City Wins Legal Battle Over Electric Rail
A court ruling forces developers to pay the city for failing to build a promised electric railway.
Yesterday, Judge Irwin handed down a decision in favor of the city in the case of the City of Aberdeen against Honey et al. This was an action brought by the city to recover on the bond given by Honey, Hamilton, Bridges and Ouimette that the Pacific Wireless Electric company would build an electric road between Aberdeen and Hoquiam within a certain time. The bond was for $2500; and, with costs, makes the judgment close on to three thousand dollars.
“This was an action brought by the city to recover on the bond.”
The struggle for infrastructure development via private-public partnership was as contentious in 1893 as it is today. Cities then, as now, relied on performance bonds to ensure developers kept their promises, though public transit expansion remains a perennial civic battleground.
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