Seven Firsts and Two Good Stories from Early Wyoming Law
By Phil Roberts
[Editors’ note: These items are meant as appendices the author’s recent article on law and lawyers in early Wyoming.]
1. First civil case brought before the Wyoming Supreme Court
Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Monseau (1870) was the first civil case heard by the three-member court. Monseau claimed the telegraph company breached a contract with him in which he had agreed to supply 754 telegraph poles at $2.50 per pole. The telegraph company claimed the man who had entered into the contract with Monseau in the company’s name was not its authorized agent. E. P. Johnson, the man for whom Johnson County was later named, represented Monseau. The court affirmed the lower court judgment in Monseau’s favor.
2. First criminal case heard by the Wyoming Supreme Court
Territory of Wyoming v. Anderson (1869) was the first criminal case appealed to the Territorial Supreme Court. Anderson was indicted in September 1869 for “keeping a disorderly house.” He was found guilty and fined $300. His appeal was based on a technicality—absence of witnesses’ names on the indictment. The court, however, affirmed his conviction without issuing a formal opinion.
3. First personal injury case brought in a Wyoming court
Union Pacific Railroad v. Silas Hause (1870) was the first personal injury case brought in any Wyoming court. Hause was sitting on top of the caboose of a Union Pacific train when the car went off the track at Sherman, midway between Cheyenne and Laramie on the summit. As Hause jumped off the caboose, “a barrel of molasses burst through the side of the car and struck Hause, fracturing his leg.” Hause sued the railroad as the consignee—the shipper—of the molasses barrel, which was on its way to Laramie merchant Edward M. Ivinson. The trial court returned a judgment award of $10,000 for Hause, but the Supreme Court remanded the case back to district court because “damages granted were in excess of actual damages.”
4. First appeal from a death sentence
Kinsler v. Territory of Wyoming (1873) was the first appeal from a death sentence handed down by a Wyoming court. Toussaint Kinsler had been found guilty of killing a Cheyenne man. His death sentence was affirmed by the court and he was hanged for the crime.
Laramie was the first place anywhere in America where women were allowed to serve on a jury. Six women served on the grand jury in March 1870: Eliza Stewart, Mrs. Amelia Hatcher, Mrs. G. F. Hilton, Mrs. Mary Mackel, Mrs. Sarah Pease and Annie Monaghan.
6. First libel case
Territory of Wyoming v. Wilson (1873) was the first libel case filed in a Wyoming court. Posey S. Wilson wrote a letter to the Omaha Herald commenting on the unfitness of a local judge. The judge had him fined for contempt of court and criminal libel. Various aspects of the case continued to occupy the Supreme Court’s time during 1873 and 1874. A 47-page brief by Jason B. Brown, Wilson’s attorney in the case, is held in the collections of the National Archives.
7. First case brought in Esther Hobart Morris’ court
Morris v. James W. Stilman (1870) was the first case filed in the court in which the first woman justice of the peace in the world presided. Morris herself brought the suit to force Stilman, her predecessor, to turn over the court’s official records to her. The case was dismissed when Morris discovered she lacked jurisdiction to hear her own case.
8. Pointing the Pistol
Judge Jacob Blair, like other Supreme Court justices in the territorial period, rode circuit as a district court judge when the Supreme Court was not in session. He was presiding over a murder trial and a gunsmith was called to the witness stand. As the man sat on the stand, holding the defendant’s revolver, the judge turned to spit tobacco into a nearby cuspidor. He noticed immediately that the gun was pointed right at him.
“Mr. Witness, is that gun loaded?” Blair asked.
“Yes, your honor,” the gunsmith-witness replied.
“Point it toward the lawyers. Good judges are scarce.”
*The story was told by pioneer lawyer A. C. Campbell in a 1931 interview published in 1947 in Annals of Wyoming.
9. Reasonable Doubt
Lander attorney Douglas Preston may have been Wyoming’s most famous trial lawyer in the early days. In one case, he shed tears as he described to the jury how his client had been so falsely accused of horse theft. The jury, after drying their eyes, acquitted his client. As the prisoner was being released, Preston admonished him not to do it again. “You know damn well you stole that horse,” Preston told him. The client replied, “Well, Doug, I always thought I stole that horse, but after hearing your plea to that jury, now I’ve got my doubts about it.”