Weekly journal-miner., 1919-01-15
ARIZ. BANKERS DEFENDANTS IN
 LIBEL ACTION
MINNESOTA MAN CLAIMS THAT HE WAS MALIGNED BY PUBLICATION OF AL GED DEFAMATORY LETTER IN JOURNAL.


 defendants, all members of the Ari- zona Bankers association, with an aggregate wealth of over S50000,- GOO, are asked to contribute the sum of Sl,0O0,000 to one Samuel C. Pan dolfo. a resident of the state of Min nesota, president of the Pan Motor Company, of St. Cloud, Minnesota, for an alleged libel said to have been published by the association, follow ing a recent meeting, in a pamphlet of their proceedings. Because of se- rious injury, he alleges, to his busi- ness reputation among those with whom he associates in several state mentioned, Pandolfo approXimates tne actual damages at $500,OO0 and punitive damages in an equal sum. In the complaint filed yesterday with Clerk Nat T. Mckee of the United States court, each of the six ty-three banks is named as de- fendant and the matter that is claim ed to be libelous is contained in a letter. said to have been addressed to the secretaries of the Arizona and New Mexico association of bankers. The letter as recited in the complaint, reads:
 Alleged Libelous Letter. MORRIS GOLDWATER, Secre-
 tary Arizona Bankers AssOcia-
 ton, and
 ]. C. CHRISTENSEN, Secretary
 New Mexico Bankers Associa-
 ton:
 "Gentlemen: You have operating in Arizona and New Mexico one MT. s. C. Pandolfo, who recently moved from San Antonio and I am writing you gentlemen with reference to this man Pandolfo, as he is double-bar- reled crook. The Commissioner ot Insurance in Texas revoked his h. cense outright and refused him the privilege of writing insurance in Texas on account of him continuous ly violating the law. Our Banking Commissioner forbade state banks from buying paper from this fellow or in any manner taking obligations in which he was interested.
 He has crooked more people and in. more ways than most any fellow we have ever had in this part of the country in a long time. I believe 1t is only just to the bankers of your state that you tip them off to this fellow. If you do not ne IS certain ly going to hang lot of them be- fore he is found out. He is one ot inc crookedest white men have ever seen. His present address, l understand. is at Tucumcari, and he is 5promoting some kind of an auto mobile insurance company, the re- suits of which that he will be getting lot of money and the company will be broke about the time It snail begin its operations.
 "Yours very truly,
 "President."
 No other signature than the word "President' is attached to the letter, said to nave been read before the meeting bv Secretary Goldwater; no information regarding the identity of the author of the letter is disclosed in the lengthy complaint.
 Read to Members.
 Following the question of the let ter in the complaint, statement IS given, said to be also part of the proceedings, made by Secretary Goldwatcr, when he had finished the letter. The statement follows:
 "It is such a letter that I did not care to put it in print and send 1t out as warning, as I did not know but what I might be held up and ibeled for something, so l thought l would read it here to you all"
 The cause of action, as cited in the complaint, rests upon the publication in May. 1918, of Volume 10, Pro- ceedings of Arizona Bankers Asso- citation. The complaint was filed by Alexander & Christy of Phoenix, the 1ame of the firm Jones, Hooker, Sullivan and Angert of St. Louis also being attached.
 This one of the largest damage suits for libel ever filed in this fed eral district and, in many respects, one of the most unique. The extent of the injury to the plaintiff, as is claimed, covering the states of Ari- zona, Texas, New Mexico, Califor- mia, Illinois, and other states, be- cause of the liberal distribution of the proceedings of the meeting, is widespread, while the boldness of the alleged libel provides the un- usual feature of the action.