Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-09-01
EXCLUDES ROBT. YORK
yourt Says Litigants Must Live Up to
 Contract-VictOry For Plaintiffs
 Closing Arguments-Ruling of Chancellor Elliott Conservative.

he State Democratic Central Con-
 hittee, scored a decided victory in he Jefferson chancery court Satur~
 lay morning in his suit against the Bluff City Lumber Company, J. B. Fork, Robert York, c. J. Samstag and }. l.. Browning. His wife, Mrs. M. E.. Rutherford, was a ~eo-plaintiff in the proceedings.
 The suit was brought several days &go and involved nearly two million Eof dollars, besides affecting the fi- Inances and affairs of various lumber
 Companies in this and other adjoining btates, branches of the mammoth Bluff City Lumber Company here. The plaintiffs sued for an injunction re- etraining the defendants from prose- outing suits which were brought re- cently in the Jefferson circuit court hgainst the Citizens Light and Tran Dit Company of this city and the Un-
 lon Furniture Company, also of this city, in which the Rutherfords are heavily interested. The suits were brought on notes, alleged to be due. rhe petition also prayed for an in-
 Junction restraining the defendants From checking out any moneys in the various banks and various individual Repositories, aggregating more than S150,00O. It also asked for an ac- counting of the Bluff City Lumber Companys entire assets and liabili- ties and in the meantime that re- ceiver be named by the court to as- sume charge of the many affairs of this corporation, and that he be em- powered to operate the same until the further orders of the court.
 The petition was voluminous, cov- ering over eighteen pages of type
 written matter, charging the Yorks, the majority stockholders, with gross mismanagement, ill feeling, hatred
 and with the ultimate determination
 to ruin the Rutherfords financially. Various other charges were made in the bill, one of which was the charge
 that the recent suits were filed against the Transit and Furniture
 companies in furtherance of an al- legged prearranged plan and scheme l on the part of the Yorks to destroy the value of the Rutherfords' hold
 ings in the Bluff City Lumber Compa- ny and other auxiliary institutions The Yorks own 54 per cent of the capital stock of the Bluff City Lum- Der Company and the Rutherfords the remaining 46 per cent. This compa- ny began with a capital of less than $50,000 and is today reputed to be worth nearly two million dollars. Its credit has always been to the high est standard and at the time Of the filing of the recent suits against the Rutherford companies, it was prac' ucally admitted that the liabilities were only nominal, not much in ex' cess of $200,0O0.
 The hearing ended this morning after a little more than three hours were taken up by MT. M. A. Austin o1 the law firm of Austin and Danaher who with City Attorney w. F. Cole man represented the plaintiffs, in ar gument. The court room was crowd ed. Never before in the history O this city has so much interest beer
 manifested by the business people II the result of legal proceeding here
 MT. Austin made one of the most mas terly, logical, convincing and elo Quent arguments that has ever befor' been heard in a court in this section
 He covered the entire field of con
 test and scored some of the most con
 vincing results that 1t was possible
 the officials of the company joined