Legal Battle Brews Over Irrigation Land Contracts

Ranchers holding contracts for the purchase of land from the White Bluffs Irrigation company, generally referred to as the 'Todd Tracts,' were served this week with summons and complaint in a suit in which the irrigation company asks the court to declare a forfeiture of contract. Summons and complaint were also served on the same ranchers in a case entitled 'George A. Todd vs White Bluffs Irrigation company et al,' in which the bond holders are seeking to foreclose their lien. The White Bluffs Irrigation company came into being in 1907 and, like most of the irrigation companies organized at that time, it has had its trials and tribulations. As a compromise to a suit brought by the ranchers in 1910, the White Bluffs irrigation company entered into a contract with the H. I. I. company to furnish water to the land involved. Later the Hanford company went into the hands of a receiver. Due to the unstableness of water conditions, no payments have been made on the contracts for the purchase of the land for several years, and it is said that the present suits are brought now to prevent the obligations being outlawed and to determine the rights of the parties involved. Practically all of the local ranchers who were served with the summons and complaints met at the school house Thursday evening and decided to employ Attorney M. M. Moulton of Kennewick to look after their legal interests.