Arizona republican., 1896-06-16
THAT CONVICT LABOR CONTRACT CT It Is Nov Before tke District Hearing of a Suit in
 Mandamus. Able Defense Presented by the
 Attorney General. Text of the Contract that Is Sought to Be Enforced and the An-
 sWerS Filed by the Ter
 ritory.
Able Defense Presented by the
 Attorney General.

Yesterday in the district court the entire day was occupied in considera- tion of the application in mandamus, brought by the State of Arizona Im- provement company against M. J. Nu- gent, superintendent of the territorial prison, he standing in the light of a representative of the Territory of Ari- zona.
 The facts in the case are now of cQm- mon knowledge, as follows Last year James A. Fleming, late territorial treasurer, obtained possession of a franchise for canal leading from the Colorado river dozen or more miles above Yuma to Yuma, crossing the Gila two miles east of the city, and continuing on to irrigate the mesa land lying south of the town. MT. Fleming about that time was an integral part of the territorial administration, at the head of which was Governor l.. c. Hughes, since removeds
 Later, it is alleged, MT. Fleming sold his interests to MT. Ives of New York and to Mir Hutchins of Washing ton, D. C., the State of Arizona Im- provement company having been orga- nized at some time prior thereto for the construction of the canal, the first president, c. D. Baker, general agent at Yuma, being understood to have been simply an agent of MT. Fleming in the affair. Later Ives became the president
 Somehow the proceedings of the ord of oi, ,, Gazette, did not contain any reference to a contract that was made by the company last December with the board of control for the leasing of the pris- oners at the penitentiary and the new president waited till April before he brought the matter to the attention of the new governor, by his office presi- dent of the board of control. The re- fusal of the governor, on the advice of the attorney-general, to entertain the proposition or to acknowledge the va lidity of the contract, as appended hereto, precipitated the clash, which yesterday was referred to the court.
 At the morning session, President Eugene s. Ives, himself an attorney, appeared for his company, his associate counsel being L. H. Chalmers, who is also the personal attorney of MT. Fleming. MT. Ives presented his con- tract in evidence and then gave way to Attorney General Wilson, who read his answer and made brief argument. The main lines of the defense are set forth in the pleadings printed below, but of one point, as blocking any summary proceedings in mandamus, the attorney-generalc cited a case i. H. linois, of precisely similar character, where the state was sued in mandamus 6y tobacco company to enforce a sim liar contract and was defeated, the court holding that mandamus is not proper remedy for a breach of a con- tract, but rather for breach of manda- tory law on the part of an official and dismissing the case as one that should have been brought as simple action at law for failure to comply with con- tract, to which might be appended any claim for damages alleged to have been sustained.
 Argument in reply was started by Mir. Ives on the withdrawal of the at torney- general, but was not concluded at the hour of adjournment. He in- sisted on the validity of his contract. as a document legal and in force and insist ed on an order sustaining it's pro- visions.
 This morning Messrs. Ives and Chal- mers will probably conclude their ar guments, to the encouragement being given the closing.