Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/661

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

TILLEY V. BAVANNAH, FLORIDA & WESTEEN B. 00. 649 �commissioners might be enjoined from prescribing rates of fare and freight over said company's railroad, or in any man- ner enforcing the provisions of the said act of October 14, 1879, and that the said attorney-general might be restrained from instituting any suit of any kind against said railroad Company for the purpose of enforcing the provisions of said act, and for general relief. �Upon the filing of this bill a restraining order was allowed enjoining the defendants as prayed for. Subse^uently, on September 6, 1880, the defendant railroad compauy answered the bill, and on September 18th the railroad commissioners filed a demurrer thereto. �On December 6, 1880, the complainant filed an amend- ment to his bill, in which he averred that, estimating the stock of the defendant company at $2,000,000, and taking into account the mortgage lien subject to which it was bought, and which amounted to $2,710,000, the entire cost of. the railroad and other property was only $14,000 par mile ; that the gross receipts of the Atlantic & Guif Eailroad Company for the last eight years, under a schedule substantially higher than that adopted by the Savannah, Florida & Western, were $983,792; that the average interest charges and expenses of the latter company amount to $867,242, leaving a surplus of only $116,550 applicable to dividends and sinking fund, and that allowing a dividend of 7 per cent, on the stock the net receipts would fall short $23,550 per annum; that the re- ceipts of the defendant railroad company under the schedule promulgated by the railroad commissioners would fail to pay the running expenses, the annual interest on prior liens, sub- ject to which the railroad was sold, by nearly $50,000 per annum, and the said amendment charges that the schedule; promulgated by said commissioners is not reasonable or just. �On December 22, 23, and 24, 1880, the case was heard upon a motion for an injunction, pendente lite, in accordance with the prayer of the bill. Upon this motion the affidavits of John Screven, lately one of the receivers of the Atlantic ôs Gulf Eailroad Company; of W. S. Chisholm, viee-president ; H. S. Haines, general manager, and W. P. Hardee, treasurer» ����