Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 231, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1919 — OLIVER LOSES; FARMS CO. WINS [ARTICLE]

OLIVER LOSES; FARMS CO. WINS

JUDGE HANLEY DENIES APPLICATION FOR APPOINT. MENT OF RECEIVER. In the case in which the title and right of possession of the Ed Oliver lands was at issue, the circuit court has been engaged in an effort to unravel the tangle foT nearly a week. At the conclusion of the evidence on Tuesday the court rendered a decision in favor of the Jasper County Farms company, which now holds the title to the land comprising about 2,200 acres and including all the former holdings of Mr. Oliver. The case was originally instituted by A. R. Jones, of Chicago, who sought to enforce a contract made with Oliver in 1917, under which Jones undertook to finance the proposition and assume the management of the property. The Jones complaint asked that the deeds by which, Oliver parted with the legal title be set aside and that the land be made subject to his claim for services. Oliver filed a cross-complaint in which he made the Central Bond and Mortgage company, Eugene L. Garey and Jasper County Farms company parties arid asked that a receiver be. appointed to take charge of the real estate and personal property; f that the deeds to Garey and from Garey to the farms company he set aside on the ground of fraud and that a contract under which Garey assumed the management of the property be cancelled. It was charged that there ha# been gross waste and mismanagement of the lands and other property; that only a small portion of the land had been put in cultivation and that. crops were planted too late to mature; that muck fires had carelessly 'been permitted to burn over laTge tracts and that over $30,000 had been wasted in useless

experiments. On the question' as to the appointment of a receiver the court found for the farms company and denied the application. The main question as to setting aside the deeds and the determination of the Jones interests will be heard in November. Mr. Oliver claims that he was to have one-fourth of the stock in the Jasper County Farms company, which was to be capitalized at $200,000. But, he alleges, that after the organization of the company and the conveyance of the land to them $550,000 of stock was issued and he was given only $60,000 of same. The mortgages and other claims against the property amount to approximately $250,000, but with the recent advance in values- of farm lands and the improvement in the drainage system which will result from the completion of the Oliver ditch, the lands will probably sell for more than double the amount of the claims. Should the Ryan ditch toe constructed there are <five or siathundred acres on the east indc of unis land, the value of which can hardly be placed too high.