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VOL. 8DAY’S AFFIDAVIT CHARGES FRAUDIn Mabin-Hotclikiss Land TransactionsA SENSATION SPRUNG'By'Affidavit of -John B. Day, Which Involves Pitmiinent Attorneys and Others—Larg-e. Suits aud Commissioner’s Sale Alleged to Have Been Frandient-—Lands in This Section.Charleston, W. Va., Jan. 26.— Arthur English, a lawyer of New York .and Washington, filed in the United States circuit court yesterday an order granted by Judge Dayton, directing that the __Western.EocahontBS corporation Bhow cause on March 5th, why a decree entered on September 26, 1906, against Abram Aeord and some other seventy defendants, should not be set aside and why all the proceedings in law and equity in that case should not be dismissed. .This case is the celebrated one arising out of a question of title for valuable coal and timber lands -in the counties of Raleigh and Wyoming known as the Maberi-Hotchkiss tract. The order was granted by Judge. Dayton on affidavit of John B. Day, of Wyoming county, which contains sensational charges against prominent, attorneys and others. The affidavit is very lengthy, covering 22 pages of . typewritten and deafs with the case from the beginning to the end. The tract of iand over which this trou bie is pending is situated in Wyoming and Raleigh coun lies, and contains 64,-781 acres. Seams of coal underlie the land ranging from two to twelve feet in thickness and said to be the finest coke and steam coal in America. The land is also covered with great forests of poplar, black and white oak, that will cut from 2,000 to 3,000 feet to the tree.The affidavit alleges that John Dubois and others acquired the land in 1868 —from John-West and thac-on—May 8, 1889, John C. Maben, of New York, anil Jed Hotchkiss, of Staunton, Virginia, acquired the land, lc alleges that Maben and Hotchkiss were trustees under a secret trust, agreement dated May 3, 1889, for John C. Maben, W. Y. Mortimer, John McAnery and Wm. II. Gosid-by, of New York; and J. H. Bramwcll, of West Virginia; and Jed Hotchkiss, D. B. Strauss, H. M. Bell, R, H. Catlett and M. Erskine Miller, of Virginia. This secret trust agreement provided that the successors to the trustees or either of them should be selected by the parties of the agreement. At tEe time of the transfer portions of the land were occupied by about one hundred families, maiiy of whom, it is alleged, had been in possession of the land from ten to thirty years.In April, 1902, the affidavit avers, -that Maben entered into a contract to sell 28,000 acres of the tract to J. O. Brown, of Pittsburg. The Trana Plat Top Coal Land Association, of Philadelphia, claimed 57,000 acres of the Maben Hotchkiss tract, but deeded it to Maben and Hotchkiss. .The affidavit charges that the coal land association Dubois and associates, Bell and Colton, trustees, and Maben and Hotchkiss had for years been attempting by deceit, fraud, intimidation and oppression to take from the settlers, the- land they possessed in the tract of 28,000 acres.It further alleges that seeing the determined attitude of those in possession to defend their rights, John C. Maben conceived the idea of fraudulently depriving the tenants of their rights under form of- law and by means of legal procedure and in porsuance of his pur-pose, Maben brought a fictilous 'and fraudulent action in the circuit court of Raleigh county under the pretended object of having another trustee appointed in place of Hotchkiss, who had died, and confirm the sale to Brown. The affidavit charges that suit was brought to intimidate, deceive and defraud those in possession who had no notice Of the suit. Under the decree H, M. Bell was appointed truBtee and the sale to Brown confirmed.The affidavit further alleges that in 1903, Maben and Bell, the new trustee appointed under the alleged fictitious suit, coveyed to the Western Pocahotas Coal and Lumber Company, of West Virginia, a company with a capital of $2,000,000 and of which Joeeph U.Crawford waa president, the land InContinued on page S.
Newspaper Details
Raleigh Herald
Beckley, West Virginia, US
Thu, Jan 31, 1907
Page 5
Full Page
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USA 20 Apr 2025
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