The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-03
COUNTY GETS A SETTLEMENT Money Lost in Morris Bank Recovered. $io5.soO IS PAID IN Long Standing Suit Com. pr0I1.sed by Board of
 Revenue. Surety on Bond of Treasurer Cochran Agrees to Formal Judgment.
 County omcials Are
 Gratified.

The hard fought litigation between 1 the county of Montgomery as plaintiff and John J. Cochran and the Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland as surety on Mir. cochran's bond as coun- ty treasurer came to a sudden termi- nation yesterday in the shape of a con- sent judgment rendered by the City Court of Montgomery in favor of Mont- gonnery county for $105,50O, and costs or suit. which judgment was immedi- ately satisfied by the surety company paying the amount of judgment into
 the hands of MT. Cochran as county treasurer, on account of the Road and
 Bridge Fund, and paying the costs of
 suit to the clerk of the City court. The suit was to recover funds of the county on deposit at the Josiah Morris Bank at the time of It's fail- ure five years ago.
 Negotiations looking to a settlement or the litigation have been pending be- tween the Board of Revenue and the Fidelity and Deposit Company of Mary land for the past two or three weeks but
 an agreement was not reached until a few days ago. Then 1t became ne-
 cessary for MT. Cochran to make an additional bond as county treasurer to
 cover this additional fund going into
 his hands and the settlement was sus-
 pended until yesterday in order to give
 him time in which to make the bond,
 which was made yesterday by the
 American Surety Company of New
 York in the sum of $120,000, that be- ing the penalty of MT. CochTan's orig
 inal bond given at the beginning of his present term of office with the Fi- delity and Deposit Company of Mary land IS surety.
 A Consent Judgment.
 Pursuant to agreement. the attor- neys for the county and the attorneys for the two surety companies went yes terday into the City Court of Mont gomery Judge A, D. Sayre presiding, and the plaintiff took Judgment by consent for $105,500. Then the addi- tional bond was presented to and ap- proved by Probate Judge J. E. Gaston, check by the Fidelity and Deposit Company for the amount was handed MT. Cochran payable to his order as treasurer and he acknowledged sat- isfaction of the Judgment on the mar gin of the record.
 The attorneys for the parties at in- terest and the agents of the two surety accompanied MT. Cochran to the First National Bank where the check was cashed, the money was paid over to him and duplicate receipts were executed by him as required by law, one of the duplicate receipts be- ing filed with tho Clerk of the Board of Revenue. The receipt was upon printed blanks used by the treasurer and was numbered SIS. It acknowi- edged the receipt of s105,500 from the Fidelity ana Deposit Company of Maryland in full satisfaction of the judgment on account of the Road and Bridge Fund of the county.
 Immediately after the filing of the duplicate receipt with the clerk of the Board of Revnue the attorneys and agents proceeded to the office of the clerk of the city court who had in ! the meantime entered me judgment on the minutes of his court, and one of the attorneys for the county. pursuant 10 the order of the Board of Revenue, marked the judgment satisfied in full. Thus ended the long litigation growing put of the failure of the banking house of Josiah MorrIs end Company on January 95, 1901.
 History of Litigation.
 This is a brief history of the case: | 0n January s, 1901, the county of i under q special act of 1 he legislature approved December 13, | 1900, issued and sold for the purpose | 1f raising a fund to build roads and bridges, S100,000 of county bonds, bear | ng per cent interest payable semi ' Josiah Morris and Company being the highet bidders, at the sum ,f $111,l09.5S, for which amount the | Norris bank issued its check on them selves in favor of Mfr Cochran as ,ounty treasurer. MT. Cochran there Ipon receiptcd for the amount, de-