The Temperance Hall With a Deed That Wouldn't Let Go
A judge voids a ruling on the Good Templars' Columbia Street property, reopening a fight over a free library, a moral clause, and which court had the power to decide.
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.
A new trial has been ordered in the matter of the Good Templars' property, at Columbia and Fourth streets. Some time in the 1860s Captain Finch, then a resident of Olympia, deeded to the Good Templars the lot where Tacoma Hall now stands, specifying in the deed that the property was to be maintained for the promotion of temperance and morality and for the perpetual maintenance of a free library and reading room.
A few years ago, Captain Finch, finding that the free library and reading room was not being maintained by the Good Templars, deeded the property to the Olympia Collegiate Institute. The Good Templars then brought suit against the Institute to restrain the latter from asserting its claim to the property, and obtained judgment April 22, 1891. This judgment was rendered by Judge Irwin more than a year after the cause had been submitted to him, and after the superior courts of Thurston, Chehalis, Lewis and Mason counties had been separated by the legislature into two jurisdictions, by which Judge Robinson became the sole judge of Thurston county and Judge Irwin the sole judge of the remaining counties.
On Sept. 18 last, motion was made by counsel for the Institute to vacate the judgment for the reasons heretofore mentioned and the further reason that the judgment and the findings of the court were filed simultaneously, so as to allow the Institute no time between the filing of the findings and the rendition of judgment in which to move for a new trial.
The motion was referred to Judge Campbell, who came to Olympia today for the special purpose of rendering his decision thereon. He ordered the judgment vacated and a new trial to be had. Judge Campbell held, with counsel for the Institute, that Judge Irwin had no jurisdiction to decide old causes after Judge Robinson was appointed and qualified; that the clause of the constitution providing that a superior judge shall decide a case within ninety days after it is submitted to him is mandatory; and that the findings of fact and a judgment cannot be filed at the same time, thus precluding a party from moving for a new trial.
Root & Mitchell and Palmer Savage are counsel for the Good Templars, and Homer C. Atwell for the Olympia Collegiate Institute.
“the property was to be maintained for the promotion of temperance and morality and for the perpetual maintenance of a free library and reading room.”
Deed restrictions still shape what can happen to a building, and disputes over whether a charity kept its promises remain a staple of local land-use fights. In 1890s Olympia, the promise was a free reading room; today it might be affordable housing or a historic facade.
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