Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-07-26
MANY TRUST Man
WHO ONLY SEEMS
TO Be WEALTHY
Lawyer Who Furnishes Short
Hills House Elegantly Fails
to Make Payments.

How to meet the increased cost Of
living without the expenditure of any
thing more tangible than a lavish dis
play of apparent opulence and an TX
hibition of nerve has been demonstrat-
ed to the sorrow and loss of divers
tradespeople Of New York and the
exclusive selection Of Short Hills by
Justus P. Sheffield. a lawyer. with
offices in Manhattan Borough.
Early In the season Mr.. Sheffield
acquired the right to occupy n Of the
most fashionable houses on Forest
drive, the select avenue of the bon
ton section of Short Hills. A few days
later the house was furnished from
top to bottom with furniture, the like
of which had seldom been seen In
Short Hills, and which had, as de-
veloped later, a chattel mortgage
value of $25, 900.
Up to 10 o'clock this morning two
van-loads of the furniture were held
up in the storage warerooms of the
Sorhagen Tranfer Company, at Ga
Shipman street, this city. 1t was held
| there on an attachment secured by AL
bert Mersfelder, acting as counsel for
| Henry Wittkop, a Millburn liveryman,
| and executed by Abram s. Overmiller,
sergeant-at-arms of the East Orange
District Court.
Attachment Vacated.
This morning the order of attach
ment was vacated by Judge Worral
Mountain, of the District Court, or
the application of McCarter & English
who appeared for Sheffield and ths
Hayden company. of New York. which
held the mortgage on the Sheffield
house furniture.
Mr.. Mersfelder, on behalf of hi
client, assented, because at a confer
ence last Friday in this city between
counsel in the cast Wittkop agreed t
take in settlement of his claim for 1871
some of the furniture still left in tbs
Sheffield house and not covered by thu
Hayden mortgage.
Grocers, butchers, milkmen and &
few other traders in the Short Hill
section are said to have outstandlnt
bills a~ggregating more than $1,000 tina
are likely to remain ,unsatisfield unless
further action is taken before the fur
niture is removed from the Sorhage,
storage.
The furniture in question includes {
magnificent collection of antique panels
and tapestries, bronzes, round tables o
maedieval times. rare china and al
aeolian player-piano with a mortgage
value Of more h $4,000.
The Sheffield house might still b.
open and willing ;. merchants found
ready to serve goods without limi
were 1t not for the fact that the pro
prietor had failed to pay a ervant CIR
the trifiing sum of $65. due for. wages
and the latter took steps to recover
Found Vans Loaded.
This alarmed Wittkop and when tn
latter went to look for a settlemen
he found two vans loaded down witt
the furniture and bound for. New York
Through his lawyer he secured an at
tachment on the furniture as the prop
erty Of an ~absconding debtor.
Overmiller, who Is a brother-in-lay
of Wittkop, was appealed to and h
overlook the fleeing vans and mad
his attachment in Millburn on July 1,
At the same time he attached the bal
ance Of the furniture which still re
NAMED in the Forest drive house.
Collins & Corbin, representing tn
Hayden company, applied to Judg
Mountain for an order to prove It'll
to the property, claiming OWNERSHIP
under the chattel mortgage. Overmil
Ter disputed the claim because tn
mortgage had not been foreclosed an
the court sustained him.
Meantime Overmiller said he learne
that Sheffield had torn n Of the nc
tees of attachment from his hous,
/ He threatened to have the lawyer a,
rested, and would have done 80, h
says. a not the iatter's counsel In
~tervened.