“NO PROMISE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 206, 19 November 1927, Page 1

“NO PROMISE”

HENRY FORD’S SON MAKES DENIAL SUED BY STOCKHOLDERS By Cable.—Press Association. — Copyright. Reed. 11.10 p.m. DETROIT, Friday. Edsell Ford has issued a statement denying that his father, Henry Ford, promised the stockholders in the original Lincoln Motor Company to reimburse them for the losses suffered when Ford bought the firm in 1922 for £1,600,000. The statement said: “We bought the assets of the old Lincoln Company from the receiver appointed by the United States District Court. No conditions were attached to the transaction, and no obligations were imposed upon us to pay stockholders or creditors of the old concern. .'A fair value was paid the receiver for the property, and we voluntarily paid all the general creditors an additional amount of over £BOO,OOO purely out of generosity.”—A. and N.Z.

A New York cablegram of November 16 read as follows:

A message from Pontiac, Michigan, says 2,000 stockholders in the old Lincoln Motor-car Company have brought an action against Mr. Henry Ford, in which they claim £1,200,000. They allege that he failed to keep his verbal promise to buy their stock when he bought the company from the Receiver of the Federal Court in 1922.

The suit was filed by Mr. Henry Leland and his son, Wilfred Leland, the president and vice-president respectively of the original Lincoln Company, who were given a power of attorney by the stockholders to proceed against Mr. Ford.