Widow's Suit

The Federal District Court at St. Paul last week rang to the sound of big figures, big names. A widow filed suit against Inland Steel Co., Great Northern Railway Co. for patent infringement, filed similar suits against U. S. Steel Corp. and its subsidiaries Carnegie Steel Co., U. S. Steel Products Co. Five hundred million dollars --a half-billion--is the total of her claims, but the figure's reverberations seemed to have a hollow ring.

The widow is Mrs. Katherine Ryan of St. Paul, 60, tall, handsome, persistent. In 1904 her husband, the late Kingsley Ryan, patented four mechanical self-locking nut & bolt devices. In 1913 she renewed the patents, began to file suits and threaten suits against steel companies. She obtained an $18,000 settlement out of court from U. S. Steel. Although the settlement included her promised "good behaviour" in the future, she now claims the old suit had nothing to do with the patents on which her present suit is based.

Many a law firm has investigated Widow Ryan's case, given it up. Now she is trying it herself with the aid of her son, Kingsley Ryan, graduate of St. Paul College of Law, not yet admitted to the bar. Difficult indeed is Neophyte Ryan's first case. Exhibit models of the bolts are not readily understandable to laymen; as evidence he has introduced cinemas of nuts and bolts being made at Inland Steel's works. Among the formidable witnesses scheduled to appear against Mrs. Ryan are Louis Warren Hill, director of Great Northern, Charles Donnelly, president of Northern Pacific, Clive T. Jaffray, president of Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway Co.

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