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Show OIL TRUST WILL HOT PAY B!C FINE r.u'ing of Judge Anderson Cuts the 329,240,000 Penalty Down to Maximum of $720,000. Cou.t Does Not Accept View That Each Car Lot of Oil on Which Rebate Re-bate Was Accepted Constituted a Separate Offense. Chicago. From Judge Landis' flnu of $29,240,000 to a possible maximum fine of $720,000, is admitted to be the meaning of a ruling made on Thursday by Judge Anderson, in the retrial of the Standard Oil company, of Indiana, for alleged rebailng. The ruling wag informal, but it almost certainly will stand. The court of appeals in ruling out Judge Landis' great fine, eliminated the view that each car lot of oil on which a rebate was accepted, constituted consti-tuted a separate offense. There were 1,462 of these car lots, the freight charges for which were paid in thirty-six thirty-six different settlements. Judge Anderson interpreted the decision, de-cision, which he said served as Ma guide, to imply that the alleged rebates re-bates accepted after each of the thirty-six thirty-six settlements, constitute the units of offense. Judge And?rson's ruling was a severe se-vere blow to District Attorney Sims. He and his assistant, James H. Wil-kerson. Wil-kerson. had argued that each of the 500 shipments, making possible a maximum max-imum fine of $10,000,000, constituted an offense. This view, Judge Anderson Ander-son declared he could not understand. He saw no reason why, if a trainload, or a car lot, were regarded as a separate sep-arate offense, the matter might not be further divided, making a hundredweight hundred-weight the unit, or a gallon, greatly increasing the number of offenses and magnifying the punishment. |