Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-06-10
FOR CONTEMPT OF COURT.
Judge Stoddard Here in the In- ~ terest of Platt Bros Co.

The Sewage Case Promises Some h.
 teresting Developments-Cas May
 Not Be Assigned for Hearing Be
 fore Next Fall-In the Meantime
 the Waters of the Naugatuck Dis
 poses of the City's Sewage.
 fudge Stoddard of New Haven, counsel for Platt Bros Go, in the sew
 age disposal case, came to Waterbury
 to-day and had a conference with
 Judge Thayer regarding the signing of
 an order for hearing asking that the
 mayor, the members of the board Of \ aldermen, the members of the board of public works and the superintendent of sewers be adjudged in contempt and committed to jail fox failing to
 comply with the order of the court in not discontinuing emptying the city s
 sewage into the Naugatuck river after June 1, 1903. An understanding was reached whereby the complaint will be signed by Judge Thayer next Tuesday after which copies of the document will be served upon the mayor and all the other defendants and probably re- turns will be filed on or about a week from next Friday. Owing to the amount of business on hand it is not likely that the case will be assigned for trial before next fall, probably some time in October. The paper is a very lengthy one and reviews the whole his tory of the trouble between the city and the plaintiffs regarding the empty ing of sewage into the Naugatuck river and then states that the defend ants have taken no steps to comply with the order of the court and asks that they be committed for contempt. When the hearing comes up it is thought that the defendants will be able to show that they did all in their power to carry out the order of the court. 1t has occupied good deal of attention on the part of the city boards and considerable money has been ex- pended in endeavorfng to find AIiHf& what means could be aeyised whereby the nuisance MpSxid be abated With view to get @ng some information on this question Nhe city sent Engineer Cairns and Ru- @plph Herring to Europe and counsel Rof the municipality has made several Unsuccessful efforts to come to an un-
  kng the matter of damages, but they heye always shown a disinclination to do any ything that would put the city I int sposition to straighten out the narI. With view to bringing about conference with the defendants the
 Sity some time ago offered to pay them
 She sum of 5000 damages, but they
 Rfdiculed this and said that they should
 @efuse to sell part of the property
 and that the whole of 1t could not be
 bcught for less than $40O,000: Two
 different judges agreed that the char
 Arswas not broad enough to enable the
 Nfty to take such condemnation pro-
 Eeedings as were necessary in the
 #A8e and to overcome this an amend
 Kent was passed to the charter pro-
 Hing for the appointment of com
 mission to assess damages, but it ap-
 pears that the defendants do not want
 Stach a commission appointed and
 alatms that they will be satisfied with Nothing less than the removal of the A AAwage from the river. It is true that Hs She city has not carried into effect the # order of the court, but investigation will show that it has done all in it's power to do so.
 1t is new question in this part of k Ia chance to do some thinking. For
 instance, will officials who were elected to office since the court passed
 upon this question and who probably
 have no knowledge of it be made de- ! fendants or will the law overlook
 them and aim only at those who had
 knowledge of the order? Again, SUD-
 posing the hearing should be continued
 into next year and new city govern A ment should be in power, which would go to jail in case the officials should be adjudged in contempt, the new men or their predecessors?
 Tn case the city should be beaten on
 the contempt of court proceedings, 7 the following officials will occupy quar- \ ters for a time with Sheriff Durham < on Whalley avenue, New Haven: E. q c. Kilduff, mayor; Aldermen E. o. q Goss, R. N. Blakeslee, J. H. Filling,
 F. D. Stanley, Louis Gates, George M. # Beach, Robert Walker, Frederick W. . Chesson, Walter D. Ford, Stephen J. I OBrien, John J. Brophy, James H. A Murray. Martin Keefe, Edward A Pagan, Daniel Foley; the board of public works, 2 James c. Whiting, Daniel J. Mahaney, < R. N. Blakeslee, Frederick W. Ches- x son. Martin Scu1ly; Super1nLenQenC or \ sewers, Edward B. Kelley.
 MT Chesson is in Europe, but he will 4 be back in time to get pinched unless < he smells a rat and decides to take S longer vacation than he had planned
 for when he left here a few weeks * since MT Ford shook the dust of the 4 town off his feet last year and has ] taken up permanent residence in Will
 mington, Del, but it wouldn't take
 sheriff long to round him up and turn q him over to the authorities.