Creditors Move to Take Over Seattle's Rainier Railway and Light
A receivership fight ends quietly as the Third Street line, Western Mill and electric plant are slated for sale to a new creditor-owned company.
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 petition to have M. F. Backus removed from the position of receiver of the Rainier Power and Railway Company has been dismissed by Judge Hanford owing to an agreement among the parties for the reorganization of the company by the creditors.
The petition for the removal of Mr. Backus as receiver was filed by Louis Denny in November last, and alleged that the road and other business of the company had been mismanaged and that Mr. Backus was incompetent. In the latter part of December Backus filed a reply denying all of the allegations of the petition. On January 2 the petition was dismissed on motion of the attorneys for the petitioner and for Backus.
The reason for the dismissal is that an agreement has been entered into between the petitioner and all of the creditors of the company under which the property is to be sold. A new company is to be made up of the creditors. The sale will take place in ten days. The property to be sold consists of the Third Street line, the Western Mill and the electric light plant.
“A new company is to be made up of the creditors.”
Seattle's early electric and streetcar lines were private monopolies whose failures landed in court. The creditor takeover reads like a precursor to today's fights over who owns and controls public-serving infrastructure.
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