Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-03-07
A BIG SUIT.
The seney Syndicate Asked to Account
to the Subscribers for the So, 900 900
of Ohio Central Bonds

The Seney Syndicate Asked to Account
to the Subscribers for the So 600 900
of Ohio Central Bonds.
Mr.. John S. Stanton, bondholder in
the River Division of the Ohio Central
Railroad Company, acting for himself and
others, says the New York Times OF
Thursday, has begun a suit in the su-
preme Court, Kings county, against Geo.
]. Seney and Samuel Shethar, the Ohio
Central Railroad Company and the Metro
politan National Bank, for the restitution
OF about $4,000, coo, alleged by Stanton to
have been improperly and fraudulently
diverted from its legitimate use and
applied to other purposes. The
complaint recites the well-known
facts attending the extension of the
OHIO Central to the Ohio river at Point
Pleasant, where bridge was to have been
constructed to make connections with the
Richmond and Allegheny extension,
which is known as the Atlantic and North
western Railroad Company. The extern
sion of the Ohio Central was called the
River Division, and for is construction
tie stockholders of the present company
subscribed tor 81 600, 600 first mortgage
and $4.000,003 income bonds. The OHIO
Coal Company j).ned in the scheme, and
Messrs. Seney and Shethar, the latter Of
whom was President of the company, re-
ceived about $5,0G0,0 Geo on the subscrip-
| ton, but they neither finished the extern
| sion in Ohio nor completed the bridge.
| the title TO the latter. in fact, being in the
| interest of parties hostile to the road.
| The S4,000000 first mortgage bonds were
| duly issued, and mortgages from the coal
| company securing the bonds were taken
ut n m
! Mir. Stanton claims that the records now
| show that a prior mortgage was recorded
! two hours previous, given to Mr.. George
! J. McG0urkey, Cashier of the MetrOpOli-
tan National Bank. This was for 81, S00,-
| coo TO secure car trust, which Mr.. Stan
| ton claims were owned by Seney and She
/ thar and their associates. Mir. Stanton
also claims that 100000 given to com.
mittee represented by the defendants to
complete the main line from Toledo to
! Columbus was handed over to the coal
company, of which Seney and Shethar
were Directors, and used by them to pay
the interest as it matured.
The complaint further recites that
| 81, 80, 600 was loaned by the Ohio Central
Railroad to the Richmond and Allegheny,
which gave its second mortgage bonds for
100000 as security. These $1,000, 900 in
bonds were turned over by the defendants
collateral for a loan CT S500,000 which
was in turn applied by Seney and shethar
| to the payment of interest on the bonds OF
the Ohio Central Railroad, then largely
held by the defendants. Mr.. Stanton
claims that a large part of the $5,0000 900
raised to build the River division and
complete the bridge at Point Pleasant
was not used for that purpose, but was
absorbed by the defendants. The Metro
politan Bank, through Mr.. Seney as
President and Mr.. McGourkey, its
Cashier, the complaint claims, had full
| knowledge of the right Of the subscribers
to the $2,C0G, 900 in bonds turned over to it
! BY Ssney and Shethar. The plaintiff de-
| manLs an accounting.
The case came up yesterday, before
Judge Brown, on a motion to set aside an
| extension Of time to answer. The motion
was granted, aud the answer will have to
| be fled in about two weeks. Messrs.
| Brlseye, Cloyd & Bayliss appeared for
the plaintiff, Fisher A. Baker for the Met
ropJlitan National Bank, and Sherman
ESarts for Mr.. Seney and the Ohio Cen
trail