| Transcribed by Norma Knotts Shaffer from microfilm
of the Calhoun Chronicle dated 3/12/1931.
Never Use Checks
The suit to recover $35.00 on a check that was returned by the bank
marked "No Funds" was dismissed by Worthy Davis, local justice of the peace,
last Friday morning. The trial resulted in startling disclosures.
The check in question was given on January 21 to a fellow by the name of
McCoy by Gilbert Furr, owner of the Lone Star roadhouse at the top of the
Cain hill, five miles southwest of Glenville on the Spencer road.
It was brought out at the trial that the check was given in payment for
five gallons of moonshine and when the purchaser went to the cache to get
the firewater, it was bare as Mother Hubbard's cupboard. Thinking
that he had been hijacked of his liquor he decided to let the check go
unpaid.
McCoy gave the check to a neighbor who in turn endorsed it over to his
brother-in-law, Alvin Gainer, of Elizabeth. Gainer gave the check
to Sears & Roebuck at Parkersburg in payment for a tire and tube.
The tire and tube he purchased were made of good rubber, and also was the
check, he turned over to them, for it came bounding back at them and they
collected off of Gainer when it was returned. The man Gainer came
to Glenville Saturday a week ago and swore out a warrant for Furr's arrest
under the West Virginia bad check law.
On Monday of last week Gainer brought suit to recover the $35.00.
It was this case that was tried in the justice's court Thursday afternoon.
The plaintiff attempted to show in court that he was an innocent party
and under the code of West Virginia not subject to a loss from a gaming
or any other debt contracted in a illegal transaction. Counsel for
the defendant had three witnesses on the stand during the day who testified
that they had seen the plaintiff in the Glenville vicinity in a car in
front of the Lone Star on the date of the illegal transaction. The
plaintiff, Gainer, claimed that he was serving on a federal petit jury
in Parkersburg on that date. Upon calling the clerk of the Parkersburg
federal court, it was learned that Gainer had served on the 15 and 16 of
January instead of the 21. The court held that Gainer was an accessory
to the forbidden deal involving the transfer and disappearance of 5 gallons
of the "Noble Experiment." - Glenville Democrat. |
