Keowee Courier

Heavy Verdict Against Road.

Columbia, April 19.-Twenty-five thousand dollars is the amount found against the Seaboard Air Line to-day, and the verdict is the talk of the town to-night. Fitz William McKay was an employee of the Seaboard, and while acting as brakeman fell between the cars near Columbia. His leg was terribly crushed so that it was amputated near the hipbone, rendering an artificial limb impossible. Suit was brought for $30,000 by the parents of the boy. The trial took up two days. This afternoon the case was given to the jury and that body was out only fifteen minutes, returning a verdict for $25,000.

Columbia, April 20.-The verdict of $25,000 awarded by the jury in the case of Fitz McKay against the Seaboard Air Line was reduced to one-half of that amount in the State Court to-day. This morning when the case was about to be entered upon the motion for a new trial Judge Gary reduced the verdict one-half, or $12,500, because he said it was excessive. He said McKay was a young man, whose earning capacity was not established and at the time of the accident he was making $80 per month. Had he been an older man whose income had been fixed for years and whose earning capacity was well established, the case might have been different.