealer who, with four horses and a groom, was on his way to a Rugby horse-fair on 16th No- vember last, when a collision occurred. His case was that he was severely injured, and he remained,- according to his own ac- count, laid up in a hotel at Rugby for some time, where he was visited by several doctors. In his cross-examination the plaintiff admitted having written letters to his brother- in-law and wife, in which he spoke of having been " foxing a little," in the hope of getting " something handsome " out of the company,-a " big lump," he calls it in another letter,— and tells them not to be uneasy if they get a telegram from him implying that something serious had happened to him. Indeed, in one of the letters he requests his brother-in-law to get an account of the accident inserted in some paper, saying that nine persons were injured, "and the only one seriously injured was an Irish horse-dealer, Mr. Dolan." To his wife he says, " We ran into a coal train, and we all got safe, but I am going for £1,000 for losses and damages, and will get it, so I have to be very quiet for a day or two." The jury gave him £100, probably for the injury to one of the horses, but the North-Western Company, if they can use Mr. Dolan's admission as to the authorship of the letters, or otherwise prove it, would certainly have prima facie ground for a prosecution against him for an attempt to obtain money on false pretences. A state- ment was made, but apparently not proved, that he had actually sent his groom to buy some blood for the purpose of making his internal injuries appear the greater.
Previous page
