SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS OUSTER OF THE DRAKES

October 29, 1935

Refuses to Review Eviction Case

(Chicago Tribune) - The United States Supreme court today ruled against Tracy C. and John B. Drake, Chicago hotel men, and their families in their battle with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New York to enforce salary and upkeep contracts made with them before a 4 million dollar loan was foreclosed in 1933.

The Supreme Court refused to review two decisions by the Seventh Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.  Last April 17, the Appeals Court denied the Drakes were entitled to free food, apartments, personal hotel service, and $15,000 a year salaries.

The Drake brothers asserted they were the chief owners of the Drake Hotel Company, formed in 1908, which constructed and managed the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago.  In 1919 they formed the Whitestone Company, an Illinois Corporation, which erected the Drake Hotel.

The Whitestone Company then employed the Drakes as managers of the Drake Hotel at a total salary of $30,000 a year, 10 percent of profits above dividends on preferred stock, and hotel accommodations for their families for 25 years.  That contract was extended in 1927 for 50 years to 1977.

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