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Oaklawn States Franchise Is Valid Come What May Counsel Says If Attorney General Is Right or Wrong, Theyre Mn HOT SPRINGS, Ark., June 25. Oak-lawn Jockey Club contends it has a valid 10-year franchise to conduct horse racing in Hot Springs any way the attorney general looks at it. In a brief submitted; to Pulaski Chancellor Guy E. Williams in Little Rock, who must decide whether the franchise is valid, William J. Smith, attorney for the jockey club, declared that "if the attorney generals wrong weve got a valid franchise but if hes right weve still got a valid franchise." Chief Assistant Atty. Gen. Kay Matthews held that a 10-year franchise, beginning May 14, 1955, which a former Racing Commission awarded Oaklawn in March, 1954 is invalid. Matthews said there could be no overlapping of franchises. At the time Oaklawn held a franchise which had been awarded in 1945 and did not expire until May, 1955. Oaklawn contends the former commission had authority to give it a new franchise before the old one ran out. But if the old commission didnt have that authority, Oaklawn still has a valid franchise, Smith declared today. "The attorney general says one franchise cant be issued with another one already in effect and that a franchise starts from the time it was issued," he said. "Well, the original franchise to Oaklawn was issued on June 8, 1935 to expire June 8, 1945. On May 14, 1945, the club got a new 10-year franchise. "If the attorney general is right, that franchise was invalid because a franchise already was in effect when it was issued. Therefore Oaklawn didnt have any franchise, under his reasoning, when the third franchise was authorized on March 27, 1954. "In that case weve still got a franchise. The only difference is that it runs from March 27, 1945, when it was issued, to March 27, 1964, instead of from May 14, 1955 to May 14, 1965." Oaklawn sued to prevent the present-Arkansas Racing Commission, acting on Matthews opinion, from voiding the tracks present franchise and opening bids on another franchise. Subsequent developments identified one of two groups seeking to take over Hot Springs racing from Oaklawn as the owners of Suffolk Downs, East Boston, Mass. Judge Williams has been on vacation and is not expected to rule on the case before the latter part of this week at the earliest.
