£50,000 DAMAGES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1169, 3 July 1911, Page 5

£50,000 DAMAGES.

LIBERAL M.P. SELLS WORTHLESS SHARES. AGED MAN •' SUCKED DRY." By IVlceraph—Press Association—Oopyrieht (Roc. July 2, 5.5 p.m.) London, July 1. Mr. Horatio Bottomlcy, Liberal M.P. for Hackney South, whoso chequered career as a. company promoter has attracted attention from time to time, has been heavily mulcted in tho courts. In tho King's Bench Division of tho High Court, Mrs. Eleanor Curtis, executrix of the will of her father, the lato 11. Master, retired Civil Servant, sued Bottomley for .£57,835 alleged to havo been obtained by selling deceased worthless shares. Defendant denied misrepresentation.

The evidence showed that tho late Mr. Master met Bottomley through the latter writiug to say that he wished to help thoso who had lost money in previous Bottomley companies.

Mr. Master had lost £90,000 in share dealings with E. T. Hooley and Bottomley in connection with investments in the John Bull Investment Trust Agency, Carter's Deep Leads, and other companies, practically all the shares in which were worthless.

Hooley had compromised with Mrs, Curtiss in the action.

Bottomley himself would not go into the witness-box.

Tho plaintiff's counsel 6tated Bottomley had sucked a poor old deaf and infirm man dry in five months. Hooley and Bottomley were two conspirators who had together shared the plunder from tho fortune of this old man.

A verdict was given for plaintiff, with ,£50,000 damages A star of execution was granted on condition that the full amount of damages was paid into court within a week.

Mr. Bottomley's career as a company promoter, writes the "Pall Mall Gazette, found its most eccentric development in. 190G, when after unsuccessfully contesting the division in 1900, he found himself the victor in South Hackney with a plurality of 3470 votes, beating not only the old and tried Conservatvo member, Mr. T. 11. Robertson, but also a Free Church minister who had befn run by the unco guid Nonconformists who did not like Mr. Bottomley s racing proclivities. Politics apart, he stood frankly as a racing man, and electors were given to understand that a vote for Mr. Bottomley was a vofo of gratitude to Wargrave. It will be remembered that during the time when the "Sun" was under his control, Dr. larker, Dan Leno, and other celebrities were given onportunities to show what they could do as editors. His successful speech in his own defence at the Hansard Union trial was generally allowed to bo ore of the ablest feats of the kind on record. Yet he did not impress the Ilouse of Commons in 1906, wli;n he was refused a first reading of a Bill against street betting-a most unusual rebuff, lie did better in 1908, when he scored off the Government frequently on the Licensing Bill.