52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 13: In The Paper – Joe Gorrell is Sued

This is my second year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

Sometimes the way we find out that there was a court case is from an article in the newspaper. In the Joplin News Herald on 3 September 1926 was an article about Fred O. Banks of Carthage, Missouri filing a suit against the Empire District Electric Company and Joe Gorrell, asking for $10,000 damages for the death of his wife in an automobile accident.[1]

Surely there was more information about the accident earlier in the newspaper. Sure enough, in the 19 August 1926 issue of the Joplin Globe newspaper, a longer article about the accident was published.[2] Joe Gorrell, who was the driver of a service truck for the electric company, refused to testify at an inquest. So the jury returned an open verdict. According to the dictionary, open verdict means that a crime has been committed but didn’t name the criminal, or saying that there had been a death, but not naming the cause.[3]  The article stated that Gorrell “stood on his constitutional rights at the inquest.” According to Dr. R.M. Stormont, “the jury returned an open verdict because it was not developed directly as to whether Gorrell made as great an effort to stop as did Banks.”

From reading the newspaper account, it appears that Gorrell’s truck was already in the intersection when Banks approached, who applied his brakes and swerved to the right to avoid the truck. He hit the front wheel of the truck with the left side of his car. He also hit the curb which caused the car to turn over.  Mrs. Banks, Fred O. Banks’ wife, died.

The online newspaper sites do not have all of the issues around this time period, so I haven’t found any other issues except for the news about the final verdict. Fred O. Banks was awarded $5,000 damages in his suit against the Empire District Electric Company. No mention of Joe Gorrell was in the article.[4]

So to find out more about the case, I have inquired with the Jasper County Court about getting copies of the case. I will report on what I find.

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[1] “$10,000 Damage Suit Follows Woman’s Death,” Joplin News Herald, 3 Sep 1926, digital image, Newspaper.com.

[2] “Driver Refuses to Testify at Banks Inquest,” Joplin News Herald, 19 Aug 1926, p. 8, digital image, Newspaperarchive.com.

[3] “Open verdict,” definition, Merriam-Webster (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/open%20verdict : accessed 29 Mar 2019).

[4] “$5,000 Judgment is Given Fred O. Banks,” Joplin Globe,  p. 7, digital image, Newspaper.com.

Copyright © 2019 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.