A High-Stakes Legal Battle Over Character and Credit
A bitter defamation suit against a bank and its officers ends in a settlement after years of legal wrangling.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The suit for $100,000 instituted by T. J. Nolton, late of Port Townsend and now of Seattle, against the Port Townsend National Bank, W. F. Ewing, L. H. Pontius of Ballard, and F. M. Wade of Tacoma, for defamation of character was compromised today. The complainant received $1,000 in cash and had his note amounting to $10,000, which was held by the bank, cancelled. About two years ago, while Nolton was in Mexico arranging for the development of some mining property, Ewing swore to a complaint and caused a warrant to be issued charging him with obtaining $2,750 under false pretenses. Nolton had a note in the bank for that amount and gave the cashier a draft on a Los Angeles capitalist in payment. The draft was dishonored and Ewing caused a warrant to issue. Nolton came back voluntarily, stood trial, was acquitted, and then he brought suit against the bank and its officers. On the first trial he was awarded $20,000, which was set aside and a new trial ordered.
“Nolton came back voluntarily, stood trial, was acquitted and then he brought suit against the bank and its officers.”
Defamation suits against financial institutions remain a complex part of the legal landscape in Seattle. While the scale of the original claim here seems astronomical for 1893, the underlying struggle—a citizen caught between bank debt and the reputation-destroying power of a criminal charge—resonates deeply with modern concerns about corporate power and civic justice.
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