Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-03-05
AGAINST THE NEW ENGLAND
Settling n Claim to Valuable Land
in Providence.

Settling n Claim to Valuable Land
in Providence.
The supreme court of Rhode Island
on Saturday rendered a de son of great
Importance to the New York and New
England railway company. The decls-
ion is in favor of the city of Providence
against the railway. 1t involves more
than a million dollars worth of made
land in Providence. The land is in the
heart of the city, and has been used for
railroad purLose for forty years. This
land was covered by tide water. In
1915 and 1913 the legislature gave the
city the privilege of granting any rail
road right to establish on it IA depot and
a site for it's track. said grant meaning
to include lands covered by the public
waters above Wevbosset bridge, which
bridge is now the central point in Provl-
dence. On February 8, 1852, the Hart
ford, Providence and Fishkill road APP
Piled for this privilege, and it was
granted on condition that the corpora
ton should fill in the covered lands and
complete the filling in before Janu ,ry
1857. The road began this work,
but, being short of money Com
pleted only small portion of it.
In 1857, the times being hard and many
people in great distress, the Legislature
authorized the city to eXpend such
money As might be necessary for the re-
lief of the people, and to employ them
in filling in the land, and by this effort
the land was made. The railroad com
pany was also required to build re-
tanning wall for the channel of the
Womasquatucket river, which emptied
into the cove, but an arrangement was
made whereby the city was TO build this
wall, the company giving to the NUM-
cipality the money called for by the
job. They did not build the wall then
nor for many years.
made by the New York q New England
which had succeeded the Hartford
Providence q ti,hkill, and acquired all
it's rights and privileges, to establish its
claims to this filled-in land, and dur ing
the night gang OF men came out aud
built u fence which was on the line OF
the claimed land. The city polio.
force tore it down, and for a week
there was police guard maint,ineu day
and night, with instructions to arrest
any man who attempted to replace the
fence until an injunction by the court
stopped all need OF that espionage. The
case went to the supreme court, land that
tribunal held the case under advisement
Tor year and a quarter. The decision
after that long deliberatiOn was that
there was no grant to the railroad from
tle city. Inc ROAD had iaIed 10 he'P
it's agreement, not having completed
the filling. The claim that the city hau
not built the retaining wall as agreed to,
was not to be held against the city, as
the tide water over the land in question
did not wash the filled-in portion and
cause any damage. AS to the plea that
the company was at that time tinanci-
ally embarrassed, the court could not
take that into account. The New York
and New England could maintain its
aims to strip filled in by the Hartford,
Providence snd Fishkill, but the other
and more valuable territory belonged to
the city to dispose of for railroad pur-
poses. This puts into the market 81 900,
OJO worth of real estate in connection
with the proposed terminal facilities
Improvements.