Correspondence dated 26 March 1953

Summary

An item from the surviving correspondence of William John Sands.

Historical context

This item forms part of the surviving William John Sands correspondence and is dated 26 March 1953. It is preserved in the William John Sands Family Archive as evidence of Sands’s professional work and relationships. The accompanying transcript was produced by machine OCR and should be checked against the original scan before being treated as a definitive reading.

Catalogue description

Original correspondence scan imported from the Sands and Ferguson family archive. Source file: 19530326.pdf.

Machine transcript — unreviewed

[Page 1] a 3000 SCHAEF! OFFICE OF THE GENERAL COUNSEL March 26, 1953 DEARBORN, Mr. William J. Sands "Myrtlefield" Hillsborough Old Road Lisburn, Co. Antrim Northern Ireland Dear Mr. Sands: I apologize for my delay in answering your letter. I had wanted to be able to write you about your earlier request with res- pect to the original papers you brought to this country and also to send you literature about our new tractor. We are continuing the search for these documents but have not been successful in locating them. As you can well imagine, with so many hearings held in regard to your deposition over such a long period of time and with so many lawyers involved, we are finding it difficult to trace them. Some of the originals of these papers may have remained in your custody and accompanied you on your return -- if so, it would assist our search if you could identify these for us. At any event, we will look fur- ther and hope that we can find them and return them to you. You raised the question in your letter concerning your law- yers' fee and your loss of the ten months' time which you spent here, All of us here at Ford Motor Company, as well as New York counsel, were impressed with your honesty and fairness in dealing with the facts and the restraint you showed under the abuse directed at you by plain- tiffs and their counsel. We feel that you helped the Court greatly by making available so many essential facts without which the Court would have been handicapped in arriving at a fair decision. No one paid any attention to the plaintiffs' outrageous accusations regarding the na- ture of arrangements for your expenses which we theretofore had with you nor, indeed, did Judge Ryan on the several occasions when the matter was thoroughly explored by him in Court. None of us, of course, initially expected plaintiff's tactics would compel you and your daughters to remain here for more than a few weeks and, accordingly, when we asked you to come to the United States there was no arrangement concerning compensation other than payment for your expenses. In view of the change in circumstances over which you had no control, it seems fair that you raise the question of com-= pensation for the loss of time during the prolonged period you spent here. Why don't you let me know what you think would be a fair basis [Page 2] Mr. William J, Sands I am sending under separate cover copies settlement documents in which you were named and for your files, as well as some descriptive mate: tor which I am sure you will be glad to see, ie ohn Please give my very best wishes he and let me hear from you again at your convenience. 4 ag CB fof sete a RGH: jpo