The Merchant, the Night Transfer and the Missing Man

The Rumpf case was brought before Judge Langley in the superior court today. Emmons & Emmons, representing eighteen creditors of the absconder, will file a petition in intervention, and it is also understood that an effort will be made to have the court rescind the order granting Basye & Co. permission to sue Arthur Griffin, receiver of the Richmond Palace at 620 Second Street. A schedule of the claims shows them to amount to nearly $16,560, and the struggle for possession is only just begun.

The petition sets out that Rumpf, with intent to defraud and deceive the petitioners, on July 1 represented that he had stock on hand of the value of $10,000; cash, $1,000; notes, fixtures and safe, $1,239; real estate, $6,000; that he had inherited $15,000, which was soon to be received from Germany, and that his total liabilities were only $2,100. Relying upon this statement, and believing him to be an upright and honest man, these creditors sold goods to Rumpf. The itemized claims ran from a few dollars to more than $1,000; the listed total was $13,481.48. There are several other claims amounting to not less than $3,000, bringing Rumpf's known liabilities up to nearly $16,500. All these orders were given and filled the latter part of July and the first few days of August. The one connected with Henry Alkan is remarkable in that it was for twenty-six diamonds of an aggregate value of $1,188.28.

The petition further recites that Rumpf on or about August 2, immediately after the arrival of the goods, entered into a conspiracy with J. K. Basye and Jennie H. Kline, partners as Basye & Co., and with Joseph Mayer, by which he pretended to sell, and actually delivered to Basye & Kline, in the nighttime, large quantities of the goods delivered to him by the petitioners. It charges that Basye & Kline, with knowledge of all the facts and with intent to assist Rumpf in his fraudulent designs and with intent to cheat and defraud the petitioners and others, pretended to buy large quantities of the goods and actually received large quantities of them from Rumpf in the nighttime, together with the fixtures and safe, and now claims them.

Another paragraph follows, covering the alleged transfer of Rumpf's Lake Washington ranch to Mayer. It states that Rumpf, in furtherance of his fraudulent designs, further conspired with J. K. Basye and Jennie H. Kline and Joseph Mayer, and on August 14 pretended to convey the property in consideration of $1,000.

The petitioners state that they have each rescinded the sale of goods to Rumpf, and pray that they recover the respective portions belonging to them now in the receiver's hands, and in the event only a portion can be recovered that they each have judgment against Rumpf. They further ask that the pretended sale of goods to Basye & Kline, and of real estate to Mayer, be declared fraudulent and void, and that all the assets of Rumpf be sold under the order of the court and the proceeds applied ratably among the petitioners as their rights may appear.

Since the receiver was appointed, nearly the entire amount of the goods transferred to Basye & Co. has been returned to the store, and the latter, in accordance with permission previously granted, yesterday commenced an action against Griffin as receiver. They allege that the receiver has wrongfully taken possession of their goods and now withholds them, and has by that act damaged them in $5,000. They sue for possession, damages and costs. An exhibit listing the stock and showing it to be worth $2,000 was also filed. The bond has not yet been put in the hands of the county clerk.

The sheriff's return on the writ of attachment sworn to by William Harris to collect his debt of $1,490 from Rumpf & Mayer, just before the missing man left the city, was also filed in court yesterday.