New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1914-10-21
Hebron Brings
Suit For Wages
HOLDS CITY AND F. H. RETZLAFF
JOINTLY LIABLE TO AMOUNT
OF $571.57.
SAYS HE WAS PAID ONLY SSO1 .89
OUT OF $1373.46 WHICH HE
CLAIMS.

William G.. Hebron, doing business
as ''W. C. Hebron and Company VS..
City of New Ulm, Municipal Corpo-
ration and F. H. Retzlaff' is the latest
suit to be started in the District Court
of Brown County. The defendants
were duly served with copy of the
summons and complaint Monday. John
F. Bernhagen of Minneapolis is He'll
bron's attorney.
In the complaint Mr.. Hebron sets
forth that he was duly employed by the
City and F. H. Retzlaff, Chairman of
the Finance Committee, to audit the
books of the City for period of approx
mately eight years, and also to advise as
by the City; that he was to receive
for these services the sum of $500 per
day and expenses; that he was authorized
under the terms of said employment to
I'LL C oOCI1 CSS1oCC1l1CO cllO C1C11Cd1 uC1p DIS
he deemed necessary and that the City
!, would pay therefor reasonable wage
for such services and expenses. The
complaint goes on further to state that
he rendered professional services as
accountant for said City in the matter
of auditing the books, records and
vouchers of the City between the 30th
day of January, 1914, and the 18th day
of April, 1914, and that for these services
at the rate of $500 per day the city
became indebted to him in the sum of
$3.50. He also sets forth in his complaint
that he secured an assistant accountant
and stenographer and that their
; services were reasonably worth $4,000.
He also mentions expenses by him
personally incurred amounting to $27.37.
This makes a grand total of $1373.46
on which there has been paid the sum of
$801.89, leaving balance due of $571.57
for which amount he demands judgment.
Unless the case is dismissed it will
come up for trial at the December term
of the District Court. This suit is the
aftermath of the City Clerk affair which
stirred New Ulm to the depths last
! April. 1t will be remembered that
.lwhile the plaintiff was engaged in the
auditing of the city's books, it was
intimated from time to time that there
was something radically wrong with the
city clerks accounts and that some
startling revelations were due as soon as
the report of the accountant should be
made public.
A partial report was made to the
finance committee in April and in some
way unbeknown to them, the report got
into the hands Of the publisher Of the
Brown County Journal and was printed
almost word for word in it's following
issue. This report accused former City
Clerk Ernst Wicherski Of many acts of
commission and omission and intimated
that he was short in his accounts and that
the defalcations would run into thousands
of dollars.
The premature publication of the
report aroused much discussion during
which differences of opinion arose be-
! Tween Mr.. Hebron and the Finance
Committee which made it appear I'M
likely that satisfactory report could be
obtained from Hebron since he refused
to continue the work unless conditions
were changed in accord with his wishes
The Council therefore decided to dis
pense with Heilbron's services and re-
fused to make further payment for the
work he had done since they were con-
WINGED that it was valueless to the city.
They then employed the firm of Warwick;
Mitchell, Peat & Co., expert accountants
who went over the entire work done by
: the Hebron accountants. Continued
refusal to honor his bills has caused the
present suit instituted by Hebron.
Another action growing out of the
premature publication of the report is
the 100000 libel suit which was
recently instituted by Wicherski against
Philip Liesch. Mr.. Wicherski was able
to show to the satisfaction of the mem
4 bers of the city council that practically
Il. all of the accusations contained in the
.oSeport were untrue. The new account
,tsants who made thoro examination of
the city's affairs filed an exhaustive
report some months ago in which Mr.
Wichersk was cleared OF any dishonest
intent and motive and in which the
small discrepancies they found were
attributed to carelessness and the lack Of
an adequate bookkeeping system and