The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1921-04-02
SHELTER CASE
SETTLED EARLY
TROMBETTI FILED SUIT FOX
THIRTEEN THOUSAND, BUT
SETTLES FOR LESS
Northport Smelling & Refining Co.
Makes Offer for Easement on
TrOmbetti Land

The case of the Trombetti VS..
the Northport Smelling and Refining
Co. at the beginning of the jury term
of court promised to be the most
interesting as we'll as the longest OF
the civil cases. 1t came up for hear
ing on Friday, the 25th, and at that
time the attorneys for Trombetti
withdrew from the pleadings from
betti's claim for $4,000 damages be-
cause of permanent injury to his
land, leaving a claim for damages
in the amount of $3,475 instead OF
$13,475. Evidence was heard all day
Saturday and on Sunday the case
was settled through an offer by the
Northport Smelling g. Refining Co.
to pay Trombetti a certain sum as
a smoke easement on his property
consisting of 280 acres in sections
8, 8 and 16, township 80, range 40,
E. w. NJ, and the case was dismissed
without prejudice, each party to the
action to pay its own costs.
The Complaint
The substance of the allegations
of Trombetti's complaint were: That
in the process of smelling ores at the
smelter of the Northport Smelling
G. Refining Co., in Northport, sulphur,
sulphur dioxide and sulphur trioxide
and sulphurous and other noxious
gases, fumes and dust, are released
and thrown into the air and carried
and blown in great quantities upon
his land. Trombetti also claimed that
these gases and fumes were deleter-
ious to vegetable life on his land and
unpleasant and deleterious to animal
life. That by reason thereof, his hay
crop in 1917 was injured and lessened
in quality in the amount of 25 tons,
of the value of 1915; and the hay
crop of 1918 was injured and lessened
in quantity in the amount of 25 tons
and of the value of 500; his pasture
in the summers of 1917 and 1918 was
injured each season in the sum of
$75; and that fruit and vegetables
growing on his lands in the season
of 1917 and 1918 were injured each
season in the sum of $175, or
total damage to plant life on his
land of $2,375; that by reason of
said gases and fumes having settled
upon the land the hay and grasses
grown on the lands were covered
and impregnated with the fumes
and gases and that by reason thereof
and also by reason of his horses,
cows, calves and sheep on said lands
breathing the gases and fumes and
eating the hay and grasses so i'm
pregnated, animals died as follows:
Three horses in September and Octo-
ber, 1917, of the value of $3.50; one
calf in September, 1917, of the value
of $25; ten sheep in March, 1918, of
the value of $3.50; three cows lost
their calves in the spring of 1918,
value $75; two calves in the spring
of 1918, of the value of $50, or
total damage to animal life on his
land of $3.50, and further that there
was a wool shortage on the remain
ing 81 sheep of the value of $3.50,
or a total damage to plant and
animal life of $3,475.
Attorneys
L. B. Donley and Robertson, Miller
& Robertson, represented by Robert
son Jr. were attorneys for Trombetti
and the smelter interests were rep
resented by John Worms of Wallace,
Idaho, w. Lon Johnson of Colville
and F. M. Turner of Northport. Mrs.
J. ]. Cole of Spokane was the court
reporter for the plaintiffs and Kane
and McDougal of Spokane reported
for the smelter interests. The case
was heard before Judge D. H. Carey.
Witnesses
The witnesses called on the case
"tIc ". ". CiiIt iN'
johnson, Lars johnson, E. C. Durdle,
L. NJ. Mcfarland, w. l.. Sax and A.
l.. Hager of Colville; F. l.. Buell.,
Jacob Broderius and w. NJ. Manning
of Spokane; A. Trombetti of Bowel,
Idaho; Thomas Graham of Arden;
w. H. Hubbard Jr., f. H. Laws, Wal
ter P. Scott, A. V. Downs, A. l..
Janneck, Louis Sunden, Ed. Doyle,
J. J. Travis, Joe Janni, j. B. Hart
ley and Sylvia Trombetti, all of
Northport. OF course only few Of
these appeared on the witness stand,
due to the early settlement of the
case.
Jurors
The jury drawn on the case was
composed of two women and ten men
as follows: Mrs. U. Weitzel, Mrs.
Bertha McCord, A. T. Tomlinson,
Glen Hanson, Jos. Cunningham, Paul