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Wellston Trust Co. Depositors to Get 30 Per Cent of Claim Aggregate of $1,161,758 Includes $240,000 in Grand National Stock. Depositors of the Wellston Trust Company will receive only about 30 per cent of their claims, Chauncey P. Frier, special Deputy State Finance Commissioner, testified yesterday before Circuit Judge Ryan in the suit of R. Emmet O'Malley, State Insurance Company Superintendent, to take over the Continental Life Insurance Company and dissolve its corporation. The insurance concern has in this bank $663,532 of deposits. The aggregate of claims against the trust company Frier placed at $1,161,758, which includes $921,758 of deposits and $240,000 set up as assessment for 2400 shares of Grand National Bank stock the trust company owns. This would be made only if the Grand National is liquidated. The deputy commissioner asserted after an examination of the Wellston Trust assets he had placed true value of its holdings on liquidation at $332,227. This, he said, he "stepped up" $18,000 to give margin for possible underestimation, so that the assets on liquidation according to his computation totaled $350,000. No Value on Mays' Loans. Frier explained in arriving at his estimate what percentage of claims might be realized, he had attached no value to loans of about $195,750 made by the Wellston Trust to Ed Mays and his assoclates. Mays is president of the Continental Life Insurance Company and controls the Wellston Trust. When Theodore Rassieur, counsel for Mays, asked Frier why no value had been given the Mays loans, the deputy commissioner asserted he felt collateral posted was probably of no value. He added, however, he was not very familiar with what collateral had been given for the loans. In revised estimate of available liquid assets, he said should this group of loans be considered as realizable, he would place no more than a 75 per cent face value on them, or $146,000. Under such circumstances total possible liquidation value of the trust company would be $496,000, and about 42 per cent of claims might be available. Little Collected. In "breaking down" his total estimated write-off of nonadmissible assets in the Wellston Trust, Frier declared only $128,887 of the $367,600 loans and discounts carried on the books could be collected. In this item was included the loans of Mays and his group. After this was deducted, Frier said but 75 per cent of the remaining $171,850 could reasonably be allowed. Real estate loans on the books aggregate $30,160, of which he estimated only $24,150 could be realized. He related it is his experience between 60 and 85 per cent can be obtained on sale of property under mortgage, and many of the loans are of this nature. He allowed 80 per cent of this item. Bonds listed on books at $170.300 and with par value of $227,000 he wrote down to $37,000. Stock listed at $295,900, including 2400 shares of Grand National Bank stock sold the company by Mays for $296,000, Grier valued at $10,000. He deducted the entire value set on the bank stock. Frier said book value of the banking building in which the trust company operated was $50,000, but he placed its sale worth at between $10,000 and $15,000. He declared it had been raised on company books from $12,050 to $50,000 in 1931 or 1932.
