The City’s Pest House
The Supreme Court rules in favor of a man whose property was turned into a smallpox quarantine facility without his consent.
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.
W. W. Watson will recover $650 from the town of Kent on account of the manner in which its pest house was conducted in January 1902. Watson owned two houses in Kent, only 18 feet apart; one was his residence, and the other held his goods. When a person in the second house was taken sick with smallpox, Watson notified the city authorities to remove the patient. Instead, the city converted his building into a pest house, which damaged his goods and affected his family's health. He sued for $1,000, and the supreme court has awarded him $650. W. W. Watson is well known in Tacoma.
“Instead of doing that the city converted the building into a pest house, which damaged the goods and affected the health of Mrs. Watson.”
This case illustrates the intersection of public health mandates and private property rights, a tension that remains a staple of civic discourse and litigation to this day.
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