The Mena weekly star., 1920-05-20
INTO COURT TO SETTLE
 OIL LEASE DIFFERENcEo
c. 3. CcnnalIy and Others Charge Misrepresentation and Failure to
 Conform to Agreement.


 i C. 3. ConnalIy and Others Charge Misrepresentation and Failure to
 Conform to Agreement.
 Charges that false, fraudulent and untrue representations were made to landowners to secure oil leases, are made in a suit which was filed on Wednesday in the Circuit court. l The plaintiffs are C. B. Connally well known Rocky merchant, and 54 landowners residing in that vicinity The suit is directed against J. A. Thornton, w. E. Flick and E. B. Wal lace. MT. Connally and others were ln Mena Tuesday and arranged with AL ] ley & Norwood to bring the suit, the declaration of which was filed late Wednesday with Circuit Clerk w. l.. l Parker.
 In their statement of facts the plaintiffs call attention to their grant ] ing leases on their lands for the pur- pose of drilling for oil, most of the leases being made out in January. The leases were taken by Mrs. G. R. Will son, and the plaintiffs allege that a verbal promise was made that drill- ing was to start within ninety days or the lease was to become void. The leases themselves contain no such 90- day limit, but in most cases fix the time limit at 24 months from date.
 J. A. Thornton was named as trus- tee to hold the leases pending the ac- tual starting of drilling operations. The compliments state the leases were never delivered to Trustee Thornton, but were turned over to Messrs. Flick and Wallace.
 Because the verbal promise of drill ing within 90 days has not been car ried out, the plaintiffs ask the court to cancel the leases, charging that "the statements under which such leases were procured were false, fraudulent and untrue; that drilling has not started; that the trustee new CT accepted and plaintiffs ask that the leases be turned into the court and cancelled" 99
 Mrs. Wilson Makes Statement. To The Star:
 In an article in Thursdays issue of this paper my name is mentioned in connection with a lawsuit filed against J. A. Thornton. w. K, Flick and K. B. Wallace, in which certain farmers claim false statements were made to secure leases on their lands to drill fo roil. Being the one men, toned as taking those leases, in order to clear myself from differences that false statements were made by me, wish to make this statement:
 was hired to go to the farmers west of Mena to secure 10000 acres in leases, to turn to a drilling company, which on January 2, made proposi- tion to myself, J. A. Thornton, and others that if they could get 10000 acres west of Mena they would come in here and start drilling within 90 days. l made this statement to the farmers, and it was true, and Dr. Davis, who made the proposition is in Mena and will verify this state ment. was instructed to take the leases in J. A. Thornton's name, as Trustee, and that he would hold them and if no drilling was commenced in 90 days, these leases would be re- turned to the farmers. As soon as we had secured the 10000 acres to turn
 
 to the drilling company, 1 stopt talk ing leases. l took my leases to Mir. Thornton's office, made my report and laid them on his desk, as I thought he was the proper one to hold them. But w. E. Flick, president of the Mena Leasing Association, and E. B. Wallace, secretary, took the leases and they, with others, Kept the leases and all power out of MT. Thornton's hands, and proceeded to take full control of the situation. They refused to turn the leases over to Dr. Davis unless he would give them 160 acres offset joining his drilling location, supposed ly to hold as speculation, and other unreasonable demands. Dr. Davis ig- nored their right to handle the propo- sition and insisted that he would deal with Mir. Thornton, the farmers trustee. When I learned from the farmers that they had hired other parties to continue leasing, and were securing many thousands of acres to hold for speculation, I withdrew my interest and had no more to do with them, and told the farmers to come in and demand their leases out of their possession and suggested to the farm CTS to allow their agent, J. A. Thorn ton, to transfer 10000 acres in leases over to Dr. Davis and let him go to work as this enterprise means too much to Polk county to be blocked by ] few members of a Mena Leasing Association.
 Mrs. George R. Wilson.