AMES CONTEST TONIGHT HINGES ON NATURE OF "MASSACHUSETTS" TRUST

The finals of the Ames Competition will take place this evening at 8 o'clock in the center lecture room of Langdell Hall. The contest will be in the form of a mock trial, in which the Scott Club of the Law School will act as counsel for the defendant. The representatives of the Parsons Club will be counsel for the plaintiff. R. P. Berle 3L. and B. F. Bernbaum 3L, will argue for the Scott Club, while the Parsons Club will be represented by R. A. Bogle 3L. and J. M. Nicely 3L.

The case is one of contract law, in which the plaintiff, one Emil Borah, is suing the defendants. Nathaniel P. Banks et al, who are members of the "Lone Star Oil Company," a business, or "Massachusetts" trust. This form of company includes some of the features of a partnership, with certain modifications commonly pertaining to a trust. Borah, to whom the company owes $3000, is trying to collect from the individual members of the company on the basis of a contract made with the whole company.

The Parsons Club, as counsel for the plaintiff, will base its case upon the claims that the defendants are partners, and therefore liable; that the contract made with the plaintiff was within the scope of the agents of the company who made it; that no mention of limited liability was made in this contract; that no previous decision can limit the judgment in this case; and that, even if the court is of the opinion that no contract was made, the plaintiff can nevertheless recover. The counsel for the defendants claim that Banks et al. are not personally liable, because the Lone Star Oil Company is a trust, which includes limited liability; and that, even if it is not a trust, the members are not personally liable. The case, then, rests upon the nature of a "Massachusetts" trust.