New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-04-20
BIG COPPER SUIT ON.
LITIGATION INVOLVING CONTROL OF A
S45,ooo,OOo CORPORATION.
FATE OF NUMEROUS OTHER SUITS DEPEND
ENT ON THE DECISION.
IBY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE

IBY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE.l
Helena, Mont, April 19.-FinaI argument in
the suit for the appointment of receiver for
the great Boston and Montana Copper Mining
Company will be begun before the full bench
of the Supreme Court of Montana on Saturday.
The case, which has been hanging the cal
endar for months, was called on Tuesday, and
by agreement adjourned until Saturday. This
case is of extreme interest and Importance. not
only because 1t directly involves the anomalous
situation of a receivership for an admittedly
solvent corporation whose stock is selling In the
open market at price which means
a public valuation of S45,O00OO0, and
which is doing a business of over S12 900
year, and paid dividends of S54OOOOO in 1899,
but because on it's outcome hinges possibly the
eventual fate of the great Amalgamated Copper
Company with a capital of $4,000 900, i'm
mensey oversubscribed for at par, and held IN
enormous quantities by private investors and
lending banks in NewYork and Boston.
For a clear understanding of the complicated
situation 1t is necessary to go hack to the time
when the Standard Oil people, who finally be-
came the prime movers in the organization of
the Amalgamated Copper Company. first became
interested in copper properties. This harks
back to the settlement Of the Bay State Gas
litigation in Boston several years ago, in the
final adjustment of which Henry H. Rogers
found himself possessed of controlling interest
in the Butte and Boston Mining Company OF
Montana at cost ii is said. of some S2,000,000
The Butte and Boston has never been paying
property, and the Investigations of Mr.. Rogers
into his acquisition said to have resulted in
the conviction his part that while the general
copper situation in Butte was most decidedly
healthy, his property what sporting
men describe a dead one
Twenty years ago practically copper was
produced in Butte. In 1898 the output of Butte's
mines was 250O00,OO0 pounds worth, with it's
by-products, S50OO0OO0 But the Butte and
Boston is OF the few properties which pay
dividends. On the other hand, the Boston
and Montana Company owns some of the richest
mines in the district, with an output in 1898 of
1000, 900 pounds of copper
GROUNDS FOR THE SUIT.
The Boston and Montana was Montana
poration controlled in Boston. It involved
in numerous suits at law and threatened with
new ones with the Butte and Boston. According
to the allegations IN the present suit for a re-
ceivershp, agreement entered into be-
tween the moving spirits Of the Butte and Bos-
ton and the Boston and Montana companies for
an amalgamation of interests the basis. so it
is said, of four shares Of Butte and Boston for
one share of Boston and Montana stock Almost
at the same time it was decreed by the managers
of the Boston and Montana Company that the
Montana charter should be given up and re-
organization effected under the laws of New
York. This was accomplished, paper. and a
contract was entered into, it is alleged for the
sale of 6OoO0OOO pounds of copper at or about
y cents a. pound.
At this tuncture suit was brought in the Mon
tana court by John McGinnis of Butte, stock
holder of the Boston and Montana Company
for the appointment of receiver on the grounds
that not having received the assent OF the
stockholders. the surrender Of the Montana
charter and the New-YOrk reorganization were
illegal: that the proposed amagamaton with
the Butte and Boston the proposed sale for in
adequate compensation to the Amalgamated Cop
per Company in detriment of the interests
of the stockholders of the Boston and Montana,
as It would saddle that corporation with the
comparatively worthless properties of the Butte
and Boston; and further. that the action OF the
Poston and Montana management in selling its
copper under contract at II cents pound was
illegal and made the directors personally liable
for the difference between II cents and II cents
a pound to which the open copper market ad-
vanced pending the life of the contract.
RECEIVER APPOINTED.
The Court Judge Clancy granted the receiver
ship and appointed Thomas Hynes. This re-
cetvership was subsequently confirmed by the
Supreme Court, at Helena, on appeal SuDse-
ouentIy the Boston and Montana management
recognized the strength of the point made as to
the legality of the reorganization and dissolved
the New-Yorll corporation, resurrecting the
original Montana charter. Then application was
made to Judge Clancy for the discharge of the
receiver on the ground that the illegal acts had
been nulliied and the property restored TO the
original owners. This application refused
and appeal again taken to the Supreme
Court A stay granted. and, pending that
stay, the Boston and Montana company is once
more in possession of its property, but the final
adjudication in the matter will be upon the
argument to be begun Saturday. In that
argument some of the best legal talent of the
State will be represented and the decision will
be far reaching in its effect involving not only
the control OF millions of dollars worth OF prop
erty. but also the probable adjustment of some
thing like seventy suits and countersuits, in
which nearly all the great copper interests of
Montana concerned, those of Marcus DAILY.
II. II. Rogers, William Rockefeller, the Levi
sohns +. a. HeinZe, the Amalgamated Copper
Company, and others.
John McGinnis will be represented by ex-
Judge Mediation. OF Butte, who won q great
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