A cup of hot tea, two busy corridors, and one badly timed collision were enough to send two prominent Washington women into court in January 1930.
The accident occurred inside the Transportation Building in Washington, D.C. Clara L. Free, president of Maryland Tobacco Plantations, Inc., was walking through the building while carrying a cup of tea. At the junction of two corridors, she collided with Adria C. Beaver, manager of the Washington School for Secretaries.
Transportation Building in Washington, D.C.
The tea spilled onto Mrs. Beaver’s arm.
What might have ended with apologies, bandages, and a ruined sleeve instead became a $5,000 lawsuit. Mrs. Beaver maintained that she had been severely burned and that the resulting injury had permanently damaged her appearance. Of particular concern was her claim that the scarring would prevent her from wearing evening dresses.
Five thousand dollars was a considerable sum in 1930, and the case required a jury to decide whether Miss Free had been careless or whether both women had simply reached the corridor junction at the wrong moment.
Miss Free’s defense maintained that the collision was entirely accidental. The jury agreed. In Circuit Division No. 2, before Justice Bailey, she was cleared of responsibility for Mrs. Beaver’s injuries.
Miss Clara Free Is Exonerated From Blame In Hot Tea Accident
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Miss Clara L. Free, president of the Maryland Tobacco Plantations, Inc., was exonerated today by a jury in Circuit Division No. 2, before Justice Bailey, of responsibility for injuries alleged to have been sustained by Mrs. Adria C. Beaver, manager of the Washington School for Secretaries, from a cup of hot tea which Miss Free was carrying when the two women collided in the corridors of the Transportation Building.
Mrs. Beaver said she was severely burned on the arm, and in her suit for $5,000 damages charges that her beauty had been permanently impaired and she would not be able to wear evening clothes as a result of her injuries.
The defense was that the collision was accidental and occurred at a junction of two corridors.
Miss C. Larimore Keeley defended the case for Miss Free, while Attorney Goldfrey L. Munter appeared for the plaintiff.
Source: Evening Star. Washington, D.C. January 13, 1930.
