Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1913-03-03
CLAIMS WERE SWTNDLED
Portland Real Estate Man Charged
With Buncoing Aged Couple
Out of Their Property.

Portland, March An easy
cleanup of $500 by a local real
estate trader at the expense of an
aged couple who came to Portland
from the east a year ago with life
time savings to invest, is behind an
action begun in the circuit court by
Attorney C. D. Christensen on behalf
of Mary Ellen Sawyer, ~ years of
age The defendant is George E.
Quiggle. The attorney states that
the plaintiff and her husband, who
has since died from the mental dis
tress and dependency caused by the
loss of his property, were first in
duced to invest their savings in a
rooming house, but finding that un-
profitable, they readily fell into the
hands of the trader.
tQuiggle offered them a ranch in
trade for the rooming house, accord
ing to the complaint, placing a ficti-
tiOus value of $500 on the proper
ty, which is located somewhere near
Quilcene, on the Straits of Juan de
Fuca, Wash, and near the Olympia
forest reserve. Being unfamiliar
with the country and having no op-
portunity for an inspection, the old
couple accepted the offer. Quiggle
admitted to the old couple that there
was a mortgage of $4,000 against
the ranch. and in order to make up
for this amount, says the attorney,
he decided the Sawyers house and
lot in Institute Place, Portland,
which was valued at $2,50O, but
which was encumbered by mortgages
for $500. Quiggle agreed by the
terms of the deed to pay these mort
cages when due.
The attorney for Mrs. Sawyer
states that the value of the far-away
ranch was grossly exaggerated and
that 1t is not worth a dollar in ex-
cess of the $4,000 mortgage against
it. For that reason, the sole consid-
Grafton of value which the old couple
received for their earnings was the
Portland house.
AS a last straw, this house has
just been sold on foreclosure pro-
ceedings, and Mrs Sawyer is about
to be evicted by the purchaser be-
cause Quiggle, it is alleged. refused
to pay the mortgages when they fell
due two months ago. Through their
inexperience the aged couple failed
to require security from the trader
for the fulfillment of his promise to
meet the mortgage debt of $500,
and because of his failure to pay,
the holder of the mortgage immedi-
ately began foreclosure proceedings
and sold the property. The action
against Quiggle is a demand for
$4,000, the value of the house which
has just been taken from Mrs. Saw
yer, and the suit is founded on the
traders covenant OF general warran-
ty and for quiet enjoyment.
Il admit my obligation on the
house" said Quiggle today, "and I
intend to redeem the property as
soon as my deals shape themselves
in such manner that | can. In the
meantime | have paid months rent
for her. l never claimed anything
for the ranch, except that it was a
nice mountain home. 1t was an
abandoned farm at the time of the
trade. but there is nice little prune
orchard there of about four acres. I
understand the apartment house /
received in the trade is now on the
market for $500 and that there is
a mortgage of $6,765 against it. Any
statement attributing the death Of
the old man to me is absurd. He
was old and might have died of any
number Of causes. want to repeat
that intend to take care of the OBJ
legations on the house and to leave
the home free of encumbrances."