The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-11
FENICK HALL SETTLES.


 End of a Case That Went Through Many Phases of Litigation in Both
 State and Federal Courts.
 The town of Old Saybrook received on Saturday from the Fenwick Hall company the sum of $7,643.97, the full amount due the town for an assessment with interest and costs made by the su- perior court for Middlesex county upon
 the company for benefits on account of
 the building of a bridge across the
 South Cove, 2,9O0 feet long,a and the con- struction of a road across Fenwick Point to the Sound. This payment
 ends the long litigation between the
 town of Old Saybrook and the Fenwick
 Hall company, of which E. S. Stokes of New York is president.
 This case began with the cottagers | and owners at Fenwick bringing action
 against the town to compel it to con- struct and maintain a public road | across the South Cove and Fenwick Point, commenced in March, 1891, when petition was heard by Judge James Phelps, who appointed Henry G. New | ton Joseph E. Silliman and Clinton B. Davis committee to hear the applica- tion and decide whether or not com | mon convenience and necessity de-
 manded the layout of the road. The counsel for the town was Lewis E. | Stanton and for the company the late Charles D. Cole, both prominent law | yers of this city. The committee com menced its hearings at Old Saybrook in December, 1892, and continued through the winter and spring of 1893, at times | to accommodate the committee and the | lawyers.
 Many witnesses were examined and | thirty-three days were spent in formal hearings. he committees report was approved by Judge Ralph Wheeler May | 9, 1884, and directed that the bridge and 1 road should be built and maintained by | the town, and that the town should re- ceive as special benets the sum of 10,- 28O from the hotel and cottage own- CTS at Fenwick. The town, therefore, assumed the road and placed the bridge | in safe condition and opened the road | to public travel June l. 1894, all the | property owners paying their assess | ments as ordered by the court except the Fenwick Hall company, whose as- ] sessment was $5,7S210. The collector l for the town made a levy upon the ho- | tel and property of the company Octo- l Der 10, 1894, which before the day of | sale was stopped by an injunction from | Judge Townsend of the United States court, and requiring the town to an-
 swer before him at New Haven on Jan uary 29, 1895. Judge Townsend heard | the case, the Fenwick Hall company ] being represented by Seymour &
 Knapp of Bridgeport, the town by Lew | is E. Stanton of Hartford. Judge Townsend dissolved the injunction re- straining the town from collecting the
 assessment, mainly upon the ground
 that the United States court had no | cause to interfere in the case.
 The collector soon after made anoth-
 CT levy, which was met by another in-
 junction by Judge George w. Wheeler,
 May 4, 1895, restraining the collector
 and requiring the town to answer be-
 fore the superior court of Middlesex county. On October 4, 1895, the case
 was called before Judge Ralph Wheeler
 at Middetown and passed Seymour &
 Knapp presenting a plea that MT.
 Stokes was unable to attend on account
 of sickness. On November p, at Mid
 dletown, the case was again called be- | lUIG JuuSG IudyeE dHu dIS
 heard to dissolve the injunction. The | judge ordered the case continued for
 trial It came before Judge F. B. Hall
 on February IS, 1896, at Middletown,
 and Judge Hall made the injunction permanent against the town, giving as
 the principal reasons that the town had I not built new bridge and that the re- i pairing of the old structure had not
 cost sum great enough to justify the
 town in collecting the amount assessed upon the Fenwick Hall company.
 | The town took an appeal to the su- preme court of errors On January 6, 1897, the supreme court heard the ap- peal in this city and a decision was rendered reversing the verdict of Judge Hall and ordering the assessment to
 stand, upon the ground that Fenwick
 Hall company had been lawfully par ty to the original suit and conclusively bound thereby.
 The Fenwick Hall company soon af-
 ter secured an appeal to the United States supreme court, where the case
 was presented by printed copies of the
 trials before the state courts with l briefs of counsel. An answer was re- ceived from Washington in June. 1898, that the United States court found that
 no federal question was involved, and refusing to interfere in the verdict of state courts.
 | The Fenwick Hall company now pays
 to the town the full amount of the as- sessment with interests and costs, thereby preventing the public sale an- nounced to take place this month. It
 is understood the payment of the as-
 sessment is in pursuance of the agree ment by which ex-Governor M. G.
 Bulkeley and other cottagers are to take the property.