Tracks Laid in the Night, and the Storekeeper Wins
A Spokane injunction against the Idaho & Washington Northern — won by H. M. Lund over trains smoking out his Fourth Street store — is upheld by the state supreme court, with 30 days for the railroad to settle or stop running.
Olympia, Oct. 16. — The state supreme court has affirmed the decision of the Spokane court, enjoining the Idaho Washington Northern from operating trains in front of the store of H. M. Lund on Fourth street at Newport, Wash. Lund claimed the tracks were laid in the night time, and are so close as to interfere with the entrance to his store, and to cause damage to his stock by smoke, etc. In affirming judgment the court orders the injunction held in abeyance for 30 days to allow the railroad company to bring condemnation suit to fix the amount of damages to be paid Lund. If such suit is not brought within 30 days the injunction is made permanent.
“Lund claimed the tracks were laid in the night time, and are so close as to interfere with the entrance to his store, and to cause damage to his stock by smoke, etc.”
A railroad literally laid its track in the dark across a merchant's doorstep — and the merchant went to court and won. The case also set the template for how Washington handles this today: if a railroad means to damage a property, it must condemn and pay, not simply build at midnight and dare the owner to sue. Newport's old Fourth Street commercial blocks are largely gone, but the principle that a business can't be smoked out by an adjacent line still holds.
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