The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-10-28
Placed in Peculiar Position
as to Grade Crossings,
Due to Clifton Horror.
PRICE TALKS ON OPINION
Former City Counsel Says Coult
Took Same Stand--Entering
Into Contracts With. Rail-
roads Defended as Neces-
sary TO Protect Public.

The decision of Vice Chancellor
Stevens in the matter of the suit
brought by the city to abolish the
grade crossing at Plum Point lane.
while adverse to the city with respect
to that particular crossing, laid down
principles of law which show that the
city's expenditures for the partial cost
of elevated railroad structures were
unnecessary if the cost OF human life
is to be left out of consideration. The
81 100000 or so that the city has paid
for Lackawanna, Pennsylvania and
Central Railroad elevation made cer-
tain the abolition OF the grade cross
ings years before the matter could
have been determined in the courts.
The opinion just rendered by Vice.
Chancellor Stevens remains to be re-
viewed by the Court of Errors and Ap-
peals and, in the event of affirmanee
by that court, the suit will take its
chances in the United States Supreme
Court in the course of years.
Criticism that the city was ill-ad-
vised in entering into the mutual con-
tracts with the railroads under the
law of 1894 for the purpose of inn
mediately removing the grade cross
fngs at Market street and Broad street
on the Pennsylvania and Lackawanna
Railroads, respectively, is questioned
by many prominent city officers.
At the time tile contracts were made
Colonel E. l.. Price was City Counsel,
and 1t was his advice that was fntss
lowed when the contracts with the
railroads were signed by the Board of
Works.
"Vice- Chancellor Stevens's opinion is
a clear Endorsement of Joseph Coults
attitude on the question from the be-
ginning" said Colonel Price today.
mo one. however, believes that opinion
final. The railroads will undoubtedly
carry the decision to the Court of Err
rors, and II II be affirmed there, to the
United States Supreme Court.
1.-THE position the city was i'm at the
time the contracts for track elevation
were made was peculiar" went on
Colonel Price. i. Our people had been
Mortified with a series of grade cross
ing accidents, and everyone foresaw
a calamity only too quickly to be real-
ized by the Clifton avenue tragedy
Every local newspaper demanded that
the city authorities act promptly.
"trhe problem before the city law
department was, therefore, difficult
one. We consulted the most eminent
legal advice and found that opinion
was divided about equally on the au-
thority of the city to compel the rail-
roads to abolish grade crossings. We
realized that to begin suits for that
meant years of delay. All this
time Mr.. Coult was insstent as to the
legal right of the city, and his views
were ably supported by Harrison Van
Duyne, but others equally well versed
in the law gave the city written opin-
ions Numerically opposite
I'm the dilemma we decided to obey
the demand of the people as expressed
by the press and in public meetings,
and after many controversial battles
with the railroads entered into the con-
tracts which are now criticised. It
should be added in justice to the city
advisers that at the time Massachu-
setts, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois,
Ohio and other States having laws ap-
plying to grade crossings, under their
statutes shared the expense of track
elevation. Each State under their re-
spective law permitted municipalities
to pay from 10 to so per cent. of the
cost of eleVatlng the tracks and made
the adoption of such ordinance obll-
gatory on the railroad. We had no
law on the subject in the State except
the mutual contract provisions Of the
act of 1894 outside of the questionable
contained in the charter OF
the railroads. 1t was under the act Of
1894 that we drew up the contract"
Colonel Price called attention to the
which had followed the eleva-
l..
Of documents pertaining TO track ele-
vation, he opened sheet dated March
l3, 1899, which showed that at the
Market street crossing that day from
I to Z o'clock, sthe gates opened les
times and were an obstruction to tratne
for a total of five hours and 80 min
ites out of twelve hours. During that
day S95 trolley cars and 1885 vehicles
crossed the Pennsylvania tracks OF
1O,407 crossed bound west,
and 9,s7S crossed to the cast.