The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-07
REFUSES TO NAME A RECEIVER
DECISION IN THE ATLANTA AND
WEST POINT CASE.

TIL Judge, However, EnjOins the
Railroad Company From Encum-
bering Its Property or Putting
Into Eject Certain Provisions of
the New Chnrter-The Decision
Looked Upon as Declaring the New
Charter IIlcgaI-Thc Road to BE
Operated Under the Old One for
the Present.
Atlanta, Ga. March 6.-Judge j. II.
Lumpkin of Fulton county superior court
this afternoon handed down his decision
on the Nelson bill praying for a receiver
for the Atlanta and West Point Railroad
Company. He refuses to grant the receiv-
er, but at the same time enjoins the com
pany from encumbering its property or
putting into effect certain provisions of
the new charter granted at the last ses-
sion of the legislature which was attacked
as Illegal by L. B. Nelson. the petitioner.
While the court would not place the
property in the hands of a receiver to
be sold, and distributed to the sharehold-
ers as if it's charter had expired without
renewal, the effect of the order is to de-
clare that the new charter is Illegal and
the road must be operated under the old
charter until the real status of the char
ter question can be determined. King &
Spalding, the attorneys for Mr.. Nelson,
express themselves as not altogether dis
appointed by the decision. They regard
it as a quasi victory at least, although
their chief aim was not attained, that is
the appointment of receiver to admins
ter upon the assets and make distribution
among the stockholders.
The railroad company, on the other
hand, is left in the same condition and
situation that it has occupied in the past.
The only points in which 1t suffers by
the order is that the stockholders are
not relieved of their double liability, and
no encumbrance can be placed upon the
property, as would have been the case
under the terms of the new charter, these
features of the instrument having been
set aside, or, rather, the company re-
strained from enjoining them until the
further order Of the court
The ground upon which Mr.. Nelson,
who was the owner of $500 worth of the
company's stock, brought his bill for a
receiver was that first, by reason of de-
partures in the new charter obtained from
| terms of the old one, 1t was void and OF
no effect; also that the new charter was
| illegal and void, because 1t had been grant
ed by the legislature when 1t should have
been granted by the secretary of state
the same as all other railroad charters
| The old charter having expired and the
| new one being void, MIR. Nelson's attor-
| neys took the position that the assets OF
the corporation were a trust for the courts
to administer to the stockholders, the
company no longer having any legal ex'
istence. In addition to these grounds Mr.
Nelson made many sensational allegations
in his bill, which attracted wide attention
and Threatened to involve a vast amount
of litigation among the railroads of the
state He charged that the Southern Rail
way Company was seeking to gain contro
| of the West Point and that IL this wa:
accomplished the policy of the Southern
would be to depreciate its value Th'
| Southern was also charged with violat
| ing the constitutional prohibition agains
consolidation Of competing lines, and OF
account of these allegations and the state
ments of attorneys 1t was suspected tina
the real purpose of the Nelson bill was t
bring into question in the courts the lie
gality Of the Southerns holdings in th
| state. 1t has always been believed tina
there was some Interior motive in the Mel
son BILL although this was stoutly denet
by him. The idea. was that somebody
possibly the Seaboard Air Line or tn
Louisville and Nashville, was seeking t
get hold of the West Point and that tn
receivership bill was sprung to aid in thi
scheme Whatever the scheme was o
is it has been frost-bitten by Judg
Lumpkin's rfusal to appoint the receive
and may never recover.