The Missing Warrants in Tacoma's City Treasury

The sale by J. S. Whitehouse as receiver of the State Savings Bank against George W. Boggs has developed rather a strange condition of affairs in the matter of Boggs having any assets to satisfy the judgment the plaintiff holds against him.

The matter came up again in open court yesterday, the receiver taking such steps as he found necessary to compel Boggs to prove that he is not possessed of money or securities sufficient to liquidate the judgment. The hearing was taken from Department 1 of the superior court into Department 2, and the investigation proceeded before Judge Stallcup.

When the ex-city treasurer was put on the stand he testified that he did not own a dollar of real estate or any collateral, having transferred the former to the Tacoma National Bank to secure it in the sum of $12,500 for which he had been indebted. The mining property he had owned in Siskiyou County, Cal., he stated he had sold to the Elliott Creek Mining Company for $500,000, accepting their note secured by stock of the company to that amount in payment. This note and collateral, he said, he had turned over to the Columbia National Bank to secure the gentlemen of that institution against loss as his bondsmen for $20,000 on the security he furnished when elected to the city treasuryship. His interest in the match factory he had also assigned to the bank to secure a personal indebtedness.

It was also shown that he had turned over to the bank a receipt of Nelson Bennett, dated October, 1893, which receipt, being written in lead pencil and signed by Bennett, is an acknowledgment of the receipt from George W. Boggs of warrants of the amount of $6,187.23, “to be returned,” and the further acknowledgment of the return of all but $6,000 of the same at some later date.

When Judge Stallcup heard this he exclaimed: “Warrants! What kind of warrants?”

“City warrants.”

“What are the numbers?”

“I don't know.”

“Who does the receipt run to—George W. Boggs, or George W. Boggs, city treasurer?”

“George W. Boggs.”

Recently Mr. Bennett was served with a writ of garnishment on behalf of Receiver Whitehouse, asking him to state what money or goods of Boggs' he had in his possession or under his control. Mr. Bennett in his answer stated that he neither owed Mr. Boggs any money nor had any property belonging to Mr. Boggs under his control.

When the bank people were asked about this particular transaction they stated that they had made no demand on Bennett for the money or warrants, and could not tell whether he has the warrants.

However, the greatest discrepancy seems to lie in the statement of Boggs with reference to the transfer of the mining property in Siskiyou County, Cal. On March 28, during the proceedings supplemental to the execution now held by Receiver Whitehouse, Boggs swore that he had sold this same property to Messrs. Armstrong and McDonald, for the Elliott Creek Milling Company, the consideration being not a note for $500,000, but a note for $50,000, which was paid by the purchasers on or about the first of March in a check drawn on the Columbia National Bank for $50,000. He further swore that he paid this check, all of it, into the bank, to liquidate his debts, and that he owed the bank the full amount.

When taxed with this first statement, he said he had been altogether mistaken in what he had sworn to in the first instance, and that the present testimony (that of yesterday) was correct and the other a mistake.

The outcome of the proceedings of yesterday was that the Columbia National Bank agreed to make a statement of their account with Boggs, which should be filed with the court. The bank people were perfectly willing to bring their books into court, or to allow the receiver to examine them; and it was decided that a report from them would be the quickest and most satisfactory manner of determining exactly how the Boggs account stands.

The bank this afternoon made a complete report of its transactions with Mr. Boggs, as directed by the court, showing the details of his business with the institution.