100 years ago in The Record

Thursday, Feb. 20, 1919

The Troy pawnbroker who sold bullets to an underage boy has been cleared of responsibility for the wounding of another youth by one of those bullets last year. John J. Nelligan was shot in the hip while he and his friends were target shooting on North First Street last May. His friend Lawrence Moore claims that he bought the bullets from Louis H. Cooper’s store on King Street. New York State Law forbids the sale of ammunition to children under the age of sixteen. Nelligan’s father sought to recover damages from Cooper, who denies selling bullets to minors. Moore testified, however, that one of Cooper’s clerks sold him the ammunition. Despite Moore’s testimony, a jury determines today that Cooper can’t be held personally responsible for Nelligan’s injury. The Record deems the case “one of more than passing interest” because it “involves an issue which has been discussed in trial and appellate courts several times.” The issue is whether the sale of bullets to Moore at Cooper’s store was the “approximate cause” of Nelligan’s injury. Cooper’s attorney, John W. Roddy, argued that it was not, but that “the approximate cause of the shooting was the pistol and not the bullet, as without the pistol to send the bullet there could be no such result as the plaintiff sought damages for.”

Since “it was not claimed that the defendant sold or furnished the pistol or had any knowledge of it,” Roddy convinced the jury that Cooper could not be blamed for the shooting even if one of his clerks sold bullets to a minor. Nelligan’s counsel, John F. Murray, moves to have the verdict set aside, but a judge denies the request.

Fell Dead With Faces To Enemy

Major Charles A. Mac Arthur, publisher of the Troy Sunday Budget, talks with a Record reporter about the battlefield exploits of the Troy-based 105th U.S. Infantry after his return to the U.S. from Europe.

Mac Arthur is in New York with officers of the 27th Division to plan the homecoming of their men, who are expected sometime next month. He promises that “everything possible will be done by him to have the Troy battalion of the famous 105th regiment parade in its home town before demobilizing…. It is hoped to have the battalion in Troy by the first week in April.”

Describing the fighting on September 29, the bloodiest day of the war for local troops, Mac Arthur says “there were more dead in the 27th division than had been killed in any division of the Allied army during the war. All had their faces to the front.”