xt73bk16mf8w_854 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt73bk16mf8w/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt73bk16mf8w/data/51w14.dao.xml unknown 35 Cubic Feet 77 boxes archival material 51w14 English University of Kentucky Copyright has not been assigned to the University of Kentucky.  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company and Lexington and Eastern Railway Company records Railroads -- Appalachian Region -- History. Railroads -- Kentucky -- History. [718] Commonwealth of Kentucky v. L&N, Letcher Circuit Court text [718] Commonwealth of Kentucky v. L&N, Letcher Circuit Court 2016 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt73bk16mf8w/data/51w14/Box_71/Folder_23/13867.pdf section false xt73bk16mf8w_854 xt73bk16mf8w {737M //7
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”ﬂy/many” I ///://///// 72; June 28, 1917
I 8 9 6 l 7
Commonwealth v. L&N R Co. - Letcher Circuit Court; Indictment
concerning water closet at Whitesburg, Ky.
Judge Samuel M. Wilson,
Counsel,
Lexington, Ky.
Dear Sir,
Yours June 27, covering copy of Mr. Harvie's letter I
June 25, and of the indictment therein referred to, received.
I do not think the indictment is good on demurrer and
I agree with Mr. Harvie that it should be demurred to. The
gravamen of the indictment seems to be that we kept the water
closet locked. The Court of Appeals of Kentucky has expressly
held that it is right and proper to do this. L&N R Co“ v. Com—
monwealth, 45 SW 562, 20 KER 100. That case ought to be
conclusive of the case at bar on the demurrer.
Again, the indictment seems to entirely misconceive for
whose benefit a railroad company must maintain water closets .
at its stations. They are not required for the use of the
" public, but only for the use of the railroad company's
passengers. You will observe the statute (section 772)
couples the duty to maintain the water closet with the duty
. to maintain a waiting room, and has to do entirely with the
passengers of a railroad company. There is no averment in
the indictment in question that any passenger was ever

 us SMW-Z
inconvenienced for lack of water closet accommodations at ,
Whitesburg. The charge is that "the defendant kept all its
water closets and privies at said depot locked and closed
to the public, and so as to be inaccessible and inconvenient
for the use of the public, and persons at and going to and
from said depot and having the right to be thereat, and to
go to and from said depot." Persons might have a right
to go to the depot to transact business in connection with
freight shipments and still they would have no right to use
the water closets, as required by section 772, Ky. Stats.,
which, as I have said, requires the maintenance of such
things only for passengers of the railroad. The Court '
of Appeals so recognized in L&N R Co. v. Commonwealth,
157 Ky. 802, 806, where, in discussing the duty of the
carrier with respect to the maintenance of a water closet
at Glasgow Junction, the court referred to the fact that
the water closet there complained of was "suitable for the
wants of the traveling public" and said this fulfilled the ‘
requirements of the statute.
goggreo with your conclusion that even if the court
. should/hold the indictment bad, the Commonwealth could not
secure a conviction under the indictment as drawn, unless
it should prove, as alleged in the indictment, that the
,watcr closets at Whitesburg were kept locked during the
entire year immediately preceding the filing of the indict—
ment. And if the defendant could show that on any day in

 - SMWu-B
the year the closet was not kept locked, it would be the
duty of the court to instruct the jury peremptorily to
find for defendant. But I do not see how the court
can ever get to this point in View of the case first
hereinabove cited (L&N R Co. v. Com., 45 SW 362; 20 KLR lCC).
Yours very truly,éﬁ(////’:;2:§217'1 cwﬁwu I )é’:(x" '.‘ “:34 .I +11 “(Q ‘ ,.. ~13 7 1 ' '3 ;,u }“ ‘i‘ 3 Mr: I‘ " 1:13: ”5:3 3* 1r
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 - JESSE MORGAN LEWISE.HARV.E
MORGANe.HARwE
.". WAJTTSSEYBZAJAXY.
June 25, 1917.
1 In re indictment, Commonwealth of Ky. v. L. & N,
R. R. Co. for failure to provide suitable privy
- at Whitesburg depot, under Sec. 772, Ky. Statutes:
’ Judge s. M. Wilson,
Lexington Kentucky.
Dear Sir:

Enclosed please find docket report and three COpies
of indictment of the above styled cause, summons of which was
executed on J. E. Shea, Agent, on June 12th, 1917.

The public water closets at the Whitesburg depot
are usually kept open for the public, but occasionally drunk
men, boys, and others of a mtdicious disposition mess up the
closess so that the agent has to have them locked until he
can secure a man to clean them out. The closets are usually
kept in decent shape and in my opinion there is no justifica-
tion whatever for an indictment.

On one occasion an old man who lives close the depot
went into the ladies toilet and could not get out on account
of the knob on the inside coming loose and the bolt falling
out of the lock on the outside. As this toilet is remote
from the agent's office the old man could not make himself
heard and was confined for quite a while. He appears as one
of the prosecuting witnesses. I doubt very much whether he -
was at the depoton business and in any event I don't see that I
he should have been in the Women's closet. This is the only
specific case that I can learn of where a person has been in-

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Q
convenienced.
I think the railroad company should plead not guilty
- to this indictment.

Yours truly,
edit/v»; f //ﬂ/VWI

LEH/P

 Q
- Regular LETCHER CIRCUIT COURT.
The Commonwealth of Kentucky, Plaintiff.
Against Indictment.
Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co.Defendant.

The Grand Jury of Letcher County, in the name and by the
authority of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, accuse the defend-
ant, Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, a corporation
duly created and existing under and by virtue of the laws of
the State of Kentucky, and duly authorized to operate lines
of railroad in Kentucky and elsewhere, and owning and operat-
ing a line of railroad in Letcher County, Kentucky, of the
offense of unlawfully failing to provide a convenient or suit-
able water-closet or privy at a depot owned and operated by
it on its railroad in a town, cormitted as follows, viz:

The said Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, on the 14th
day of may 1917, in the County aforesaid, and for and during
the year next preceding said date, did unlawfully and willfully
fail, neglect and refuse to provide any suitable or convenient
water-closet or privy at its depot, owned and operated by de-
fendant in the town of Whitesburg,on its said line of railroad
operated by it in Letcher County, Kentucky, said town of Whites
burg being a duly inCOrporeted townof the sixth class, and
being the County Seat of said Letcher County, but on the con—
trary, for and during said period of time, and for and during
the year next preceding the finding of this indictment, the
defendant kept all its water-closets and privies at said depot
locked and closed to the public, and so as to be inaccessible
and inconvenient for the use of the public and persons at and
going to and from said depot, and having the right to be there—
at, and to go to and from saidcbpot, said depot being as afore-
said owned and operated by defendant in said town and on its
said line of railroad, against the peace and dignity of the
Commonwealth of Kentucky.

R. MONROE FIELDS, Commonwealth's Attorney.

 lb
(The foregoing indictment is endorsed on back as follows:)
#110
Letcher Circuit Court.
The Commonwealth of Kentucky,
Failing to provide a suitable
Vs. Indictment or convenient privy at a depot
in a town.
‘ Louisville & Nashville R. R. Co.
A True Bill.
Kelly Fields, Foreman
Witnesses for Commonwealth:
ﬁmanmMV
l. B. Fields
C. H. Back
James Collins
Will Hall
L. D. Collins
I. N. Lewis
Rob Holcomb 1
Filed in open Court, this 16 day of may 1917.
S. P. Combs, Clerk.
Summons to issue.
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