Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1920-01-02
TESTIMONY TAKEN In The
WILDWOOD LAW SUITS

G. w. Myrose, of Atlantic City, of
the firm OF Myrose & Littleton, court
reporters, sat as a Supreme Court com
missioner at Wildwood city hall last
Monday, December Goth, from eleven
O'Clock in the morning to one-thirty in
the afternoon, for the purpose of hear
ing and recording testimony in the
various lawsuits which have been in
stituted against the City of Wild
wood.
Not for a long time has there been
such a throng as pressed into AID &C.
cupied every bit of space in the com-
missioners' rooms to listen to these I'M
usual proceedings.
1t was an innovation to have the
legislative chamber of our municipal
building suddenly converted into a
miniature court room, and there to
have laid bare to view, all the devious
processes of a quasi court trial. Quite
an array of witnesses were on hand to
be examined-some of whom acquitted
themselves creditably, while others did
not fare so we'll under the keen cross
examining of the skilled attorneys
employed in these cases.. The Mayor
and the other two commissioners were
placed upon the stand, as were also the
city clerk, the city solicitor, city tax
collector and the boardwalk engineer.
In addition to these city officials, the
following persons were questioned:
Fred Maginnes, Otto g. Koeneke, e. 3.
Culver, D. F. Hallahan, Michael Gill
more and John T. Byrpe. The taking
of the testimony was not dull by any
means; on the contrary, the examina-
ton was enlivened by many witty sal
lies of the opposing counsel.
The fl st funny thing to occur was
when Attorney Harris asked Fred Ma
ginnes, Of Philadelphia, if he under
stood the English language? Attorney
Cole was quick as a flash to parry this
thrust at the latter's client, by exclaim-
ing that 1t was a difficult language to
understand and that very few people
do really understand it.
Maginnes was the lowest bidder by
81, $50 in the gartage removal proposals
for a period of five years, and is con-
testing the action of the Board of Com
missioners i'll thro wing him down and
awarding the contract to Otto g. Koe-
ueke for a term of three years. The
Mayor testified that he preferred seeing
the contract go to q Wildwood man
rather than to Gan outsider" and CIV
ing this as one reason for a" arding the
contract to MI. Koeneke for the shorter
term on which Koeneke was the lowest
bidder. Lawyer Cole seized upon this
frank admission TO remark that the
Mayor was well-named (his name is
Faux, and the attorney chuckled
gleefully as he said: 81 am beginning
to understand you now"
In the mandamus case, where the
Mayor and Commissioner Ryan are
cited to show cause why they refused
10 defend an action of ejectmeut against
the city, ex-Judge Cole succeeded in
maneuvering the Mayor into a position
where the latter was forced to admit
that he 'didn't care if a judgment by
default were obtained against the city,
in the E 8. Culver ejectment suit.
"Then you don't care-you-a trustee OF
the people"-was the whitening way
in which Judge Cole expressed amaze
ment at this remarkably open avowal
from our head official. Commissioner
Ryan was also asked some difficult
questions along this line of failure to
make a defense in the ejectment suit;
and although he was a trihe more dip
Iomatic than the Mayor, yet his posi-
ton as a 'trustee of the people" didn't
look to be pitched OF any higher level,
after Lawyer Cole got through with
him, than did that of the Mayor, rela-
five to their united stand in refusing
the city a defense in the action referred
TO. Twice when hard pressed to give
satisfactory replies to his questions,
Commissioner Ryan took refuge in the
apologetic statement that he was pot a
lawyer.
"What is an Interior motive ?" asked
Lawyer Harris of John I. Byrne. Mr.
Byrne was inclined at fist to attempt
an wer to this question; but, acting
upon. advice of his counsel, he
refused to make a reply.
The direct testimony of John t.
Byrne was directed hainly to beach
front conditions, showing the tendency
of high tides to flood that portion of
the beach lying along the Second ward.
He referred to the fact that during the
big storm in November last the life
guard building at the foot of Schellen-
ger avenue had been wrecked and
washed away, and nat a similar fate