Supreme court rules that Gov. Claude Matthews Estate is not liable for check indorsement of Pendleton Glass Tube & Pipe Works

FOR WIDOW AND DAUGHTERS

OF EX-GOVERNOR MATTHEWS

Decision of Supreme Court Overrules

Appellate Court in a Long-

Contested Case.

The Supreme Court to-day held that the widow and daughters of Claude Matthews, former Governor of Indiana, can not be required to pay a surety debt which he contracted in 1892, six years before he died.

Governor Matthews and two other men indorsed a note for $2,400 given by the Pendleton Glass Tube and Pipe-works to J. O. Henderson. The company became insolvent soon afterward, but Henderson did not ask the sureties to pay the note until nearly ten years after it was exe­cuted, which was four years after Governor Matthews died and nearly three years after his estate was settled.

A surety who lived in Ohio, Peter S. Clevenger, was then compelled to pay it, and he sued the widow and heirs of Gov­ernor Matthews for contribution.

The Circuit Court decided against him, the Appellate Court reversed its Judg­ment, and then the Supreme Court over­-ruled the Appellate Court in that case and several others, and that the lapse of two years after the Matthews es­tate was settled bars such an action against his heirs.