Hougham

This action was instituted to recover damages on account of the fraudulent acquisition of surplus property in violation of the provisions of the Surplus Property Act of 1944. 1 It was claimed that defendant E. B. Hougham, individually and under the assumed business name of Baker’s Motor Market, had Owen Dailey, William E. Schwartze and Harlan L. McFarland, the other defendants, purchase for him surplus property vehicles from the government. These purchases were charged to have been accomplished by the use of priority certificates of veterans which belonged to the other defendants, respectively. It was claimed that Hougham could not otherwise have obtained title to such vehicles.

The record showed that each of the defendant veterans filed with, the War Assets Administration an application for a certificate to enable him to purchase war surplus material on a priority basis. Upon the representations in the applications filed by these veterans, priority certificates were issued to each respectively. In each application presented by a defendant veteran, there was a representation reading as follows:

The evidence also proved that Hough-am had a large establishment and that defendant…