The Tide Land Land-Grab Case
A judge rules against 'land jumping' schemes, protecting property rights against claims on submerged tide lands.
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 case of Geo. Kinnear vs W. F. Hall, which has been pending for over a year in the District Court for this county, was decided by the court filing its findings with the clerk yesterday. The Judge finds all the facts of plaintiff's complaint sustained by the proof, and gives judgment for the plaintiff for the recovery of the possession of the lots in dispute, being lots 1 and 2 in block 14, D. S. Maynard's plat of the town, now city of Seattle. This case has excited a good deal of interest because the defendant attempted to hold the lots on the ground that they were in the sea and below ordinary high water mark, although they were some 40 rods inside of Maynard's donation line. The Judge found that the lots were above ordinary high tide, and that defendant well knew it when he took possession of them. The interest excited in the case arose from the fact that if these lots could be held by jumping and possession, as against the grants of Maynard, then all of that portion of the city situated on the small tide marsh, popularly known as the lava beds, could be held the same way. In this decision the Judge has given something of a black eye to the land jumping schemes so prevalent at the present time.
“In this decision the Judge has given something of a black eye to the land jumping schemes so prevalent at the present time.”
This ruling was a pivotal moment for Seattle, as much of the city's waterfront was built on artificial fill over tidal marshland. While the terminology of 'land jumping' has faded, the tension over who owns the ground beneath us—and the legal rights of those who fill and develop it—remains a cornerstone of local civic power.
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