Click image to open full size in new tab
Article Text
CENTRAL SAFE DEPOSIT CO. IN TROUBLE. TEMPORARY RECEIVER APPOINTED IN A SUIT TO FORECLOSE A FIRST MORTGAGE-A JUDGMENT FOR DEFAULTED INTEREST. Messrs. Sackett & McQuaid, of No. 154 Nassaust., as attorneys for John H. Downes, have brought a suit against the Central Safe Deposit Company for non-payment of $600 due as Interest on bonds issued by the company and held by Mrs. Downes. These bonds were issued by the company in 1890, and were secured by the personal property of the concern, which has its safe-deposit vaults at Nos. 3 and 5 East Fourteenth-st. The company issued $175,000 of these bonds in $1,000 parcels. Mr. Downes held eleven of them, which were secured by a mortgage on the building and the lease of the ground on which It stands. The interest on these bonds was defaulted on November 1, 1894, and on May 1, 1895, amounting in all to $600. The company in its defence put in a general denial before Judge Stover, who ordered the argument in the denial to be stricken out. Messrs. Sackett & McQuaid then got a judgment against the company, and at 11 a. m. July 2 had a deputy-sheriff on the premises to take possession of whatever he could. It was then found that Judge Stover had appointed W. H. Ricketts as temporary receiver of the company in an action in the suit of Mt. Fosdick to foreclose the first mortgage on the furniture, safes, etc., on the ground that three bonds for $1,000 each of the first series had been defaulted on May 1. 1895. This unfortunate condition of the Central Safe Deposit Company has caused much surprise among business men. It was generally supposed that it was doing a good business, and this opinion seems to have been well founded. The company owns the fine building It occupies, and pays only $5,500 for the rent of the land on which it stands. The ground floor is occupied by the vaults of the company and by the Fourteenth Street Bank, of which George F. Vail is the president. Although the two institutions are entirely distinct, there is no dividing line between their offices, the bank using the east side for its business and the safe deposit company the west side. while the large open space between the two offices is used in common. The safe deposit people get their rent for nothing. while the bank pays $6,000 in rent. Besides this the safe deposit people derive large rentals from all the floors above. In 1890 the company issued $30,000 in bonds. which were secured by personal property. In the following year the company raised $175,000 more. which was secured by a mortgage on the building and the leasehold. Difficulty has been experienced in obtaining information as to the affairs of this company. In the Copartnership and Corporation Directory of New-York, after the Central Safe Deposit Company, stand the words: "Information unattainable." It In known that in the last few years Remington Vernam has attained a large influence in the company, and that of the eight directors four have been dropped. These four men are among the best known and most reputable business men in that part of the city. They are George F. Vail, Morris E. Sterne, W. Harris Roome and Frederick S. Howard.
