Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1905-10-10
COULD WINNER
Of THE BATTLE
COURT DECIDES AGAINST JOS.
RAMSEY, JR.
Request for Injunction to Restrain
Missouri Pacific and Iron Mountain
Roads From Voting Wabash
Stock Is Denied
BY Associated Press.

BY Associated Press.
ST. LOUIS. Oct. 9.-In the st. Louis
circuit court Judge Daniel c. Taylor
denied the application of Joseph Ram
sey, jr., deposed president of the Wa
bash 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 railroads in the annual Wabash
election to be held in Toledo tomorrow.
News of the decision was telegraphed
at once to Toledo, where George j.
Gould and his supporters and Joseph
Ramsey and his personal advisers
arrived today. The failure of the
injunction suit, which if successful
would have tied up a large block of
Gould stock is regarded as most i'm
portant victory for the Gould interests.
Judge Taylor's decision in part fol-
lows:
at appears from the plaintiffs petit
ton and the verified returns of such of
the defendants as have been served in
this case and the evidence adduceG
upon this hearing for preliminary in
junction that the plaintiff is a minority
stakeholder of the wabash Railroad
company; that the Missouri Pacific rail-
way is the beneficiary owner of 10000
of the shares OF the Wabash Railway
company which are now registered in
the name of II. NJ. Walker under an in
strument of pledge given to secure GER
tain obligations of the Missouri Pacific
company held by persons who are
strangers to this suit; that the st.
Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Rail-
road company, practically all the shares
of which are owned by the Missouri
Pacific Railway company, has an in
terest in S5,435O0O of the debenture
bonds of the Wabash Railroad COM
pany, which are in the possession of
and registered upon the books of the
Wabash company in the name of the
Mercantile Trust company of New
York under the terms of the Wabash
companys 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 COM
panies and that the boards of directors
of all three of them are composed
largely of the same persons, while the
principal active officers of the Iron
Mountain and Missouri Pacific COM
panies are practically the same and
that at the last annual meeting of the
stockholders of the Wabash company
held in October, 1904, the plaintiff hold
ing proxies and representing the Mis-
souri, Pacific and Iron Mountain COM
panies' holdings in the Wabash COM
pany, as we'll as those of others, cast
all of the ballots cast at the meeting
and elected the entire present board of
directors of the Wabash company.
Missouri Laws Violated
''It also appears that while the de-
PENDANT Wabash company and the Mis-
souri, Pacific company have lines ex-
tending through various parts of the
United States both of them have Mis-
souri, charters, and the most important
of their Missouri lines are those extend
ing across the state Of Missouri from st.
Louis to Kansas City and from there to
St Louis. The plaintiff contends that
the Wabash Railroad company and the
Missouri Pacific Railroad company are
parallel and competing lines within
the meaning Of the provisions of section
IT, article u of the constitution Of
Missouri and section 1852 of the Mis-
souri, statutes, and hence that the hold
ing Of these securities of the Wabash
Railroad company by the Missouri
Pacific company is Illegal and seeks by
this bill filed herein TO enjoin the voting
of these securities at the meeting of the
Wabash company to be held October
10, on the ground that they are IL
legally owned and will be voted so as
to effectuate a puTpo-e TO stifle COM
petition between the Missouri Pacific
and the Wabash companies in Missouri
and that he, as a stakeholder in the
Wabash company, will be injured
thereby. All Of the defendants who
have appeared or have been served dis
avow such illegal purpose and attack
the good faith of the plaintiffs applica-
ton. The court finds the record in this
case so replete with evidence of viola
tons of the provisions of certain of the
Missouri laws enacted for the protec-
ton Of the public that it has been 10th
to reach conclusions herein expected.
THE record develops the fact that at
the annual election of the Wabash COM
pany the plaintiff, Ramsey holding the
proxies of the then and now owners of
these very shares Of stock, voting of
which he now seeks to have enjoined,
voted all of them for the election Of the
very persons whom he now charges
will, If elected, so conduct the property
Of the Wabash road as to not only vio-
late the provisions Of the laws OF Mis-
souri,, but will also so conduct them
selves as to injure him. I am of the
view that this action Of the plaintiff is
sufficient to compel the court to deny
him the relief which he seeks in the
absence of proof showing that some