The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-04-09
CENTRAL LITIGATION ENDED.
DECREE OF JUDGE PARDEE MARKS
ITS PRACTICAL TERMINATION.

The Decree Refers to the Causes of
the Louisville and Nashville Rail-
road Against the Central and
Thomas tS Ryan Against the Gen.
traI-Was Filed with the Clerk
Here Yesterday-HaIf of the Lease
hold Interest in the Georgia Rail-
road Vested I'm the Louisville and
AashviIIe-Decree in COnfOFmance
With an Agreement Between the
Parties, Reached some Time Ago.
Some Minor Questions Remain for
Determination, but This Is the
Last of Importance.
The formal decree of the United States
Circuit Court in the causes of the Louis
vile and Nashville Railroad against the
Central Railroad, and Thomas & Ryan
against the Louisville and Nashville, for
The possession of the undivided half of the
leasehold interest in the Georgia Railroad
Company and the Louisville and Nashville
Railroad Company. formerly owned by the
Central Railroad and Banking Company
Of Georgia, was filed in the Office of the
The decree was handed down by Circuit
Judge Don A. Pardee at New Orleans, and
Is in complete conformity with the agree
ment reached by the various parties in
interest nearly a year ago, and reported in
full in the Morning News at the time the
deal was consummated.
After reciting the facts of the various
transfers of which this interest In the
Georgia Railroad has been subject, the
decree continues: Therefore, it is ordered,
adjudged and decreed that the said Central
of Georgia Railway Company has no right,
title or interest in and to the said lease
and leasehold estate described in exhibit
A, attached to such petition and bill of
complaint, or any of the rights, privileges
or powers therein set FORTH or in or to
any estate or interest in the Georgia Rail
road or its dependencies, and il is per-
petually enjoined from ever asserting or
setting up any right, title or interest in
such leasehold estate, rights, privileges or
powers, as involved in the possession and
management of such property by it's right
full owner"
ut being further made to appear to the
court that the said Louisville and Nash
willie Railroad Company has, pending this
suit, purchased from Samuel Thomas and
Thomas f. Ryan the undivided one-half
interest in the lease of the Georgia Rail
road and Banking Company, formerly as
signed by William NJ Wadley to the Cen
trail Railroad and Banking Company OF
Georgia, and has received from said
Thomas and Ryan a written transfer and
assignment of said interest, so as to con-
stitute the said Louisville and Nashville
Railroad Company the absolute owner and
assignee of the entire leasehold estate
conveyed by the Georgia Railroad and
Banking Company to William NJ. Wad-
ley, and to all the covenants of the in
denture conveying the same; it is there
fore,
Ordered, adjudged and decreed by the
court, by the consent of Samuel Thomas
and Thomas T. Ryan and the Louisville
and Nashville Railroad Company and the
Georgia Railroad and Banking COMPANY.
that the petition of said Samuel Thomas
and Thomas F. Ryan to be installed In
possession and the bill, amendment ana
supplement of the Louisville and Nash.
vile Railroad Company be and the same
are hereby dismissed. because the said
Louisville and Nashville Railroad Com
pany has pending this suit purchased and
become the sole and absolute owner of
the subject matter of controversy"
The decree further orders that the coprt
costs be borne half by the Louisville ard
Nashville and half by Messrs. Thomas and
Ryan. Its rendition marks probably tha
nnal gasp of the old Central Railroad mi
CATION, that consumed the time of the
court several years and was the inclnient
cause Of more than one failure The hold
ers of the securities of the Central and IFS
dependencies saw them go down from a
strong position in the market to a mimi
where they could scarcely be disposed of
at any price, and the shrinkage in value
was accompanied by public and private
losses throughout the state, that can hard
ly be estimated and whose moral effect al
most produced business stagnation.
The essential features of the decree were
embodied in an agreement, reached some
time ago, by the Central and the Louis
vile and Nashville Railways, by which
the Central secured control of certain i'm
portant tributary lines in return for the
surrender of its claim to a half interest
in the lease of the Georgia Railroad. Prom
iuent among these concessions, IL is be-
lieved, was the control of the Atlanta and
West Point, which, at this time, passed in
to the hands of the Central, and has since
been one of its subsidiary lines. The Louis
Vile and Nashville controlled already one
half of the lease of the Georgia Railroad.
so that under this agreement IL passed into
complete possession.
There remain still some of the CONSOLE
dated causes and the interventions therein
to be decided, and one of these has been
set for a hearing before Judge Pardee in
New Orleans during the present month.
But the decree. as fled, settles the last
of the important matters in controversy,
and the Central Railroad litigation Is prac-
tically at an end.