The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-04-23

| Difficulties Arising from the Settlement
| of the indebtedness Of the Old Town
| of Cape Elizabeth and Its Division
Aired in Court.
! In the Supreme Judicial court yester-
day the suit of the town of South Port
land against the town of Cape Elizabeth
came up for trial before Judge Haskell.
Ex-Gov. Cleaves and Hon. e. G. Rey-
nolds appeared for the town of South
Portland and Judge j. W. Symonds and
Elgin c. Verrill, Esq, represented the
| interests of Cape Elizabeth.
| When the towns were divided by the act
of the 9th legislature it was decreed that
the existing liabilities of the old town of
Cape Elizabeth be divided as follows:
'sThe town debt shall be borne by said
| towns in proportion to the yalution of
| taxable property and estate within their
respective territories as taken by the as
SCISSORS in April, 1894, etc.
The debt of the old town of Cape Eliza
beth and it's assets, such as unpaid taxes,
sewer assessments, etc., was determined
| by joint committee of eight citizens
| chosen by the town meetings from each
town and this joint committee reported
| that the proportional part of this indebt-
edness was as follows: South Portland s
part $35, ST. SO and Cape Elizabeth's part
81, 278. 43. The committee reported it's
| finding to the two towns and the report
was accepted by both towns. The COM
mittee continued it's duties and proceeded
to adjust the financial affairs of the two
towns. They paid off, SO South Portland
claims, 1926. 5000 of outstanding notes
and interest spring and winter bills, etc.
OF this amount the town of South Port
land claims that it's share is $4,000. 40
while the share of Cape Elizabeth is &c.
O53 SO based on the valuation of the two
towns and divided proportionately. South
Portland further claimed that the town
of Cape Elizabeth accepted this statement
of its indebtedness as reported by it's COM
mittee to the town meeting and promised
to pay the amount in controversy.
The town of Cape Elizabeth denies that
| 1T ever promised to pay this amount
| through its committee or in any other
Vesy SsAAN Ad4 olOl OAu1dlo UIhu Wllilo tl6 TO-
port of the committee on this matter was
accepted and ordered on file it was not
adopted. Cape Elizabeth further claims
| that the settlement as agreed upon by the
| TWO committees Is not final settlement
inasmuch as there are other matters to be
| taken into consideration before the final
settlement is made. These other matters
we're outlined by Judge Symonds for the
benefit OF the court briefly and in sub
stance as follows:
When the committee reported to the
| town of Cape Elizabeth it was found
| that the real estate and personal property
| belonging to the old town of Cape Elia-
beth had not been taken into account In
the settlement. 1t was found that the
| relative valuation in South Portland
with that of Cape Elizabeth stood nearly
three-fourths to one-fourth. The town of
South Portland had about S25, 900 more
| than its proportional part of the real
| estate and personal property of the town,
such as school buildings, town farm,
wood lot, + rniture, road machine and
other things of that kind and the town Ut
Cape Elizabeth refuses to pay the &c.
053 SO claimed by South Portland on the
ground that the full settlement cannot be
made Until the above named personal
property and real estate is taken into &C.
count.
Judge Haskell, after some argument
and discussion with the counsel on both
sides of the case, construed the statutes
which separated the two towns as not
taking this real estate and personal
property into the assets of the old town of
Cape Elizabeth, but said he believed the
statute intended that each town should
have that part of the real estate and per-
sonal property which was in it's limits at
the time of division.
The case was not heard at any great
length as it simply hinged on the con-
struction of the statute. The judge de-
cided as matter of law that South Port
land was entitled to recover the amount
claimed of g. 053 90 with interest from
time of demand, May II, 1897. The case
goes to the Law court on exceptions.