Federal Jury Discharged Amid Waterfront Speculation
Speculation mounts that the Northern Pacific Railway successfully stalled condemnation cases to replace a jury they found unfavorable.
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The jurymen that have been on the list for this term of federal court were today relieved of all further duty and discharged for the term. There will now be no more court until July, the court having taken official notice of the desire of the Northern Pacific to postpone the hearing of the condemnation cases. It was charged by some of the defendants in these condemnation cases that the railway was simply playing for time with a view to getting rid of the present jury, the intimation being that the railway did not like the looks of the men who were called to pass on the question of the Narrows waterfront. Whether this had any weight or not no one can say. The cases will probably not be tried before September.
“It was charged by some of the defendants in these condemnation cases that the railway was simply playing for time with a view to getting rid of the present jury.”
The struggle over the Narrows waterfront and the power of massive infrastructure entities to manipulate legal timelines remains a hallmark of Tacoma’s development. Just as the Northern Pacific sought to control the jury in 1909, modern civic fights over who gets to dictate the use of the shoreline continue to define the city's relationship to its waterfront.
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