Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-04
Phases of the Law Now Under Dis
cussioh.TiG
CONFLICTING VIEWS TO Be RECONClLED
Puzzles to Be Solved in Any New
Legislation.
if
THE COMMISSIONERS TASK

becoming a Chinese puzzle The Commits
sioners have consumed more than two
years in studying it's provisions. They have
SO far proc eeded with its administration as
to have filed and recorded with the sur
veyOr of the District the finally approved
map of street extensions over all that sec
ton of the city situate between Rock creek
and North Capitol street extended. and be-
tween Florida avenue and the Maryland
line. 1t has thereby been made unlawful
for owners of land therein to record any
subdivision not in conformity with said
map, and equally unlawful for any officer
of the United States of the District Ito
accept, improve, repair or assume any re-
sponsbility' in regard to any highway in
such area, whether abandoned or whether
proposed to be laid out or established by
any owner. but not in conformity with said
recorded map. Within all existing subdi-
visions in the area included in said map
the Commissioners have petitioned for the
condemnation of an indefinite area CT land,
equalirg probably several million square
feet and have exhausted the full period of
the purlic notice prescribed by the statute.
Condemnation proceedings as to highways
and reservations not within existing sub
divisions in the area of such map may be
initiated at any time in the mere discre-
ton CT the Commissioners. A speedy eX-
eic:se of such discretion will become indis
pensable in many II stances. unless the
public will be content with fragments of
streets and avenues, sometimes commence
ing nowhere, going nowhere, and broken
eff in the middle here and there by reason
of the crossing CT non-existing subdivis-
ions.
1t is currently reported that the plats of
the remaining street extension sections for
the residue of the District are in state of
great forwardness, and that they could
soon be filed for approval and record.
After then, the lapse OF more than two
years. the administration of this law as
amendatory of and supplemental to the
prior law of August q, 1885, has practi-
cally suspended "betwixt heaven and
earth the complete rights of ownership in
the largest and most valuable section of
the suburban District. The ability of own
ers therein to sell, or to mortgage. or to
construct, or to subdivide are, for the time
being, seriously impaired. A similar condi
ton of affairs may at any time be created
as to the residue of the suburban District
at the will OF the Commissioners by their
similar recording of maps and petitioning
for condemnation.
At this point the Commissioners have ap-
parently discovered defects in the law. The
proceeding is in rem, and so far as the
condemnation of the jury is concerned, the
verdict runs for or against the property.
The proceeding is also complete and dis
tinct to each lot separate parcel of
ground. The owners have come into court,
ready and anxious to proceed and to there
by rid their property of the pending cloud.
They were brought into court by the Dis
trict, at whose hands they had just right
to expect prompt action. On the contrary,
the District counsel, both general and spe-
cial, have simply irterposed technical pleas
for delay. Tie attorney of the United
States, present in court and willing to pro-
coed, must forscoth go cut and await a
formal notice to come in again. An mag
mary army of Eon-present parties in inter-
est must be specially served with personal
rotice to come into court. That will take
time. Indeed, if such citation at this point
requires personal service by .tre marshal
upon mortgages. infants femmes coverts.
lunatics. persons beyond the seas, etc, the
title companies should have a rich harvest,
and the present generation may not wit
ness the tmpaneling of 4 condemn alton
jury. Time seems now to be the object of
the proceeding. Time to amend the law;
time to better define or to repeal the pro-
vision for assessing supposed benefits; time
to secure appropriations to pay assessed
damages; time to get money to pay jury
fees, and time to induce the United States
to bear its share of the costs. 1t has even
been limited that the aggregate of such
damages now in prophetic sight is so great
as to suggest the wisdom of asking now
for only part of the money which will
ultimately be necessary to carry the law
iEto effect. The principle of two or three
bites at the congressional cherry has been
suggested as the prudent and probably
successful course
1t must of course be frankly conceded
that the Commissioners have pursued such
a conservative and cautious policy that
their real plans are largely a matter of
conjecture to the general public. At some
stage or other, as, for instance, upon their
submission of any measure to Congress, we
shall better understand their intentions.
ard then be in fairer condition to defend
or to criticise them. In the meantime,
however, the formulation of public opinion
is going forward, and parties in actual
set . IL
as they ale advised by counsel will best
reserve their rights. 1t is probably cor
rect to say that thus far three general
lines of thought are being discussed by our
citizens.
list. Enforce the law precisely as it stands
upon the statute book. promptly and Wig
orously. Abandon all Fabian tactics. Let
defects in the law, If any there are. be de-
veloped in the orderly cause of the pre-
scribed judicial procedure. When so devel
oped, it will be quite time. enough to seek
legislative relief. The occasion for it in
any considerable way will probably he then
dissipated For Illustration, the question
of the validity of the provision for assess
irg benefits will most satisfactorily be
taken care of by judicial decree, it was
in the Rock Creek Park case. and with no
more inconvenient results in the one than
in the other case.
Put the juries of condemnation in mo-
ton. Hurry along to their verdtcts. Get
move upon the entire proceeding toward
relieving property from the mortman
which has been laid upon it Proceed with
the law in hand. and don't wait for the
doubtful and certainly slow passage by
Congress of ar other law, which may easily
prove to be even worse than the present
law. Under the best law that human in
genuity can frame, individual rights will
necessarily be sacrificed and trampled up
on. and hence no law which affects private
rights in such sweeping and wholesale
way will or should escape the test of ju-
dicial construction.
Ask Congress Immediately for the neces-
sary appropriations. Ask for an elastic APP
preparation sufficient to pay all verdicts.
and so as to pay each verdict as rendered.
Such verdcts will be separate as to each
lot or parcel. The exact aggregate sum re-
qured cannot possibly he calculated until
the last verdict has been entered. In one
case the verdict will be speedily rendered,
because TIE owner does not contest. In an
other the contest will be bitter, every point
will be fought out, and firal judgment will
be postponed for years. There will be many
thousands of these condemnation proceed
ings, and the final results In each will he
strung along at all sorts of dates during a
long period of time. Hence. no fixed sum
can be now estimated for which will exc
cute the law. An elastic appropriation is