The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-01
SUIT WILL TEST EXCHANGE P0NE: R
Recent Piggly WiggIy Deal ing In Wall Street To
 Be Aired In Court

NEW YORK, Oct. 31.-A bill of complaint seeking $100,O0O damages from the New York Stock Exchange and affiliated firms, as a result of the exchanges action following the | "corner" Ln March 20 of the stock of Piggly Wiggly Stores Qnc). has been prepared by the law firm of
 Ewing, Alley and Voorhees, on behalf
 of Frank c. Milton and Walter l.. Smith of Memphis. Tenn. Papers in the suit are being served on the de- fendants and will soon be filed at supreme court at Minneola, N. Y., the
 attorneys stated today.
 While counsel for the plaintiffs asked that it be made clear that
 Clarence Saunders, former president
 Of the Piggly Wiggly company, who engineered the "corner," was not in- volved in any way in the present ac-
 tion, no secret was made of the fact
 that the proposed suit would be Tn
 the form of test action to deter
 mine the legal right of the New York Stock exchange to postpone the date
 of delivery Of stock which had been sold short"
 Ordinarily deliveries of stock sold on one day must be made by 2:15 o'clock the following afternoon. The plaintiffs in the present action VIII charge that the stock exchange, the clearing corporation and the indIVld- ual members of exchange commit tees entered into a conspiracy to protect members who had sold Piggly wiggly stock "short" and were unable to make deliveries ds.
 March 2f the day following suspen-
 sion of the stock by the exchange.
 The plaintiffs aver that they were 1 damaged to the extent of SlOO,eOO by I the failure of three stock exchange | f; I 2-
 cago and Clark, Childs & Go. and
 A. A. Houseman 6 Co.,, botl..of New | Yorl1-to deliver block of 900 | shares of Piggly Wiggly stock on
 March 21, the day following the pur-
 chase of the stock.
 Place Blame On Exchange.
 The complaint will state that the
 plaintiffg bought 500 shares of stock l through the Chicago firm on March | 20; 300 shares being obtained from
 Clark, Childs & Co.,, at s11s and 2oV
 shares from A. A. Houseman X Co. ! IS, but that ruling Of the stock | clearing corporation permitted the
 sellers of the stock. who had sold II
 short, to delay until March 26 Tn
 making actual delivery.
 It will be charged that many members of the New York Stock
 Exchange had sold many shares of l PlgRly N1RGly SlOCh sHOtS iOA NiiN
 nur6ose of depressing it's market
 value" and that the action of the defendants in suspending trading and later pGstponing delivery on con- 1 tracts entered into before the sus- pension was ordered. was illegal, Unauthorized and void.
 Officials of the stock exchange or | the firms named as defendants, oe- | clined to discuss the suit Counsel | for the complainant stated that they Ehad received a letter, however, from l exchange officials, offering to co operate in bringing about a speedy thearing of the case.
 Trading in the common stock or Piggly Wiggly Stores Qnc.). was
 suspended blythe governors of the exchange at the close of business on
 March 20 after the stock had fluc- tuated sensationally throughout the day, Jumping from 72 to l24 and
 then falling back almost as rapidly to
 S2 where it closed 10 points above
 the final quotation of the previous day