The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-02-11
WAR DECLARED,
East Jersey Sues Jersey
City for Half a Mil
lion Dollars.
CONSTRUCTIVE CONTRACT CLAIMED
We Have Used $3.50, 900, 900
of Pequannoek Fluid, 1t
Is Alleged.
Now, Who Says That Jersey City
Is Not a Good Temper
ance Town.
CONSTRUCTIVE CONTRACT CLAIMED

Messrs. Collins & Corbin counsel of the
East Jersey Water Company, this morn
ing served upon Corporation Counsel
Blair summons in a suit to recover
s5O0,oOo for water furnished the city from
the Pequannock plant
The suit is friendly one and is in
stituted merely to have established by
the courts what compensation the COM
pany is entitled to.
AS has been told in ''The News re-
peatedly, the company has been furnish
ing the city with water absolutely with
out an agreement verbal or otherwise,
as to the price to beSpaid. The company
asks SAB per million gallons for every gal
lon furnished, but Mayor Wanser and
the other officials are opposed to the pay
ment of S43 per million gallons on the
ground that it is an exorbitant price
The suit brought by the company will
be heard by the Supreme Court at Tren-
ton on March II. In its bill the company
alleges that the claim it has against the
city is for water furnished from January
10, 1896, to January 80 1897. In October,
1896, the city entered into a contract with
the company for a temporary supply to
at s43 per million gallons That contract
was to become operative in April of the
following year, when the company was to
turn into the city's mains supply at
least equal to the quantity specified
The company, owing to an erroneous
estimate of the carrying capacity of its
main conduit, was unable to fulfill its
agreement. The particulars of the failure
of the company and the apparent anguish
of its engineer, Clements Herschel. who
cried like child, have been told in "The
News repeatedly. Some weeks later the
Street and Water Board, acting under in
structions from Corporation Counsel
Blair, rescinded the contract. Since that
time no new contract has even been made.
The company, from time to time, how
ever, asked for an extension of time,
agreeing in case the extension was grant.
ed.i to furnish an adequate supply in
few months and for the privilege of being
given more time it offered to give the
city water for a certain period for moth
ing; for another period at about one-half
the regular price and finally at $4S when
competent supply was delivered.
The city, it is contended by counsel,
never rejected the offers of the company
and by. allowing it to continue the de-
thus creating an implied contract 1t is
on this line that the prosecution will be
based.
In a part of its bill the company sets
forth that from August IL, 1885, to Oc-
tober IL, 1896, the city pumped 337, 600 900
gallons of water from the Passaic, not
because it was necessary, but because
some of the officers of the city it is
asserted, wished to keep certain men at
the pumping station employed. The COM
pany claims that. 1t has furnished the
city 565O,00 900 gallons of water, for
which it asks the payment of $243, ,O0O 1t
is customary to bring suit for double the
amount of the claim. which explains why
! the sum sued for is $500, 900.
The city officials are anxious to have
the case decided as soon as practicable
SO that they may know just how much
the city is to pay for its temporary sup
ply.
If judgment is obtained against the city
1t is probable that the money will have
to be raised by the issuance of water
bonds.