The Bemidji daily pioneer., 1914-12-03
Judge G. W. Stanton Finds in Favor
Of N. W. Mcdonald in Suit Against
Mrs. Amber Hamilton Macmillan
SHOWS RIGHT TO HALF MILLION
Vast Amount Involved and Highly
Sensational Nature of Testimony
Given, Attracted Wide Attention

NJ. W. Mcdonald and the Chicago
Ore company against Amber Hamil-
ton Macmillan, J. w. Molyneaux, as
trustee, and other defendants.
The trial of thise case took place
in Grand Rapids and this city last
February and attracted wide atten-
tion because of the large amount in
volved-variously estimated at from
100000 to $500, O,0O0-and the high
ly sensational nature of much of the
testimony.
Amounts to $25, 900.
Mcdonald, then resident of the
city of Duluth, but later of Grand
Rapids, brought the action to can
Gel and have declared void certain
assignment of iron ore royalties in
the BRAY" mine in Itasca county,
which mine was at the time the as
signment was made in December,
1908, and is yet, big producer. The
assignment was for four cents per
ton royalty-about one-third of the
Mcdonald interest-and amounts to
about $4,000 on the quantity of
ore mined and shipped during the
last five seasons. Only $1,000 of
this amount was ever paid to the de-
fendant, Amber Hamilton Macmillan,
the remainder, about $4,000, being
still in the hands of the Republic
Iron & Steel company, pending this
litigation.
A Compromise Settlement.
It appears that the assignment in
Question was made to Mrs. MacMil-
Ian, then Amber Hamilton, in COM
promise settlement of suit brought
by her against Mcdonald in Decem-
Eber, 1908, for the sum Of $250,000,
alleged damages because Of McDon-
AIDS having by false representations
induced her to marry him at Wind
sor, Canada, in May, 1908, and live
with him as his wife several months
thereafter, when, in fact, Mcdonald
was a married man at the time.
Subsequently the action was
brought by Mcdonald to have the
settlement and assignment declared
null and void for the reason that it
was fraudulently and illegally pro-
cured, that he was mentally incom-
petent at the time, and that the wo-
man not only knew at the time of
the pretended marriage that he was
married man, but that she was then
herself married woman
Dispositions From England.
Several weeks were devoted to the
trial of this case and much oral tes-,
timony was submitted, besides many
and voluminous depositions of wit
nesses in London and European cities
and many places in the United
States. Lengthy and laboriously
prepared briefs were subsequently
filed with the court.
The court decision covers nineteen
pages of typewriter manuscript, and
finds, in effect, as conclusion Of law,
that plaintiffs are entitled to decree
determining the assignment to be null
and void and barring the defendants
from any interest in the iron ore
royalties and directing that the
money now accrued and hereafter to
accrue, should be paid to plaintiffs.
Knew of Marriage.
Among other things, the court
finds as facts, that the alleged mar
riage did take place in May, 1908,
and that Amber Hamilton MacMil-
Ian then knew that Mcdonald had a
wife and two children living in Min
nesota; that she was married to Alex
ander Tournay in London, England,
in 1904; that while the wife of Tour
nay, in 1905, she contracted biga-
nous marriage with Thomas Green
wood at Edinburgh, Scotland; and
that thereafter, in 1907, she obtain
ed a fraudulent divorce from Tour
nay at Kansas City, Mo-; that she
was swindling adventures and
black-mailer and woman of much
capacity and cunning and Of an at.
tractive appearance; that, knowing
the financial means and the en-
feebled mental and physical condi-
ton of Mcdonald, she schemed to en-
tang1e him and secure undue infiu-
ence over him and did extort large
sums ef money from him; that by.
threats of arrest and Imprisonment
and exposing him to shame and dis
grace, and by false representations,
she also induced the settlement; that
she continued to pursue and extort
money from Mcdonald after the set
t1ement.
To Be Appealed.
It is probable that the supreme
court will be called upon to review
the findings and conclusions OF the
trial court
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