The action brought by the London and Globe Finance Corporation against a! number of stockbrokers for alleged breach of contract, in which the damages were laid ata million pounds sterling, resulted yesterday ina verdict forthe defendants, Among them were some of the best-known mem: bers of the " House and the result is so far satisfactory thatit has cleaved them completely of the charges brought against them Mr. Whitaker Wright—charges which amount to treachery and fraud. Briefly, Mr. Whitaker Wright's story was, that at 9 time when the Globe Company stood to lose some three-quarters of a million over heavy transactions in Lake View shares, he conceived the idea of buying up all the Lake Views that could be got, in order to obtain command of the market and send up the price. He knew that the shares were enormously oversold, and he calculate ed that the sellers would be compelled to buy at any price in order to deliver. The Globe Company not having the resources to carry out this deal, he entered into negotiations with a Mr. Trower, who is not 4 member of the Stock Exchange, but who was to form a syndicate consisting largely of inside brokers. The syndicate was formed, and the money for the deal—or at least part of it—was provided by them. In return for the money they received Lake Views, nominally priced at £11, and Mr. Whitaker Wright declared that the root of the bargain was an understanding that the syndicate were not'to sell under £17 a share, when the profit was to be divided equally between the syndicate and the Company. Mr. Wright calculated that the profit which the Company would thus make would retrieve all their losses. The members of the syndicate, however, sold out considerably under £17, and the Globe Company came to smash. Practically the point at issue was whether the brokers ever undertook not to sell under £17. The allegation rested entirely on Mr. Whitaker Wright's assertion, and was totally unsupparted by the documentary evidence. The whole transaction seems to have been a last, desperate, gigantic gambling transaction on the part of Whitaker Wrigh and the verdict of the jury meets with general-approval. The defendant brokers are cleared from the accusation of dishonesty; but this does nes absolve ther from the charge of having been involved ju a sort of finance which, as the Dimes a remarks, is 'a veritable pest to society, source of danger and demoralization."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.