Evening star., 1926-01-24
FILLED LAND SUITS
INVOLVE MILLIONS
u. S. Starts Next Month
Fight to Get Property Along
Rivers Here.
BY WILLIAM j. WHEATLEY.

Lands valued at millions of dollars
on which industries have grown up
along the borders of the Potomac and
Anacostia Rivers and Rock Creek.
claimed by the United States but held
hE civilians and private corporations
are TO he strongly contested for in
the District of Columbia Equity Court.
The cases have been pending for
II years. and the lands involved and
the questions raised are tied up
securely with the very plan of the
city. Argument on the claims is to
be started next month.
While the cases which have been
pending for more than a decade will
be contested first. others will follow
and bring the total value at present
prices well above the million dollar
mark. Important park and river
front improvement projects planned
in connection with the Identification
"f Washington depend on these cases
of long standing. The cases assume
added Importance at this time when
the Rock Creek and Potomac Park
way Commission is making plans 10
develop the connecting LINK.
Judge Robinson Retained.
judge Ira L. Robinson Of Grafton.
W. Va. former chief justice of the
supreme Court of West Virginia. has
been retained by the Department OF
Justice aS special counsel to handle
the cases and will push them to a
tnal conclusion before the District
supreme Court. sitting as an equity
court judge Robinson took the oath
% office last week and Immediately
set to work examining the cases and
the data at hand. and will be pre-
pared TO argue the first case when il
comes up again on the calendar. prob
ably next month. This case is known
rs the Andlostan and Cumberland
6oat Club case. in which the United
States claims the land on which these
are located. Contendin- that
they are on the line of Twenty-seventh
street at the Potomac River.
The Government. during the ionc
: ears the cases have been pending.
has been the one to ask for the con-
They involve land alonc
Rock Creek. bordering on the Chesa.
peake and Ohio Canal. the James
Creek Canal in the southwest. and at
Buzzard's Point on the Anacostia
River. the Rosslyn. Na..sWater front
all lands which are needed for park
development and the development Of
Il beautiful water front.
Inspect Project
Maj. l.. s. Grant. 3rts director %
the office of public buildings and pub
lie parks of the National Capital: Mai
Carey Brown, assistant director;
George T.. Clark, engineer of the Rock
Creek and Potomac Parkway Commits
sion; Senator Arthur Capper. chair
man of the Senate District commit
tee, and Senators King and Jones of
that committee spent the entire morn
ing yesterday in going over this pro-
iect, in connection with the bill pend
ing before the committee TO give to
the parkway commission $500 900 of
the District of Columbia surplus
funds with which to complete the pur-
chase of the additional lands needed
In this parkway.
Judge Robinson also conferred with
Maj. Grant regarding the suits. and
the latter expressed himself as high.
ly pleased with this new move of the
to force these suits to a
conclusion.
Senator King. during the investiga-
ton of the properties yesterday, asked
some pertinent questions regarding
IIIc anu ehl)ltSStu
surprise that they had been allowed
by the Department of Justice TO re-
main dormant since 1912. He even
expressed the opinion that there might
have been some mistake as to the
time of their being filed, but he was
a ssured that such was the fact and
that the matter lay wholly with the
of Justice
Cases Are Cited.
The particular question involved is
the use of made lands by the people
at present occupying them. In other
these are lands made by filling
up the river banks. The Government
owns the navigable stream, and the
bed under the stream, and it is the
that when it raises the
level of this bed by dredging opera.
tions during which the soil is dumped
on the banks il belongs to the Gov
Such contention was sus-
tained in the case in Battery Cove. at
Jones Point. in Alexandria. The |
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