The Ann Arbor Water Co.

(Froni Tueaday'i lulv Times.) The troubles of the Ann Arbor Water Co. culminated yesterday in the appointment of Dr. A. K. Hale as receiver of the company. The bilí asking for a receiver was flled by Herman Hutzel as stockholder and creditor and is not at all baekward in statements reg-arding Mr. Hamilton. The allegations made in the bilí are quite sensationul, although the facts have been known for sorae time by a j number of people. The bill States the company was organized April 9, 1885, witli a capital stock of $50,000 which has been increased to $100,000, all of which excepting .$2,500 has been duly subscribed and paid for. The company has 1,400 water takers in addition to the j fire protection afforded to the city of Ann Arbor. The gross income of the company is over $24,000 and the expenses about $6,000 annually First mortgage bonds to the amount of $150,000 bearing six per cent interest were issued and sold by the company. On May 6, 1891, the board of directors authorized the issue of $40,000 six per cent second mortgage bonds, of whieh $12,000 have been sold at p:ir. The total amount expended by the Corporation in the purchase of, real estáte, purchase of engines, pumps, machinery, etc:, from the organization to the present time as shown by the books is $260,000. When the company was organized Alexander W. Hamilton was elected a director and about the third day of May, 1887, the directors elected Hamilton president and he was appointed superintendent in which positions he confinued until August 20, 1893, and during which time he had the entire control and management of the Corporation. On the flfth day of September, 1893, nis ' resignation was accepted and Dr. A. Kent Hale, one of the directors of the company was elected president. Alexander W. Hamilton is charged with deliberately and intentionally injuring and defrauding the Corporation, sume of wich acts are as follows: "That in the year 1886 said Hamilton purchased from William Birnie and Charles L. Goodhue, two of the original incorporators of said Corporation some $12,000 of the stock and that $6,000 of the money paid for the stock was obtained by the said Hamilton upon promissory notes signed by him as president of said Corporation and which he represented to be the notes and obligations of said Corporation which notes he negotiated to third parties whose names are unknown to your orator, and thereby obtained from them the $6,000 in money paid for said stock to said Birnie and Goodhue as aforesaid that said notes have from time to time been renewed and the indebtedness shifted and changed, but that in truth and in fact no part of it has ever been paid and discharged and the same is now outstanding and constitutes a part of the floating indebtedness of said corporation of $50,000 hereinafter mentioned." Hamilton subsequently purchased about $10,000 of stock of the company which was also paid for by promissory notes of the company and which is part of the indebtedness of the company. "That, falsely, pretending that such stock belonged to himself, safd Hamilton in 1889 and 1890 issued to himself stock dividends to tht amount of $6,800." Ir. addition to the $16,000 it is charged that Hamilton "has fraudulently negotiated promissory notes lj$ned by him as president of said Corporation, and represented by him to be Corporation paper and has converted to his own use the entire proceeds of the same amounting in the aggregate to over $11.000 and that the aggregate of the indebtedness of said Hamilton to said Corporation through said fraudulent transactions amounted, on the flrst day of September, 1893, to over $27,000, that the making of such paper by said Hamilton was not authorized by the directors of said corporation, was unknown to such directors or either of them and was wholly without authority; that said Hamilton has fraudulently concealed from said Corporation all knowledge of his said indebtedness to said Corporation, or that he had made and issued promissory notes of the Corporation to cover the same; that in January last, in in annual report made to the j ;ion, he reported offlcially that the i loatlng indebtedness of said corporación amounted to $23,339.24, when in xuth and in fact such indebtedness, if ;he said notes fraudulently issued as aforesaid coarstitute a part thereof, imounted to over $50,000." It is charged that all the stock held ■y Hamilton has been hypothecated with various banks and private persons to secure his private indebtedness." It is also charged that Hamilton fraudulemly hypothecated with the First National Bank of Ann Arbor 51,000 second mortgage bonds to secure his private indebtedness, also with Mr. Swathel, of Ann Arbor, $1,000, Ann Arbor Savings Bank $1,000, and with other unknown parties $2,500. The bill charges Hamilton with having embezzled the sum of $2,400 "as appears from a statement in writing made by Hamilton to the directors of I said coruoration." Hamilton is charged with fraudulently crediting various sons indebted to the company to whom j he was personally indebted. Also that the books of the company were kept in such a manner that it is exceedingly difflcult if not impossible to ascertain the true amounts received and expended. That he allowed the machinery, pumps and engines to get out of repair and has provided the city Of Ann Arbor with such an inadequate supply oï wal er that the Corporation is seriously lnjured, "so that the capital stock of said Corporation which was supposed to be worth par, and in some cases has been sold at a premium and now would be worth par had it not been for the said frauds, peculations and mismanagement of said Hamilton, has no market value." The value of the franchise, real estáte and personal property of the company is estimated to be $300,000, bonded indebtedness $162,000 and a floating debt mUde up as before stated of $50,000 and part of which is not a just claim against the company.