The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-01-24
FILE ANSWER IN
TURNPIKE SUIT
DEFENDANTS DENY EVERY MA
TERlAL ALLEGATION MADE
~ c. c. AND S. =. PIKE.
SOME COUNTER CHARGES MADE
Officials Declare That They Have
Acted Only From Sense
Of Duty.

Answering the Dill uled Dy the 20
lumbia, Goodwin and Santa Fe Turn
pike Company, one Of the most salty
documents filed In the Chancery
Court in some time was filed Saturday
by the defendants to that suit.
Through their attorneys, Greenlaw
and Whitthorne, Hughes and Hughes
and J. c. VOORHEES,. the defendants,
Judge W. o. Gordon, J. ". c. Church
and the Turnpike superintendent. l..
8. Lamar, L. NJ. Gregory and L. H.
Fitzgerald, deny jointly and separately
every material allegation of the com
plainant company. A dissolution of
the Injunction granted complainant is
asked and at an early date formal
motion to this effect will be made be-
fore Chancellor Bearden.
Specific denial is made that there
was ever any conspiracy between the
defendants for the purpose of harass-
ing, annoying or injuring the fran
chises or property of the complainant
company It is also denied that there
was ever any effort or conspiracy ON
the part of either or all of the defend
ants to have constructed any shun
roads for the purpose Of deprtving the
complainant of any of its toll,
Defendants aver that they have
never acted upon the matters in ques-
don save as they conceived it TO be
their official duty; that they have new
err had the gates of the pike opened
nor taken any course in connection
Herewith, nor made any report where
on that was not dictated by sense
of duty and which they conscientious
" believed was dictated by sense
of duty to the tax payers and travel
ing public Of the county,
1t is denied that the gates of this
pike were ordered open before the
recent county fair for the purpose OF
depriving the company OF its tolls
during that week, but 1t Is alleged that
there was more than ample Justifca-
ton for the opening Of the gates. 1t
IL also charged that for the purpose
of annoying the public coming to the
fair that the complainant Rainey went
to one of the bridges on the pike and
spent an entire day taking up ana
putting down planks, causing the PEG
pl@ 60 go four miles out Of their way
to reach Columbia. That there had
been NO complaint concerning the con-
dition OF this bridge and 1t is charged
that when the complainant went 10
work on it he did not have a single
stick OF new timber with which to
begin repairs.
The defendant superintendent de-
ny that they told the general manager
of the complainant company that his
pike was in fairly good condition; on
the contrary the annual report of the
superintendents for last year is cited.
In this report it is stated that com
plainants pike was in bad repair FOR
a distance Of four and a half miles;
and further reporting 1t is stated that
as a whole the pixies in Maury county
are not in condition as required by law
and their charters and that the traV-
cling public is not getting value re-
ceived for the amount of toll.
NOT only Is all malice or purpose to
do injury to the turnpike company
specifically denied, but the defendants
cite the specific instances in which
the pike did not come up to the re-
ouirements of the law or its charter.
One allegation made is that at one
point In the road the bitches had
become so filed up that the water ran
into the road bed and cut ditch
therein varying in depth from one 10
two feet. rendering the road unsafe
and at night dangerous to the travel
ing public. Allegations are made ana
alleged instances are cited for the
purpose of showing that the complain
ant company had done things to
barass and annoy the public.
Records Of the court and reports OF
the superintendents are cited to prove
that allegations made in the bill are
wholly untrue Practically every al
legation upon which the bill Is predi-
Gated. is emphatically controverted'