The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1913-08-01
Judge Harbeson Declares
Property In Safe Hands
and Commends Manage
ment of Affairs
RECEIVER PLEA WAS DENIED
Hurtful and Expensive Lit.
cation in Name of Farm
ers Without Merit

defeat without a comfort was the pOr
ton of those who have wrought
strenuously to throw the Burley To
bacco Co. into the hands of a re
ceiver The order entered Thursday
in the action of E. B. Stansifer VS.
Clarence LeBus and others sustained
the contentious of the defendants, gave
the plaintiff, commended the manage
ment of the company and overruled
the motion for a receiver as a plea
without merit.
Judge Harbeson's ruling constitutes
a comprehensive summation of the
evidence presented at the hearing on
the motion in Covington last week, to
gether with review of steps taken
previously in the hostile litigation
The keynote of the decision is to be
found in the declaration:
There was no evidence whatever
which tended to show that the funds
or property in the hands of the de
PENDANTS, whether we call it the prop
erty of the Burley Tobacco Co. or the
property of the defendants, is in dan
ger of being lost or materially, or at
all injured"
Management Is Commended.
Concerning the investments by the
directors Judge Harbeson says:
I'm these investments there is nc
evidence of any unfair dealing, or
even bad business judgment, but on
the contrary, indicates the same at
tention and care upon the part of the
defendants that would be given their
own funds"
Although declared to be without
merit, the Stansifer litigation has been
a cause of serious embarrassment to
the company, and enemies of the far
mers' organization-in chief agents OF
the tobacco trust-have used it to
create suspicion, foment discord and
work real injury to the company's in
terests by prejudicing trade. With this
bar removed, stock now may be issued
in line with the decision of the Court
of Appeals and business will go for
ward without handicap.
While the Kenton suits have been
a source of harrassment and large ex-
pense, it is declared by those inter
ested that they will bear a measure of
good in affording opportunity for dis,
proving libels that were being circu-
lated by self-seekers hostile to the
management and disarming agents of
adversaries who have hoped for the
destruction of the organization through
persistent litigation of this character.
The decision of Judge Harbeson in
full is as follows:
Text of the Decision.
''E. b. Stansifer, who as a stakeholder
in the Burley Tobacco Co. sues on behalf
of himself and all other stockholders of
the company, and for and on behalf of
the Burley Tobacco Co., instituted this
action against Clarence LeBus and about
fifty other persons who are also made
defendants
THE original petition in substance al
legged that the plaintiffs, who in 1909
were poolers of tobacco, subscribed to
the capital stock of the Burley Tobacco
Co. ten per cent of the sum for which
their pooled tobacco for that year should
sell, and authorized the Burley Tobacco
Society, who was conducting the pool
and selling the tobacco, to pay to the
Burley Tobacco Co. the sums subscribed
out of the sales of the tobacco
THAT the Burley Tobacco Society ac-
cordingly paid to the Burley Tobacco
Co. something over one million dollars,
which was the ten per cent of the pooled
tobacco which the plaintiffs had sub
scribed and authorized to be paid into
the capital stock of the Burley Tobacco
Co.
Purchase of Property.
1.-THE petition then alleges that with
out any authority for so doing the de-
PENDANTS took charge of the affairs of
the Burley Tobacco Co., collected the
million dollars subscribed and paid by
the plaintiffs, and that they purchased
with this fund numerous warehouses,
tobacco mandatory and other real es-
tate, taking the title in the name of the
Burley Tobacco Co., and that they now
have in their hands about $500, 900 of the
fund.
1.-The petition prays that it be ad-
judged that the defendants are not now
and never have been the legally elected
and acting board of directors of the
Burnley Tobacco Co., and prays Judgment
against the defendants for the sum paid
by the Burley Tobacco Society to the
DuiiC IOUdCCO w., VI the amount OIL
their stock of the Burley Tobacco Co.,
which was paid by the Tobacco Society.
Original Suit for Money.
"The petition does not claim or seek
to recover the property in which the
fund was invested, but treats the de-
PENDANTS as having converted the plain
tiffs money to their own use, and ask
for the amount converted. Subsequently
the plaintiffs filed an amended petition
IN which they allege that they have a
lien upon the property and fund is IN
danger of being lost or materially in
jured, and pray that receiver be ap-
pointed to take charge of the property
and funds until such time as a board
Of directors of the Burley Tobacco Co.
may be legally elected. The petition
also contains general prayer for such
relief as it may be entitled.
THE defendants filed an answer. the
allegation of which are not necessary
to detail further than statement OF
those facts established in evidence upon
the motion for the appointment of the
receiver. which are also pleaded in the
No Right To Lien.
cat the outset it is contended for
the defendants that If they have con-
verted the money and property to their
eWn use and the plaintiffs have elected