The Press: Score: $100,200

CIRCUIT COURT 1—Air. Justice Joseph W. Cox presiding; R. E. Lee Goff, clerk. No. 79326. Frank E. Bonner vs. Washington Times Co.; trial resumed and cause given to jury; verdict for plaintiff for $45,000. Attys., John W. Guider, Edmund L. Jones, Frank J. Hogan—William E. Leahy, Wilton J. Lambert, Rudolph H. Yeatman.

That item, buried away on the legal record page of the Washington Post last week, was the only news given capital citizens of the fact that William Randolph Hearst had again been trounced in a libel suit by Frank E. Bonner, onetime executive secretary of the Federal Power Commission. The Washington case was second in a list of actions against 14 Hearstpapers resulting from their syndicated attack three years ago upon Bonner and another Power Commission employe named Frank Warren Griffith as minions of "the Power Trust" (TIME, Feb. 6).

As in Boston, where five months ago Hearst's American was ordered to pay $50,000 to Bonner, $4,200 to Griffith, the Washington newspapers loyally obeyed their unwritten law to ignore libel suits involving each other. In one particular, however, Hearst's Washington Herald broke the rule. When five of Plaintiff Griffith's nine counts were dismissed (he collected $250 each on the other four), the Herald blithely headlined:

GRIFFITH GIVEN $1,000 IN SUIT FOR $1,620,000

By any definition of news, the stature of opposing counsel alone should have been enough to make the Washington trial worth at least a half column inside story. Besides potent Lawyer Wilton John Lambert, the Hearst defense included William Edward Leahy, onetime Government prosecutor of the late notorious "Nicky"' Arnstein, more lately defender of Al Capone against the Government. Also Publisher Hearst's closest legal adviser and board chairman, exceedingly able, hawk-nosed John Francis Neylan, dropped in on the Washington trial.

Bonner's case was summed up by famed Frank J. Hogan who then had to dash to California to defend his oldtime client. Oilman Edward L. Doheny, in a Richfield receivership suit. Most work for Bonner was done by Lawyer Hogan's smart son-in-law John W. ("Duke") Guider.

With the score $100,200 against "Power Trust"-hating Mr. Hearst, Lawyer Hogan & Co. prepared to march on to Los Angeles in September for the next trial in their chain libel action.