The Deed Was Too Generous: Yesler's Estate Sues to Take Back a Slice of Seattle
A forgotten 1892 complaint by Seattle's founding figure is revived by his administrators, who say a mutual mistake gave away too much of the Yesler donation claim.
Jacob Furth, as administrator, and Minnie as administratrix of the Yesler estate, in a petition filed in the superior court yesterday, asked permission to prosecute a suit on behalf of the estate which Henry L. Yesler in his lifetime began against Eugene Jordan, J. A. Jordan and Marsha Butler. The complaint was filed in 1892, but never came to the attention of the court because of Mr. Yesler's death. In it Mr. Yesler alleged that on October 5 he gave to Jordan a quit claim deed for five-eighths of a certain tract of land in this city. His intention, however, Mr. Yesler claimed, was to have deeded Jordan but five thirty-sixths of the land, and at the time it was understood that it was a mutual mistake and that it should be changed. The deed was filed, however, without the change, and Jordan afterward sold the Butlers the five-eighths of the land, and they purchased it knowing that Mr. Yesler claimed to have sold Jordan but five thirty-sixths of the land. The east one-half of the land, it was stated in the complaint, was Sarah B. Yesler's portion of the donation claim, conveyed to her and Mr. Yesler by the United States government in December, 1873. Mr. Yesler asked that he be declared the owner of the portion which it was understood was not intended to be sold to Jordan.
“at the time it was understood that it was a mutual mistake and that it should be changed”
Seattle's land records are still contested, but Yesler's case shows how a single quitclaim deed—and an alleged mutual mistake—could shape who owned a young city's ground.
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