Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/329

Rh never shirked a responsibility, and after many months of dilatory special pleading by the east side company, Judge Deady decided, without evasion, that the prior adoption of a corporate name by a corporation appropriated the exclusive use of such name, and that a second company attempting to use such name could be enjoined from the use thereof without any showing of damages to the first appropriator. This decision was the death knell of the east side company, which made haste to incorporate and organize the Oregon and California Railroad Company, and to it made a transfer of all its property and franchises. Judge Deady's decision in that case is a landmark in the jurisprudence of the United States, being the only decision up to that time ever made upon the question involved, and it has ever since been the law of every court throughout the Union.

The Oregon Central Railroad Company, (then widely known as the west side company,) was thus vindicated in its right to the exclusive use of that name. Now let us see how the east side company stands in the light of having ever had a lawful existence. Not long after Judge Deady's decision, Ben Holladay and S. G. Elliot, who were partners in the A. J. Cook Company construction contract mentioned, quarreled over a division of their plunder, and Elliot brought suit for a settlement of partnership affairs. Never was there a better illustration of the old maxim, "When rogues fall out, honest men get their dues," than was afforded by this law suit, which was finally decided by the Supreme Court of Oregon and reported on pages 85 to 99 of the eighth volume Oregon Reports. The decision states the facts that—

On the day the (Salem) corporation was formed six different persons subscribed one share each to this stock (stock of the company), and thereupon there was an attempt to subscribe seventy thousand shares