Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-09
lNJUNC TON DENIED
Against Deposed President Of
Wabash.
TRUSTEES AND STOCK
JUDGE TAYLOR REFUSES TO
GRANT ORDER.
Suit Would Have Tied Up Large Block
Of Gould Stock-The
Decision.

ST. LOUIS. October 9.-In the st. Louis
circuit court today Judge Daniel G. Tay-
lor denied the application Of Joseph Ram
sey. jr., deposed president Of the Wabash
railroad. for an injunction to restrain the
Missouri Pacific and Iron Mountain roads
or their trustees from voting Wabash stock
held by or for those roads in the annual
Wabash election to be neld in Toledo to-
| morrow.
News of the decision was te1egraphed at
once to Toledo, where George B. Gould and
his supporters and Joseph Ramsey and his
personal advisers are awaiting the deci-
sion. The failure of the injunction suit.
which. if successful, would have tied up a
large block of Gould stock, is regarded
most important victory for the Gould in
terests.
Judge Taylor in his decision. says:
cit appears from the plaintiffs verified
return and the verified returns of such of
the defendants as have been served in this
case and the evidence adduced upon the
hearing for preliminary injunction, that
the plaintiff Is minority stakeholder of
the Wabash Railr oad Company; that the
Missouri Pacific Railroad Company Is the
beneficiary owner of 10000 shares of the
stock of the Wabash Railroad Company,
which are now registered upon the stock
DOCKS Oh the WdDdSn HallrOaQ company
in the name of II. M. Walker, under an
instrument of pledge given to secure GER
tain obligations of the Missouri Pacific
Railway Company. held by persons who are
strangers to this suit; that the st. Louis,
Iron Mountain and Southern Railway Com
pany, practically all the shares of which
are owned by the Missouri, Pacific Railway
Company, has interest in IS, 1876, 900 of
the debenture bonds of the Wabash COM
pany, which are in the possession of and
registered the books of the Wabash
company in the name of the Mercantile
Trust Company of New York. under the
terms of Wabash company's unifying and
refunding mortgage and owns 60. 900 shares
of the preferred stock of the Wabash COM
pany, which are in the name Of George
Gould and w. L. Wilson. that George
Gould Is the chief executive officer of all
three of defendant railroad companies and
that the board of directors of all three of
them are composed largely of the same per-
sons. while the principal active officers of
the Iron Mountain and Missouri Pacific
companies are practically the same and
that at the last annual meeting of the
stockholders of the Wabash company. held
In October. 1904 the plaintiff, holding
proxies and representing the Missouri Pa
cific and Iron Mountain companies hold
ings in the Wabash company as we'll as
those of others, cast all of the ballots cast
at the meeting and elected the entire pres
ent board of directors of the Wabash COM
pany.
Missouri Charter.
1T also appears that, while the defendant
Wabash Company and the Missouri Pacific
Company have lines extending through
various parts of the United States, both
of them have Missouri charters, and the
most important portions of their Missouri
lines are those extending across the state
of Missouri from st. Louis to Kansas City
and Kansas City to ST. Louis
THE plaintiff contends that the Wabash
md hn Dooi
Railway Company are parallel and Compel
ing lines, within the meaning of the pro-
visions of section II. article IL, of the con-
Shtution of Missouri, and of section 1852
of the Missouri statutes, and hence that the
holding of these securities of the Wabash
Railroad Company by the Missouri Pacific
Company is Illegal and that inasmuch as
the Missouri Pacific Company owns and
controls all of the stock of the Iron Noun
tain Company. that the holding of the
Wabash securities by the Iron Mountain
Company is Illegal because that cannot be
done indirectly which cannot be done direct
~, and seeks by his bill filed herein to en-
join the voting of these securities at the
meeting of the Wabash Company to be
held October 10, upon the ground that they
are Illegally owned and will be voted so as
to effectuate a purpose to stife competition
between the Missouri Pacific and Wabash
companies in Missouri, through the opera
ton of these two competing lines under one
control and in combination, and that he as
a stakeholder in the Wabash company will
"Al of the defendants who have appeared
or been served disavow such Illegal purpose
and attack the good faith of the plaintiffs
application. The court finds the record in
this case so replete with evidence of viola
tions of the provisions of certain of the Mis-
scuri laws enacted for the protection of the
public that 1t has been loath to reach the
conclusions herein expressed
THE record develops the fact that at the
Est annual election of the Wabash Railroad
Company the plaintiff, Ramsey, holding the
proxies of the then and now owners of these
very shares of stock, the voting of which he
now seeks to have enjoined, voted all of
them for the election Of the very persons
whom he charges will be elected ard
will so conduct the property of the Wabash.
road as not only to violate the provisions of
the laws of Missouri, but also to injure him.
am of the view that this action of plain
tiff's Is sufficient to compel the court TO
deny him the relief which he seeks In the
absence of proof showing that something
has transpired since the time of such voting
of this stock by him, which would indicate
that the purposes of those who will be eject
ed by the voting of this stock at the meet
ing to be held on the 10th of October will be
different from those OF the persons elected
by the plaintiff.
1.-The order will therefore be that the rule
heretofore made upon the defendants to
show cause why a preliminary injunction
should not be issued will be vacated ard
| plaintiffs application for a temporary in
| junction denied.
! fSgned) DANIEL G. TAYLOR