A High-Stakes Battle for Everett’s Future
Federal court rules in $700,000 estate fraud case involving minors and the early developers of the city of Everett.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Judge Hanford of the United States court made a very important ruling yesterday in the case of Esther Hatch et al. vs. C. Ferguson et al., which involves title to property lying in the town of Everett, valued at about $700,000. The minor children of Orion Hatch, deceased, brought the suit claiming a conspiracy between C. Ferguson, their appointed guardian, and Henry Hewitt Jr. to obtain their property for less than its true value through a collusive partition suit. The defense argued the federal court lacked jurisdiction, claiming the plaintiffs could resolve the matter in Snohomish County Superior Court. Judge Hanford overruled the demurrer, noting that the defendants—the Everett Land Company and Judson LaMoure—are new parties to the litigation who were not involved in the original Snohomish proceedings, meaning an independent suit in federal court is necessary to establish the complainants' rights.
“The ground alleged is a conspiracy... to obtain this property from them for less than its true value, and that those proceedings, by reason of collusion, were hurried through superior court.”
This 1892 legal battle over the development of Everett illustrates the raw, often predatory, speed of Washington’s 'boom-town' era. It reflects an early struggle to establish property rights in a new city where political power and land ownership were inextricably linked.
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