Omaha daily bee., 1919-03-06
FOR BIG HOTEL
COMPANY ASKED
Action Filed in District Court
Here Against North Ameri-
can Concern; lAIIege Af-
fairs Are MiSmanaged.

fairs Are MiSmanaged.
A petition asking a receivership
for the North American Hotel COM
pany was filed yesterday in district
court by Henry c. Leseberg and
Ellsworth A. Bullock. The former
is the owner Of 10 shares and the
latter of 80 shares of the preferred
stock in the company.
They charge that the affairs OF the
company have been mismanaged to
the benefit of the Bankers Realty
Investment company and the Black
stone Holding company.
These two corporations are also
included among the defendants nam
ed, as are also Peter Elvad, presi-
dent; Frederick ]. Wearne, vice
president; Fred c. Haver, secretary;
Albert Krug, F. W. Fitzpatrick and
Isador Ziegler, directors OF the
Bankers Realty Investment com
pany Also included are Edward
w. Exley president; Arthur w.
Gross, vice PRESIDENT; liver L. Essen,
secretary; Jessie Newton and Glenn
Kimball, directors OF the North
American Hotel company.
Accounting is Asked.
An accounting is asked of the
transactions between the North
American Hotel company and the
other two corporations and payment
is asked by the other two corpora
tions to the North American Hotel
company of any funds discovered
to have been wrongfully received or
converted
An accounting is also asked be-
tween the officers of the North
American Hotel company and the
officers of the Bankers Realty In
vestment company.
The petition states that the North
American Hotel company has $780,
600 Of common stock and S3,000000
of preferred stock and that the
Bankers Realty Investment COM
pany has 100000 of common stock
and 100000 preferred stock. The
preferred stock in both corporations
has no voting rights, it is said.
Say Elected Himself Head.
The petition alleges that Peter
ElYad has owned a majority of the
common stock in all three corpora
tions mentioned and by this means
has elected himself president and
director and appointed all other d.
rectors and officers. 1t is alleged that
he and the officers elected by him
have combined together to control
and manipulate the business in their
own interests and to the disadvan-
tage Of the preferred stockholders
of the North American Hotel COM
pany.
One of the acts alleged to have
been committed in misusing the as
sets Of the North American Hotel
company is the sale Of the Black
stone hotel property, Thirty-sixth
and Farnam streets, to the North
American Hotel company in De-
cember, 1917, for $997, 800. The pc
tition charges that this was at
least $650,000 in excess of its value"
and that the hotel has been oper-
ated at loss since that 7time.
Allege Company Insolyent.
The petition states that the de-
PENDANTS disposed of the funds of
the North American Hotel company
to such an extent that it is now in
solvent and has large amount of
indebtedness. The company, it is
stated, constructed a hotel al Hart
ington, Neby costing 100000, and
has Other hotels in various parts of
Nebraska in various stages Of COM
pletion.
1t is charged that the contracts
in all cases were let to the Bankers
Realty Investment company with
out asking for other bids and that
the North American Hotel company
was thus compelled to pay prices
much too high The $3,000000 pro-
duced by the sale of the preferred
stock, it is stated, would have been
enough to complete all the hotels
if properly spent
The State Railway commission, it
is stated, has refused to allow the
stock of the North American Hotel
company to continue to be sold.
The attorneys for the plaintiffs
are Stewart & Stewart of Lincoln
and Stout, Rose & Wells of Omaha.
Similar to Other Suit.
Representatives of the defendants
when asked about the suit yester-
day declared they did not care tc
enter into a lengthy discussion OF
the case inasmuch as the suit was
merely a 're-hash" of one filed last
Saturday at Lincoln with the addi-
ton of one plaintiff. AT that time
Peter Elvad, president of the Bank
ers' Realty Investment company
authorized the following statement:
This is nothing more or less than
the work of a pealous, envious
wouid-be rival It has been tried
before, and we have been aware at
various times of covert attempts to
injure the company by means Of
SANDER and Misrepresentation
1T am thankful to be able to say
with assurance that the allegations
made are unwarranted, utterly mis-