The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1918-05-03
Witnesses In the Culver Case
Took Stand Today
ACTION IN LOCAL COURT
Suit Is Brought Against Number
OF Mankat0 Parties BY
Idaho Plaintiff
From SATURDAYS Daily.

From Saturdays Daily.
Quite a number of we'll known and
prominent people of Mankato were in
volved in a law suit, the trial of
which was started before Judge W. l..
Comstock of the district court yester-
day afternoon. 1t was a suit to de-
termine the liability of the stockhold-
ers of the Culver Mining company. 1t
ment, if the plaintiffs should be sue
cessful, that a considerable number of
other claims would come. 1t was
therefore a case in which all took a
very deep interest.
The title of the case was: Carrie
Cookson, Homer Mclean and A. P.
Hutton VS. f. L. Hill, George H. Lang,
Carl j. Holman, George r. Curran,
George Wiedenmann, William A.
Beach, Gertrude Beach, Albert Kratch,
C. J. McBeth, Jessie L. McBeth, S. E.
Forest, ]. e. Keefe, ]. ]. Allen, Franc
es M. Allen, Harry H. Hill, Kenneth
Mackenzie, George H. Gearey, Otto
Lille, Mrs. e. L. Halves, G. J. Guth,
Albert Bierbauer, Rudolph Bierbauer,
John T. Falkler, A. P. Paulson, c. J.
Northrup, G. A. Dahl, Alma Dahl, Mrs.
Josephine Pay, c. P. Peterson, A. H.
Messer, ]. H. Thro and Lydia Nc
Cluskey.
Conducted Boarding House.
The plaintiff, Carrie Cookson, al
leges that on or about the 14th day
of June, 1911, in Shoshone county,
Idaho, the Culver Mining Company
Limited. hired her to conduct and
carry on a boardin ghouse on it's min
ing premises to furnish board and
meals to the employees of the COM
pany; that the company agreed that
it would pay to the plaintiff one dol
lar per day for each employee to whom
the plaintiff furnished board and
meals; that the plaintiff furnished
board worth $5,S52 at that rate, and
that the company paid $2,837S9; that
the plaintiff brought suit against the
company in the district court of Sho-
shcne county, Idaho, and obtained
judgment for $3,015.11 with interest at
seven per cent; that no part of the
Judgment has been paid by the COM
pany; that the defendants are stock
holders in the corporation; that each
share was of the par value of one dol
lar and that each defendant brought
his stock at four cents share: that
under the laws of Idaho each stock
holder is liable for the debts of the
corporation to the amount of the diff
ference between the parvalue of a
share of stock and the amount actu-
ally paid for it; that the corporation
is insolvent and unable to meet it's
debts; and that the action is brought
in behalf of all the creditors.
List of Shares.
The complaint gives a list of the
shares held by each stakeholder. Ac-
cording to this list and the other al
Legations of the plaintiff, some of the
stockholders would be liable for many
thousands of dollars, and one for
nearly half a million, if the debts
should run high enough to cause such
a demand.
Homer Mclean alleges in his COM
plant that he sued the company in
the district court of Shoshone county
Idaho, and obtained Judgment for
wages, his own and claims that had
been assigned to him, for S67S.31. and
that no part of the judgment has been
satisfied.
A. T. Hutton alleges that he OBJ
tanned Judgment against the company
IN the same court for the sum of
Sooo.42, for claims of his own for
powder, coal, fuse and labor, and 9th
ef claims assigned to him. and M
part OF the judgment has been paid
Many Witnesses Heard.
UP to noon today the plaintiffs at
torneys had not rested. They called
, most OF the defendants to the stand
Almost with exception, the defendants
made sweeping denials of owning any
! stock in the company at all. One who
dld admit owning 5000 shares. J. r.
keefe, real estate man of Mime
apOlls, neutralized the value of this
admission to the plaintiffs by saving
that it had cost him $7,34O76. An
other admitted owning 100 shares
which was far less than the complaint
/, alleged that he owned. The plain
tlffs' attorneys seemed to fail to draw
anything out of the testimony of the
defendants that would benefit the
, plaintiffs size.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs were
Patrick ]. Ryan of st. Paul and J. H
| Nixon of Wallace, Idaho. ATTORNEYS
for the defense were S. b. Wilson OF
| Mankato and Charles w. La Du of
Minneapolis.
1t was the expectation that as soon
as the plaintiffs attorneys rested, a
motion would be made on the side of
the defense to throw the case out of
court. 1t was thought that if this mo-
ton should be granted, the suit would
reach the supreme court.