The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1895-10-23
OIXTH-OTREEF MATTER In COURT.
Labhard's Suit Against the Railroad
Company.
The Southern Pacific Claims That Sixth
Street Never Was Dedicated or
Accepted by the City.

The case of Theodore Labhard
against the Central Pacific and South
ern Pacific Railroad Companies was on
trial before Judge Catlin yesterday,
Armstrong & Bruner appearing for the
company and Lincoln White for Lab
hard
The complaint states that Labhard
has for the past thirty years been the
owner of the south half of lot 1 and the
| south half of the west half of lot in
the block bounded by E and F, Sixth
! and Seventh streets. That Sixth street
| is eighty feet wide and has for the past
thirty-five years been a public highway,
free for the use of all the people, and
that it is necessary to the use and COM
Portable enjoyment of PLAINTIFFS use
of his property, but that the railroad
company has erected on the street
coal bins and sand bins, occu
plying about thirty feet of the
west side of the street, and also keep
| quantities of wheels and iron on the
| street and maintain two railroad tracks
upon it above the street grade and also
scales for weighing cars. That these OBJ
| structions are maintained unlawfully
! and deprive him of free ingress and
| egreSS to his property, and have dam
! aged him to the amount of Sl,OOO.
The answer of the railroad company
| denies that Sixth street is or has been
! for thirty years past an open public
! highway or for the use of the people,
and AYERS that it was never dedicated
or used or accepted by the city as a.
street 1t further ayers that from the
south line of II street to the north line
! OF Z street it lay in what is known as
! Suffer Slough and could not, in the
! condition in which it was, be used for
| the purposes of travel and that 1t
never was SO used.
| That the city never improved it for
| a street, but that, at some time prior to
! the year 1862 the city constructed a
small levee on the bank of Suttel
! Slough, from f to II street, which leVee
was located about thirty-fiVe or forty
| feet east of the strip of land now deSig-
mated as Sixth street. That in 1857
/ the city built a more substantial leVee,
moving it up to the east side of Sixth
street, but never accepted the strip
now known as Sixth street, or dedicated
it as a public street.
! 1t also denies that the distractions
named in the complaint are kept there
unlawfully, but AYERS that they are
kept there by the authority of the city
and State and that they do not pre-
vent the plaintiff from having free ac-
/ cess to his property, which fronts on the
| alley, and to which he has all the inlet
and outlet necessary.
The answer then recites the Act of
| Legislature approved April a. 1868,
| and Ordinance + of the city of Sacra-
mentO, which grant to the company
the privilege of laying tracks and con-
structing buildings on the strip of land
| in question, with various other priVi-
leges, and states hat, relying upon the
privileges therein granted, the COM
| pany filled in the strip of land now
/ known as Sixth street, at an expense of
$4,000, and also constructed foundry
along the line of it, at a cost of 900,
| and also used it to store various materi-
ais necessary for such foundry.
That the officials of the city had
| full knowledge of the action of the
| company and consented to the filing
in of the strip by it and did not notify
it that the city claimed the strip, but
that the city always treated it as haV-
| ing been abandoned as a street and
that if it had ever been used as a street
| it was abandoned before the company
| filed it in. That the cause of action is
barred by the Statute of Limitations,
! and that on April %, 1895, in the suit
OF the city of Sacramento VS.. the Cen
trail Pacific and Southern Pacific Rail
road Companies the judgment was in
favor of the latter, and that the acts
complained of in this action, as well as
that one, were determined not to con-
stitute a public nuisance.
The day was mainly consumed in
listening to the evidence of witnesses
for the prosecution, one of whom glee-
fully told how he stood off 80 teams
when the strip was being filled in, by
telling them that he had closed his gar
den against them on account Of a case
of smallpox in the house.
William Turton and exTPustee Mel
ser testified as to the levee that was
filled in on the strip in 1863 the latter
saying that he was Street Commissioner
and that the City Trustees made no OBJ
jections or claim to the ground.