The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1900-05-24
ERROR IN SURVEY
Chancellor Magic Hears His
First Case In Jersey
City.
BOUNDARIES IN DISPUTE
The Line Between Jersey City
and Hoboken May Be
Affected.

! Chancellor Magic sat for the first time
| in the Jersey City Court of Chancery
| this morning. He showed that his state
ment recently made that the business of
| the Court while he was Chancellor
would be carried on with dispatch and
| in a business-like manner, was not idle
/ talk by appearing at the Chambers early
| and taking his seat on the bench prompts
| ly at ten O'Clock Edward F. c. Young,
| President of the First National Bank,
came in soon afterward. shook hands
with the new Chancellor, and held a
4 brief conversation with him.
/ The Chancellor then at once proceeded
with the case of the New Jersey juno
ton Railroad Company against Aaron H.
! Woodward and the New York Refrigera-
ton Company. This is the case which
| grew out of the sensational arrest a few
days ago of Mr.. Woodward for saving
| In two box car the property of the
| West Shore Railroad Company. There
is small strip of land on the meadows,
near the Hoboken station of the branch
road, which runs from the Central Rail
road tracks to Weehawken, connecting
all the lines having terminals in this
| city, which is claimed by both the COM
| plainants and the defendants. The New
| York Refrigeration Company Is about to
erect large plant for the manufacture
| of artificial ice, one end of which is TO
| be on the disputed land. Once the rail-
| road company had tracks there but they
were torn up, and when the Ice factory
people brought their pile drivers up to
| the place the railroad company, notw1th-
| standing the fact that there was no track
there. ran a box car on to the ground
| directly in the path of the pile driver.
Aaron N. Woodward, who claimed to
! own the land had the car measured and
| determining what part wos on his prop
| ertv has his worlmen saw it off and
| throw the debris back on the company'e
| land Mr. Woodward's arrest followed
| and James Fredengurgh. counsel for the
railroad company FASTENED out to
Elizabeth and applied to Chancellor Magic
| for an injunction to restrain Woodward
and the Refrigerating Company from
taking possession of the disputed land
| and erecting building thereon.
| In his bill of complaint Mr.. Vredenberg
/ set forth that the Hoboken Land and Inn
| provement Company built the connecting
| railroad from Weehawken to the Della
| ware, Lackawanna & Western tracks in
| 1885, and named it the Weehawken Branch
| Road. Subsequently the New Jersey
| Junction Railroad Company bought the
| Branch Road and all it's possession, anNct-s
| which was the small track in dispute be-
| tween Marshall and Division streets. This
! was purchased from Edward D. Adams
| and Fannie B. Adams, his wife, and was
| originally part of the old Koester estate.
! The Rooster estate approached what is
now known as Jersey City Heights, from
Hoboken and the Van Worst estate came
| down the bluff toward Hoboken and rflv
| two met at the point in dispute. The
| railroad men claims that the property is
| theirs according to the map of the Koes-
| ter estate and Mr.. Woodward claims it is
| his by the map of the Van Worst estate.
| The whole dispute is one of surveyors
| lines. Mr.. Vredenburgh's bill also set
| forth taht the railroad company had been
in undisputed possession of the property
| since 1886; that it had tracks on the dis
! puted land and 1T was necessarw to have
| the full and free enjoyment of those
| tracks in order to adequately operate it's
| road. Upon this showing the Chancellor
| granted an oredr to show cause why an
| injunction should not issue with an order
| restraining the Refrigeration Company
| from proceeding with it's building.
The order was returnable today and it
was this that the Chancellor heard this
| morning. Counsellor Howell of Colt &
Howell, of Newark, appeared for the de-
fendant, and read number of affidavits.
The first, by William Ferris, set forth
that the affiant was seventy-seven years
old. In September 1886, he purchased
from the Jersey City Gas Light Com
pany track of land of which the prop
erty in dispute was a part, for the pur-
pose of establishing thereon blue stone
yard. The land at that time was very
low, wet and marshy, and in order to
adopt it to his purposes he had to do
considerable filing in. AT that time the
railroad had not been built, but it was
constructed early the next year When
it was completed, Mr. Ferris declares, he
arranged with the company to lay tracks
on the disputed land simply for the pur-
pose of bringing car loads of stone to
his yard He gave the company IL
cense to extend a siding on his land,
the portion now in dispute, for the length
of an ordinary box car. A few years
afterward Ferris quarrelled with the
company because it raised the price for
delivering him blue stone from So a car
to SO a car, and notified the company to
remove it's tracks. This it did not do,
and Ferris placed obstructions in the
way and finally dug ditch along his
line so that the company could not run
cars on the siding, and they had not used
it since 1896. In December 1899, Ferris
sold the property to Woodward, and he
arranged to dispose of it to the Refrig-
Grafton Company. He denied the affi-
davits of the railroad men that the tracks
on the disputed land were necessary for
the operation of the road or that the
company had had undisputed possession
of the property for thirteen years.
Thomas McCann a civil engineer, swore
that the Roster Map encroached upon the
Van Worst land and was generally con-
sidered to be inaccurate.
| When Mr.. Howell had finished reading
the affidavdts Mr.. vredsnburgh said they
raised a new question: that of the rail-
road company being on the land by IL
cense and not by right, and 1t wanted
time to prepare affidavits to meet that
point There was no objection to this,
and the case wentaoverto June 4 This
case may effect the boundary between
Jersey City and Hoboken. The land in
dispute ds where the two cities meet and
the lines between the two cities were
fixed by the Rooster Map and If, as
the defendants claim, this map Is wrong,