The Captain, the Cook and the Hidden Boats
After a Tacoma court ordered Henry Plitz to pay damages for assaulting his cook, the captain sold his fleet to a brother-in-law. A federal commissioner now wants to know if the whole thing was a sham.
Capt. Henry Plitz will not be able to sail with his schooner, Robert Searles, of which he has become master after the lapse of a year, for he must await the decision of Judge Hanford on the question whether he shall be admitted to bail on the charge of fraudulently transferring his property to avoid execution on a judgment. The case has been in hearing before Commissioner Emery and brought out an interesting story.
On April 13, 1900, when Capt. Plitz was master of the schooner Robert Searles, he assaulted the cook of the boat, James E. Padmore. A suit was immediately brought against him for damages, and in the following August judgment was obtained against him at Tacoma for $1,500. Immediately after the assault Capt. Plitz sailed to San Francisco, where he executed a bill of sale for all his interests in the schooner Robert Searles, schooner Excelsior and barkentine Charles F. Crocker to a man named Cook, a tinsmith in San Francisco. This man Cook within a year from that time transferred his interests in the boats to Ralph Mulder, a farmer in the East and a brother-in-law of Capt. Plitz, who now holds the interests of record in these boats.
The judgments could not be collected against Plitz, and recently the plaintiff employed Brady, Gay & McBride to take steps to collect the judgment. When the captain came into Port Gamble ten days ago an order for supplemental proceedings was obtained, and also an order of arrest requiring him not to go beyond the jurisdiction of the United States court in this state, and that he would appear and answer in these proceedings.
The case came up before United States Commissioner Emery and the facts previously stated were developed. The contention on the part of the plaintiff is that all the transfers were fraudulent and made to avoid paying the judgment, and that Plitz still retains his interests in the boats and that Mulder holds the title in trust.
Commissioner Emery has granted a continuance to allow the defense time to introduce further evidence. The defendant has moved to be dismissed from further arrest, which was denied, whereupon, on motion of the defense, the court made certain findings. On these findings the case has been taken to Judge Hanford at Spokane for a decision. The only question for Judge Hanford to decide at present is whether the defendant shall be required to give bail for his appearance until the final termination of the action.
“The contention on the part of the plaintiff is that all the transfers were fraudulent and made to avoid paying the judgment, and that Plitz still retains his interests in the boats and that Mulder holds the title in trust.”
The case has the shape of a modern wage-and-abuse claim: a worker wins a judgment, then the employer hides assets behind relatives and shell transfers. That the cook was a Black crewman on a coastal schooner also reminds us whose labor was most vulnerable—and how hard it could be to collect even after a court victory.
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