This day in history: A man’s accidental death in Sandpoint led to a lawsuit from his family against the city

From 1975: The five children of Gerald Brown, 32, filed a $500,000 claim against the city of Sandpoint after he was struck and killed by a truck on U.S. Highway 95 near Colburn, Idaho.

Why did they blame the city?

Because just prior to Brown’s death, three Sandpoint police officers escorted him out of town and left him by the highway “to hitchhike.”

A coroner’s jury in Sandpoint had earlier ruled Brown’s death accidental. But it added that the police actions were “deplorable.”

An earlier report indicated “he had been left alongside the roadway to fend for himself, even though he had shown for most of the day that he was having incapacitating mental difficulties.”

One of the officers resigned a few months later, claiming he had tried to assist Brown, but two superior officers wouldn’t let him and later ordered him to alter his reports.

From 1925: A contract was granted to build a 41-mile railway between Orofino, Idaho, into the “greatest stand of white pine in the United States.”

The line would go from Orofino to Pierce City and then on to “a spot known as Headquarters,” in the “heart of the Clearwater timber area.”

White pine was the most sought-after lumber in the region, and the more easily accessible stands had either been logged out or burned out.

The Clearwater Timber Co. (a Weyerhaeuser subsidiary), planned to build a mill and power plant at Lewiston to handle the lumber.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis begins as President John F. Kennedy is shown photos confirming presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba.