The Fight for Smith’s Cove Sand Spit
A judge dismisses a suit against the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad, cementing its claim to the waterfront land at Smith’s Cove.
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.
The argument in the suit of A. Davidson against the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad Company to secure a permanent injunction to prevent it from taking possession of the Smith’s Cove sand spit, Jacob Davidson being an intervenor, was concluded before Judge Langley last evening, and a decision was given dismissing the petition and dissolving the temporary injunction. This is a victory for the railroad company, although the state court can only give it the right of possession. Judge Langley ruled that the questions of title and ownership belong to the government’s land department. He noted that the railroad’s right to the land, under the act of Congress of March 3, 1873, for depot and station purposes, was acquired nearly a year before Davidson attempted to initiate his own claim. Furthermore, the judge pointed out that the plaintiff had no clear possessory rights and that the railroad was already in possession of the area, making an injunction unwarranted.
“It is a well settled rule of law that the courts will not reach out their hands and prevent parties from doing things which they are proceeding to do unless the petitioner asking for the injunction shall show a clear title.”
This dispute over the Smith's Cove sand spit reflects the long history of industrial land-use conflicts in Seattle. Today, that same area remains a critical, and often contested, node in global maritime trade as the site of Terminal 91.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.