Article Text
JUDGMENT FOR A LARGE Judge Van Duyn Finds for Arthur B. and Other Stockholders of National City Bank, Indianapolis. judgment of Judge Arthur Van Duyn in the Hancock county court Greenfield to Arthur Ayers, of New Castle, other of the National City Bank of Indianapolis, which failed 1922. against former of the The former directors named in the suit, which was taken of are Frank M. Millikan, John R. Moorman, Isaac Pinkus and William R. Sprowle, of Indianapolis. Two other members who were named but who bought immunity under authority of the statutes were Leonidas Newby, of Knightstown, and John Prior, Marion, dead. The judgment, said to be the largest awarded civil law bank suit Indiana, will accrue to the benefit all stockholders the National City Bank corporation and not to Mr. Ayers and the plaintiffs alone. Judge Van Duyn held that the had been careless and negligent in the of the bank's affairs from 1919 to 1922; that they disregarded and violated federal bank laws for at least two years in failto hoist proper reserves for protection of depositors and stockholders; that they displayed careless and negligent business judgment investing $375,000 in the $1,200,000 bank buildproject at time when reserves and liquid assets were low and "that they loaned large amounts the bank's money times when the statute under which they operated absolutely prohibited them from the making of such loans, for all of which they should be held liable.