The Tide Land Freeze: Ballard’s Waterfront Plats Go to Court

In the suit against the tide land appraisers to prevent them from filing supplemental plats of the Seattle tide lands, Judge Langley yesterday overruled a demurrer to the petition, and the restraining order remains in effect until the question comes up on a motion for a permanent injunction.

The appraisers and the auditor were represented by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Wilshire, who based his demurrer on the ground that the facts stated in the petition were not sufficient to constitute a cause of action. The argument for the petitioners was made by John R. Kinnear, who contended that the fact that the present owners of the land held through the original patentees from the general government was sufficient to exempt the appraisers, no matter what instructions had been given them by the state. The other side took the position that the filing of the plat with the county auditor would not interfere with petitioners’ title; that the appraisement would not make it an official record until it had become of record in the office of the state land commission. He also intimated that the general government never had the right to deed for the tide lands, or any part of them, and therefore that the title was still in the state. Before the argument had closed the attorneys engaged in a lively tilt.

Judge Langley ordered that the auditor be restrained from receiving or filing the supplemental plats for record, or from publishing them as public records. The plats, however, were given over to Mr. Kinnear, who has locked them up securely, and they will be out of sight until the controversy is settled.

Another similar action to the one brought against the tide land appraisers was yesterday filed in the superior court against the board of state land commissioners and the county auditor, with the same object in view as in the suit already pending. It was taken before Judge Osborn, who granted the restraining order and fixed the bond at $1,000.

There has been no opposition to the appraisers filing the supplemental plats of the Ballard tide lands, and yesterday they were made of record with the auditor. They are eleven in number, and are designed to cover the lands between the meander line and the line of ordinary high water not included in the original plats. The lands are within the corporate limits of Ballard, or within two miles thereof. This will not affect the filing in of the tide lands by the Seattle and Lake Washington Waterway Association, as the lands owned by Messrs. Kinnear and Prasley, and to which the suit relates, are not covered by the company’s contract.