The San Francisco call., 1904-07-06
LETTERS NOW
IN EVIDENCE
Correspondence Of Eppingers
Prior to the Failure
Is Produced in Court
BALANCES ARE FORCE]
Defense Seeks to Prove Good
Faith of Firm by Showing
1t Made Payments on Loans

Late yesterday afternoon the pri- /
vate letters of the firm of Eppinger /
& Co. to the Pacific Warehouse Com
pany at Crockett were admitted in evil |
dence as a part of the proceedings !
against Jacob Eppinger, charged with |
obtaining money under false pretenses. !
Attorney Ach for the defense made a
strong objection to their admission,
but Judge Lawlor permitted them to
be marked as exhibits for identifica-
ton and they will be read at this
mornings session.
One of the features of the day was
the testimony of w. w. ToppiQG for
merly bookkeeper for the finn, who
testified that for years it had been
his custom to balance the accounts
by adding the necessary amounts of
tons of grain as gains. That Jacob
Eppinger was or at least should have
been thoroughly cognizant of condi-
tions at the warehouse was also
brought out in the testimony of Top
ping, who said. that the warehouse re-
ports were daily laid on the desk of
Jacob Eppinger and later taken to
J him. Monthly reports were also avail
able to the head of the now defunct
firm.
The greater portion of the day was
spent in the examination of checks is
sued by the firm just before the crash
came. Attorney Ach sought to show
by these checks that the firm was act
| ing in good faith or it would not have
made large payments on outstanding
notes just before the failure. To offset
this the prosecution called witnesses
to show that the payments made were
! trifiing compared with the amounts
| owed. During the examination Attor
ney Ach accused District Attorney
Byington of having distracted certain
checks from those secured. Byington
replied that there were some checks
still in the vault and at the disposal
of the defense to examine freely.
UNAWARE OF QUANTITIES.
When the case opened Topping re-
sumed the stand and in response to
question by Attorney Campbell said
that he never knew what grain was
stored in the warehouse at Crockett,
but was in the habit of making entries
from the inventories sent down from
Crockett to make his books balance.
The attention of the witness was
then called to two entries in his books,
one of 1000 pounds and the other of
O,000 pounds, to force a balance for
the year ending June 1, 1903, and he |
was asked If he ever showed the book |
with these forced balances to any of |
the creditors of the firm, to which he
replied that he did not.
DO your books show that lots 706; |
707. 70S or 710 were shipped on the
Pierre Lott in December, 1902"
They do not
do they show substitution of 7os
for 1902"
NO"
The witness further testified that it
was the custom of Jacob Eppinger to
sign checks made out by Mitchell or
Joseph Eppinger without making a
close examination of them. In July, |
1902, a wear before the failure, the
witness had added 900 tons to force
balance of his books. which was at
tributed to gain He admitted that
during the last year these gains had !
been much greater than in previous
years.
LOTS EXCHANGED.
Augustus B. Costigan, a grain mer-
chant, testified to having grain shipped
through the Eppingers and that he
knew certain lot of wheat had been
exchanged for another of similar quail
l,ity.
Robert Williams testified that he,
with Detective O'Connell of Morse's
agency, had found a number of let
ters in the Pacific Coast Warehouse
in August, 1903. and Calvin Langton,
clerk employed by the Eppingers,
identified the signatures on a number
offered in evidence.
The battle for the possession of the
books has been temporarily postponed
anl argument will be made before Mil
ton j. Green, referee in bankruptcy,
asking that his order that Receiver
Wadsworth recover possession of the
books be revoked.
The argIlment before Green will ha