The Unauthorized County Hospital Scandal
Taxpayers sue King County officials for constructing a hospital on the county farm without voter approval or budget authority.
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.
A suit by taxpayers against the King County commissioners to prevent further payment for the county hospital building was filed yesterday. The plaintiffs, M. D. Maddocks, J. C. Gore, and William Cochrane, allege that on January 20, 1896, the commissioners—Fred Gasch, John Wooding, and A. L. Rutherford—ordered the construction of a hospital without voter approval or proper legal authority. The suit seeks an injunction against further payments, the annulling of the contract with architect W. A. Ritchie and contractor John Rigby, and a judgment requiring the defendants to repay losses to the county. The plaintiffs contend the commissioners ignored the legal requirement to submit the cost estimate to a public vote. Judge Greene, representing the plaintiffs, stated that the commissioners usurped power and that necessity is no excuse for violating the law.
“Suppose I should steal your money and build a house on your property with it, then ask you to take it off my hands, that would be a proposition of the same kind.”
This case reflects a recurring tension in Seattle’s history regarding the balance between the urgent need for social infrastructure and the rigid legal requirements for public spending. It mirrors modern debates over the transparency and oversight of large-scale civic projects funded by public debt.
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