Page:The History of the Standard Oil Company Vol 2.djvu/371

 should for ten years from July 20, 1876, to July 20,, amount to the sum of $35,000 annually, during the operation of this contract, as hereinbefore stated. The plaintiff further says that between July 20, 1876, and the present time, the said defendants have repeatedly violated their said agreement in this, to wit: that every year since the making of said agreement the said defendants have distilled over 85,000 barrels of crude petroleum; that during the year from July 20, 1876, to July 20, 1877, they distilled 89,983.34-42 barrels; that during the year from July 20, 1877, to July 20, 1878, they distilled 87,754.4-42 barrels; that during the year from July 20, 1878, to July 20, 1879, they distilled 100,246.25-42 barrels, and from July 20, 1879, to July 20, 1880, they distilled 90,082.34-42 barrels.

That up to the present time the defendants have distilled more than by the terms of their said agreement they have a right to distil up to January 20, 1881, and have purchased large quantities of crude petroleum and are distilling portions thereof, and threaten to distil the balance without regarding their said contract. That the crude petroleum so as aforesaid distilled by the defendants has not by them been distributed as nearly as practicable in equal quantities of 42,500 barrels of forty-two gallons each, each and every six months as they agreed to do, but in violation of their said agreement they distilled from July 20, 1876, to January, 1, 1877, 43,509.36-42 barrels; from January 1, 1877, to July 20, 1877, 46,473.40-42 barrels; from July 20, 1877, to January 1, 1878, 50,416.12-42 barrels; from January 1, 1878, to July 20, 1878, 37,337.34-42 barrels; from July 20, 1878, to January 1, 1879, 56,974.15-42 barrels; from January 1, 1879, to July 20, 1879, 43,272.10-42 barrels; from July 20, 1879, to January 1, 1880, 57,499.35-42 barrels; that on or about the twentieth day of July, 1879, the plaintiff having discovered that the said defendants had in violation of said agreement distilled about 22,984 barrels of oil more than they were entitled to by the terms of said agreement, the plaintiff objected and complained to the defendants in regard thereto, and thereupon the defendants admitted the violation of the contract in that respect, and it was agreed between the parties that the defendants would and should during the then coming year diminish their manufacture sufficiently to bring the entire amount of manufacture under said contract within the terms of said agreement.

That during the then coming year from July 20, 1879, to July 20, 1880, the said defendants did not diminish their distillation below the 85,000 barrels as they had agreed to do, but from July 20, 1879, to January 1, 1880, they distilled 57,499.35-42 barrels, and from January 1, 1880, to July 20, 1880, they distilled 32,582.41-42 barrels, making a total of 90,082.34-42 barrels for the year, thus increasing their distillation over the 85,000 barrels 5,082 barrels, instead of diminishing it as they had agreed to do.

That the defendants threaten to and have informed the plaintiff that they will hereafter wholly disregard said contract and continue to distil crude petroleum without regard to quantity.