Daily Republican., 1883-06-26
MRS. GAIN EB.
Her Suit Against the City OF New
Orleans-A Judgment I'm Her
Favor.


|
Her suit Against the City OF New
OrIeans-A Judgment I'm Hei
Favor.
| The greatest law suit that has evel
been before the highest court of this ma
tiOn has Just been decided in New Or.
leans by the Circuit Court of that dis
trict, giving judgment in favor of Myra
Clark Gaines against the city, for the
stupendOus sum Of S1,925, ,6G7. SO. A
mandamus was also issued by the
Court, seizing all the money in the hands
of the Mayor, and ordering the City
Council to levy tax of per cent. on
every property holder to satisfy the
judgment.
This suit was commenced against the
city in 1882 by Mr.. Gaines, who was
then hut young girl. The difficulties
that beset her seemed almost insur-
mountable, but nothing daunted she
threw her whole soul into the case and
began litigation which is unequaled in
history, which has consumed millions
of dollars in costs and fees, plunged
New Orleans in debt. and bankrupted
everybody who has had anything to do
with it. Through all these long years
Mrs. Gaines has never faltered, waver
ed or despaired Of ultimately accom-
plishing her purpose.
This unparalleled law suit is full of ro-
mantle and historical incidents, highly
interesting, but most of which lie buried
beneath piles of musty legal documents
When she instituted her first suit, half
century ago, she wan 50 poorly pro-
vided with testimony that the lawyers
persuaded her to withdraw it, and re-
garded her as something of a mono
maniac but she had a wonderful pow
er of instillng faith in these claims into
others, and she pushed her case with a
zeal that made her dangerous antago-
mist.
While the suit was in progress her
first husband, Mr.. Whitney, died from
yellow fever, and some time after she
married General Edmund Pendleton
Gaines, who was at the time second in
command in the United States Army
He was possessed Of a large fortune,
every dollar of which vas spent in try
ing to establish the claim of his wife
She won her first victory in 1S48, six
teen years after the suit was commenc-
ed, when the United States Supreme
Court decided that her father and
mother had been legally married, and
thus established her sgitimacy and
removing one of the m;fn points of the
defense.
The decision went still further, and
said she was the only child of the mar
riage, and as such entitled to four fifths
Of the entire estate. The property that
she was contending iDr was at that
time owned by a large n"mber Of parties,
and she found that, to establish her
claim, she would have to bring suit
against each one in succession.
At this time she was forty-two years
of age, and was the mother Of a large
family, but nothing daunted she again
entered the legal arena and commenced
the battle against each one who held
what she considered part of her fathers
estate. Some of the defendants COM
promised and paid her such sums as
were agreed upon, so that during this
long litigation she has received large
sums OF money, all Of which, however,
have been swallowed up in fees and
costs, in pushing her other and more
important claims.
At length, after having exhausted all
the private persons interested in this
suit, and bankrupted the greater num-
Der, she instituted suit against the
city of New Orleans, which had unfor-
tunately also become involved in this
litigation. Three years ago she gained
her first victory against the city, when
the Circuit Court appointed Master of
Chancery to calculate the value of the
rents and income of property for which
she was then contending. His report,
which is one of the most exhaustive on
record, declared the city of New Or.
leans to be indebted to Mrs. Gaines on
the one property for which she was
contending, in the amount of 81 ,622 ,06l,
and on this report Judge Billings rem
dered Judgment a few days since, en-
dorsing and approving the report, and
that had accumulated in the mean-
time, bringing the Judgment up to 81,
925, ,667 SO.
This sum the city of New Orleans,
which bought this property at public
sale many years ag in good faith, OF
the executors Of her fathers estate, will
be compelled to pay.
No one but Mrs. Gaines will ever
know what the cost of this suit has
been. All of her husbands fortune
was dissipated in costs, and all Of the
immense sums obtained by her, either
as judgments or compromises, have
long since passed into the nav Of the
law. An army of attorneys have lived
lawyer alone is estimated to have made
$50, 900 out of it in fees.
And yet Mrs. Gaines is to-day prob
ably poorer than she was when she first
in court, to prosecute her
claim, tifty-one years ago, a charming
bride. She has buried two husbands
many of her children are dead, and she
is now an old woman, but with all the
and sprigh:liness of her young
er days, the only survivor of the original
Gaines case.
The case possesses some local interest
from the fact that she, at one time, re-
sided in this city, having removed here
from Philadelphia with her adopted
father, Colonel Davis, whose remains
were long since consigned to the earth |
in the Wilmington and Brandywine
cemetery. Mrs. Gaines had been taught |
to regard him as her father, and knew |
nothing to the contrary until she was
about to be married TO Mr.. Whitney,
her first husband, when Colonel Davis
revea led to her that she was the daugh
ter Of Daniel Clark, Of New Orleans.
Cutting wheat.
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