The State Tried to Plat Their Islands

The tide land appraisers have met with unexpected opposition in their proposed attempt to file a supplemental plat of the tide lands of Elliott Bay between the extreme tide line and the meander line with the auditor. Yesterday in the superior court William R. Brawley, D. C. Brawley and George Kinnear obtained an order from Judge Langley citing D. A. McKenzie, F. W. Sparling and Thomas W. Prosch, commissioners, and the county auditor, to appear before the court tomorrow morning to show cause why an injunction should not issue to restrain them from filing in the auditor's office or with the state land commission the supplemental plat of plaintiffs' land, or from doing anything tending to cloud the title. A bond of $500 was furnished, with L. A. Kinnear and G. M. Faulkner as sureties.

The land in question is described as lots 1, 2, 3 and 4 of section 18; lots and parts of lots 10 and 17; and all but the south sixteen acres of lot 4, section 18, all in township 25 north, range 4 east. The land is in three tracts, two of them known as the Brawley and Kinnear islands and the third as the north part of Edwards' Island. They aggregate 140.75 acres. The Brawleys are the owners in fee simple of an undivided one-half of the property, and Kinnear of the other undivided one-half. The lands were patented December 1, 1864, by the United States to Daniel R. Bigelow and Henry A. Webster, and the present owners claim through mesne conveyances from the original patentees, some from more than ten years ago.

On March 1 the tide land appraisers filed an official plat of the tide lands claimed by the state in Elliott Bay, and filed one copy with the county auditor and another with the board of state land commissioners; and this plat, it is claimed, in no way interfered with the islands. But since the filing of the original plat the appraisers are said to have prepared a supplemental plat, in which they have platted, without the consent of the owners, the entire tracts into lots, blocks, streets and alleys. The complainants charge that the appraisers have prepared this supplemental plat, and intend to file it of record, 'for the wicked and fraudulent purpose of harassing' the plaintiffs and clouding their title, so that they cannot use or dispose of the property, well knowing that the state has no interest, direct or indirect, therein, having disclaimed all title. If the supplemental plat is filed the Brawleys and Kinnear say that it will involve them in endless litigation, and will so cloud their title as to cause them irreparable loss.

The local board, in preparing the supplemental plat, it is understood, has attempted to cover the territory lying between the line of the plat already filed, which is the government meander line, and the line of extreme high tide, claiming that the state owns all lands covered by water at high tide, regardless of whether it is included in the line meandered by the government or not. The board, under this claim, is platting a part of the Brawley and Kinnear islands already meandered by the government and conveyed by patent, notwithstanding that in the constitution the state disclaims title to patented tide lands.