The Promoter Who Built a Town on Paper

In the suit of H.H. Hastings, as receiver of the Security Savings Bank, against Charles Kimball and wife to recover lot 20 in block 8 of the Columbia, on which there is erected a frame dwelling and which it is claimed belongs to the bank, the defendants filed an answer and cross-complaint in the superior court yesterday. The nature of it is the showing up of another of the many wildcat schemes of J.K. Edmiston, the Walla Walla bank wrecker.

The defendants allege that they purchased the property involved in April. They were to pay for it on the installment plan, and the Washington Co-operative Home Company, from whom the purchase was made, entered into many agreements, the majority of which it is alleged it failed to keep.

The company agreed to build one house in Columbia for every three lots sold at an average cost of $700, and further agreed to reserve fifty of the choicest lots of Rainier avenue, the principal thoroughfare in the town, which were to be sold within three years and the proceeds equally divided among the purchasers of the lots and of the houses. Another promise of the company was to donate land to two religious organizations, agreeing to erect suitable church buildings, and to donate sites for school and educational purposes.

The company was organized, the defendants say, for the purpose of building and establishing the town of Columbia on a co-operative plan for the mutual benefit of purchasers of the property. Edmiston was the chief organizer, owner, controller and operator of the Washington Co-operative Home Company. The Security Savings Bank and other parties named as his partners, it is alleged, were merely nominal stockholders. They had no actual interest in the companies of which they appeared to be stockholders. Soon after its organization the co-operative company abandoned its plan of constructing and building up the town of Columbia and transferred the property to the Columbia Home Company for a nominal consideration of $20,000, when in truth both companies were totally insolvent and there was no real consideration made for the transfer. Edmiston, it is alleged, knew of their insolvency and the transfer was made for the purpose, it is claimed, of enabling the co-operative company to avoid the conditions of the agreement made with the defendants. The Columbia Home Company transferred the property to the Security Savings Bank, which is referred to in the answer as a corporation which has been 'insolvent since its organization.' The bank did not pay anything of value for the transfer and took the property subject to the rights of the defendants.

The co-operative company and its successor have failed to carry out the terms of the agreement. Only a few houses were erected, and consequently there were no demands by churches and educational institutions for sites. The lots on Rainier avenue were never sold, nor the proceeds divided among the property owners of Columbia. In February, 1894, Edmiston, who held the title to the defendants' property, covered it with a $5,000 mortgage in favor of W.H. Hull, and a deed has been executed by the co-operative company to E.O. Graves to the property, which casts a cloud on the title of the defendants.

The defendants say they have paid $400 on their property and refuse to make further payments because all of the companies are insolvent and unable to pay the Hull mortgage, and because a deed to the property was executed to Graves.

They claim to have been injured in the sum of $1,296 and claim that sum as a counter claim against any demand that the Washington Co-operative Home Company or the Security Bank may have against them.

They further pray that the Washington Co-operative Home Company and the Security Savings Bank be compelled to pay into the court a sum sufficient to pay off the Hull mortgage, and that the plaintiffs be compelled to execute them a deed of the property.