Ballard's Electric Company Sold for $1,210—Franchise and All
A receivership sale handed the Ballard Electric Light Company's property and franchise to a mortgagee, while the company's subscription stockholders were written off as 'wholly irresponsible.'
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.
J. M. Boyd, receiver of the Ballard Electric Light Company, filed his final report yesterday in the case of David M. McMullen against the company. The receiver says that, in pursuance of two orders of the court made last April whereby all the property of the Ballard Electric Light Company, including its franchise, was ordered to be sold at public auction, he sold the property to George F. Gund, the mortgagee, for $1,210.24, the amount of his judgment lien with interest. The costs of the sale were $15.
The claims allowed by the receiver included taxes, accounts due the General Electric Company of New York, and assigned accounts, totaling $1,171.40. The balance due the receiver for time and expenses was $231.27.
The total amount of the capital stock of the company was $15,000. The receiver reported that the owners of the subscription stock were wholly irresponsible and the money uncollectible.
The receiver prays for approval of his report, the allowance of his expenses and balance due, the confirmation of the sale and his final discharge from all responsibility.
“The owners of the subscription stock, the receiver says, are wholly irresponsible and the money uncollectible.”
Small utilities once lit separate towns; today the fight is over who controls the grid and what a franchise is worth. Ballard's little electric company is a reminder that consolidation and insolvency are old Puget Sound stories.
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