The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-06-25

Lane, ct. al, 10 recover on account of
stockholders liability to the creditors of
said bank in SO far as the same relates
to Madden & Lane and seeks to recover
from said firm or either member thereof
for said s. shares OF stock be, and the
same is hereby stricken from said suit"
Paragraph sixth reads as follows:
III Is further ordered and decreed by
the court that each and all of the pray
ers for relief and protection, whether they
be general or special, in the petition of
the said r. Y. Lane set out, not referred
to and covered in this order and decree.
are hereby granted as prayed. Granted
az chambers at Waycross, Ga, this the
nth day of June. 1898"
Mr.. BrantIey's Summary.
Now, m addition to what the solicitor
general has said l desire to say said
Mr.. Brantley, that the facts as they
appear In this case do not constitute a
crime under the section of the code upon
which the bill was found, because it is
quite clear thar the statute does not
include money and the assignment and
transfer referred to in said section must
be the transfer or assignment of some
contract or some writing. of some kind
Inc transfer Of money by Lane as vice
president to Lane individually, If it could
constitute any crime, it would be the Of
tense of embezzlement as laid down in
the code. of the offense of borrowing
without the consent of the board of di-
rectors, as laid down in another section of
the code, and 1t could not be either az
these offenses, because the actual money
never left the bank, and the only at
alleged to have been committed was an
entry of the bank books of the hank
ana, consequently, IL could not be en-
oezzlement and could not be the offense
or unlawfully borrowing money. as no
money was taken and no money was bor-
roWed, and we have already seen that IT
constitutes no offense under the section
upon which the bill is found, and it is,
therefore, manifest that no crime what
ever was committed Now, it is within
my Information, that before the adjudi-
cation was had, as directed and approved
or. by that decree which | have read to
Your Honor all of the facts and circum-
stances surrounding and connected with
this matter were carefully gone over
submitted to the then presiding Judge and
to the solicitor general, as to whether
there mad been any violation of law, and
my information is the matter was fully
investigated by the grand Jury then in
session, and the grand jury approved 1t.
and all of the parties of record and at
interest approved it and consented to it.
and the decree solemnly adjudicated that
there mad been no criminal act upon the
part of the defendant, and thereupon. the
father of this defendant paid into the
receivership of the Merchants and Traders
these thousands of dollars and paid them
in perfect good faith. and now after
these several years after that money W.
paid and after that decree, was signed
and the money disbursed and distributed
among the various creditors of the bank
come these charges. stating that to be
a crime which this court has said was no
crime, and which the defendant now saws
was no crime, and with this statement of
facts, with no one urging the prosecution,
and with the right to no one to be heard
we do not think that this prosecution
should stand. and we think the sugges-
ton OF the solicitor general that this in
dictment should be noll pressed is a wise
one and should prevail. AS counsel sug-
gests, and I think it should be stated to
the court, in support of Mr.. Lanes con-
tentions that he was simply carving
these shares of stock for the benefit of
the bank, and which this court has found
to be true. he had subscribed for, and
paid for, one hundred shares of the stock
of the bank for himself, and that ii is
true as he states that he simply carried
for the bank these additional thirty-eight
shares. which had not been subscribed
for and in transferring back to the bank
this stock. he simply transferred to II
that which belonged to it,"
At the conclusion of Mr.. Brantley's
remarks Judge Seabrook called upon
Judge Samuel c. Atkinson. who repre-
sents the receiver in the civil case, which
was instituted against the Merchants
and Traders Bank and Judge Atkinson
stated to the court as follows:
Judge AtIxfnson's Statement.
II have never had conversation with
Mr. Lane in reference TO this matter. but
in representing the receiver OF the bank
in the settlement a bout which your honor
has been informed, had number of
conferences with the counsel representing
Mr. Lane. as well as other counsel in
this receivership case and knew about
the facts leading up to the judgment and
my understanding was that II was to be
a full and final settlement OF all of Mr.
Lanes obligations 10 the bank and to the
creditors both morally and legally, and
understood that in the event they made
the payment OF this money that he was
10 be assured that there was TO be no
prosecution instituted against him, on
account of his connection with the af-
fairs of the bank / know that 1t was
treated that way by all OF the parties.
and that il was the understanding and
that II was the intention Of the court
and everybody else that when this pay
ment was made by the family OF Mr..
Lane that that was to be the final end OF
the matter so far as Mr.. Lane was con-
cerned, and ! was really surprised after
wards when | heard of this Indictment
and 1t looked to me In the light of all
the circumstances surrounding this case,
that II the court ever had a right to pass
such an order as was passed in this case
upon the petition Of the father of the
defendant. he had a right to do so In this
case. and that the terms OF the order
should be carried out / think that Il
is extremely wrong that II the creditors
of this bank have received the money
from this defendant as they did. and un-
der that understanding and agreement,
then to go on and prosecute Mr..
Lane. And from that standpoint, my opin-