Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-09-28
ENGINE
DECLARES JERSEY
MAYOR DUPEO HIM
AdoIph A. Fries Sues Mountain
side Borough Executive
and His Wife.
SWINDLED OUT OF SO, ,450
in FARM DEAL, HE SAYS
Defendants Claim Money Was
Given Them as Gifts from
Canal-Digger.

Mayor Charles A. Baechtold, OF
Mountainside borough, near Westfield,
and his wife, Sallie d. Baechtold, figure
as the defendants in a most remark
able real estate deal, which they will
be asked to explain in detail before
Vice Chancellor Stevens in Chancery
chambers on November next. The
papers in the case have been filed in
Trenton the bill of complaint by A,
c. Streitwolf jr., of New Brunswick,
who appears for Adolph A. Fries, the
alleged victim of the deal to the extent
of many thousands of dollars.
The mayor, in his defense, will deny
all intention Of wrong doing, and de-
clare that the moneys sent to him
were a series of gifts.
Fries is one of the many engineers
that are busy on Uncle Sans big
ditch in Panama, and had saved enough
money to become ambitious to own
farm. The mayor of Mountainside bor-
ough was numbered among his friends,
and when the mayor wrote to the en-
gineer In far-off Panama, March q,
1907, that he had a fine farm in Union
county which could be had at $4,000
the engineer became interested at once.
The mayor, according to the man from
Panama, was willing to pay one-half Of
this amount, and so explained in his
letter and the net result was that on
April 10 of the same year a check for
Sc, 900, made payable to the mayor.
reached Mountainside. 1t was on the
Trust Company of America and good
as gold.
Gave $4,000 More.
Then, according to the engineer,
everything appearing ali right, he was
asked by the mayor to put up $1,000
more to cover the cost of certain Inn
provements that had to be made on
this Union county farm. This amount,
he AYERS, was sent, and he understood
that 1t was to be used to build a barn
Everything still appearing to be all
right the engineer in answer to an
other request from the mayor sent
$3.50 more to cover, as 1t was explained,
the building of a new poultry house.
Some time after that, as the en-
gineer failed to hear from Mountain
side Borough, he took several days
"off' to make combined social and
business call. Much to his astonish-
ment he says, he found that he SIM
ply was not 'in 1t" on the farm, as
the mayor had the title made out in
his wife's name, and that the several
checks had been indorsed over to her.
starts Chancery Suit.
When the man from Panama learned
this he at once hustled to his lawyers
office and directed him to draw up the
bill in chancery, so as to establish MS
right to the nalf-interest in the farm
and all the improvements for which
he helped to pay.
The farm, which consists of fifty
three acres in two plots, was bought
from Jane e. Burtis, according to the
records. April 25 1907, and is situated
within the Jurisdiction Of the mayor.
The records show, too, that it was
to his wife that the deed was made out.
The remarkable point in the defense
of this remarkable suit is that 1t was
owing to the friendly relations exist
ing for many years prior to the COM
plaint" between the parties now In
suit that the man from Panama sent
his checks as gifts to the mayor Of
Mountainside borough.
$4,000 in Presents.
AS to this, it is set forth in the an
swer that;
During May and June in the year
1907 at the home of the defendants in
the borough of Mountainside, on the
farm described at length in the bill of
complaint, Adolph A. Fries, on nu-
merous occasions gave to and made
gift to the defendants and to each OF
them the sum of $4,000. = A full. |
free and voluntary gift, to their own
sole and exclusive use and enjoyment
and all other sums of money so ad-
vanced by him"
The "all other sums of money so ad-
vanced" include the two items for al
legged improvements.
1t is added by the defendants that
the engineer surely has no legal claim
against them and that "a revocation
of such gifts by the said Adolph A.
Fries would work great injustice and
injury to the defendants and. to each
of them and would be fraud upon
them"