The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-01-22
PAY S66O,OOO TO GRASS THYME
,crIOy OF DIRECTORS AFTER
TNE4RNED DIVIDEND" SUIT.

Contributors Said Not 10 he Convinced
That the Dividends Paid were Un-
earned. but Thcy Preferred Putting Up
the Money 10 Trying to Disproye II.
Farmer directors OF the American Graes
rs,ne Company have voluntarily paid Into
n. treasury Of the company e650,0Oo In
oosh supposcd to represent unearned
IIJdpnda declared by them in 1909, with
,ntera.t. The men who composed the board
n directors In that year were ID. o. Mllla,
-f,nrv T. Rowland Robert +. Tod Stewart
Chlsholm and Jacob Rubino OF thls oity,
n oboeI j. OShaughnessy OF St. Paul,
Iorb,rt Myrlck OF Springfield, Mass., and
,Ioraoe j. Knowles. Of Delaware.
According TO a man familiar with tho
,salrs Of the company, not all the direo-
,or. for 1902 contributed to the fund; only
those Who felt that they were able to do SO.
Tho nntnes OF the contributors, IL was said,
xopld not be made public, at least at pres-
ont 40 as not 10 embarrass the members OF
tho board who didn't pay.
TbI, large payment into the treasury Of
Tho company was made In the early part
n December. II was on Nov. 3Sth that
Iustloe Clarke In the Supreme Court handed
down his decision in suit brought against
Alexander NJ Curtiss Of Buffalo, a director
ofthe American Mating Company, holding
him liable for $4,000, the amount with
interest Of unearned dividends declared
at directors meetings which he had at
tended II was in the early part OF December
also that a stockholder in the American
Grass Twine Company, Joseph Watkins.
brought an action through his attorneys,
Neigban & Nicarsulmer OF IS Park row,
Individually against the members Of the
hoard Of directors seeking TO force them
N return to the treasury with interest
tss5. 600 which the plaintiff alleged had been
Maid IN dividends out of the company's
capital.
To what extent the action Of this stock
holder and the decision in the American
Mating Company case influenced the for
ner directors of the Grass Irvine company
was not learned yesterday. One man who
Is Interested In the Grass Irvine company
said that the directors who paid the $3.50 900
we're by no means certain when they did so
that the dividends which had been paid
we're unoarned. To prove that they had
been earned, however this man said, would
entail such Il lengthy process and so much
ner.onal Inconvenience to the directors that
prefer 10 put up the money and call II OF.
While the money was actually paid into
the treasury of the company after Justice
Clarkes decision, the old directors, accord
ing 10 this informant, had been contemplate
ing the action for some time previous TO the
decision This man said, further, that the
suit brought by Watkins had not been with
drawn even now. when the demand had been
complied with but that the attorneys who
represented Watkins's interests were de-
handing that their counsel fee be paid by
the directors also. This the directors were
directing TO. Watkins, according 10 this
man, owned only fifty shares Of stock in the
company, and that was all the stock rep
resented in the effort to have the directors
reimburse the treasury.
Henry Nicarsulmer said that his client
had bought the stock in 1902 when 1t was
selling at 500. The next year, when divi
dends were discontinued, it went az low
as 49, the highest price paid for II being
2ah Nicarsulmer said that his client
alleged that the price had been inflated
by payment of unearned dividends
The American Grass Irvine Company
was organized under the laws OF Delaware
in 1899, with n capital of $4,000 600. The
first dividend on the stock was for ~ per
cent quarterly pnid April 1, 1902. Quar-
terly dividends for the same amount we're
paid in July and October OF the same year.
The directors. after declaring another
quarterly dividend Of ~ per cent, payable
on Jan. >. 1903. resdnded their action and
made the dividend =, per cent. instead, the
understanding being that the money was
required for worsinE capital and improve
ments No dividends have been paid by
the company since In 1901 the company
stock brought from 39ss TO IS. The next
year IL Jumped as high as 62+
The present directors Of the company,
as given by man identified with 1t, are
H Z MoIler. J. Dougherty. John NJ. Robin
son. X. $. Knowles, c. W. Graf and Henry
VI Cohu
None Of the men. Il was said who con-
tnhuted to the $3.50 coo is now on the board
Of directors although all of them are in
terested in the company. James j. Hill is
named IN the reference books "a being a
member Of the 1902 board Of directors. but
it was said yesterday that he had never
served.