A Three-Year Battle Over a County Road
A land dispute regarding a right-of-way easement reaches the superior court after years of county commission gridlock.
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.
In the superior court today, C. L. Wingard, through his attorney, J. W. Brooks, commenced an action against Walla Walla county to recover the sum of $400, as alleged damages caused him by the establishment of a road through his land, two miles east of the city. The suit is the outcome of a controversy over the opening of a county road which has been before the county commissioners for three years. When the road was petitioned for by J. Aubin on April 30, 1900, Wingard filed a claim of $400 damages. The board deemed the claim excessive and awarded him $100. This Wingard refused to accept. Subsequently, it was ascertained that Wingard was not the owner of the land in question, but was only holding it under a contract to purchase from the Woodsville Guaranty Savings Bank of Woodsville, N.H. Last spring the board took up the matter with the bank, and they accepted the sum of $200, which was ordered paid. The bank people received the money and filed with the board an acceptance of the same, together with a waiver for the right of way.
“The board deemed the claim excessive and awarded him $100. This Wingard refused to accept.”
This case highlights the long-standing tension between private property claims and public infrastructure development in Walla Walla. The bureaucratic struggle over land use and contractual ownership remains a familiar headache for modern county planning and development offices.
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