State ex rel. Washington Boom Co. v. Chehalis Boom Co.

144 P. 719, 82 Wash. 509, 1914 Wash. LEXIS 1551
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 12, 1914
DocketNo. 12305
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 144 P. 719 (State ex rel. Washington Boom Co. v. Chehalis Boom Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Washington Boom Co. v. Chehalis Boom Co., 144 P. 719, 82 Wash. 509, 1914 Wash. LEXIS 1551 (Wash. 1914).

Opinion

Parker, J.

The relator, Washington Boom Company, seeks to acquire hy eminent domain proceedings the right to extend and maintain its boom for catching, sorting, holding and delivering logs and other timber products in the waters of that portion of Preachers slough which runs in a northerly and westerly direction through section 21, township 17, range 8, in Chehalis county, as against the rights of the respondent, Chehalis B’oom Company, the owner of the land in that section bordering upon the slough. The cause came on for preliminary hearing in the superior court for Chehalis county, upon the question of public use and the right of the relator to acquire the rights sought by it against respondent, Chehalis Boom Company. These questions being submitted upon the introduction of evidence in behalf of the respective parties, judgment was rendered by the court denying the right of the relator to acquire by eminent domain proceedings the rights sought by it as against respondent and dismissing the proceeding. The relator now seeks in this court reversal of this ruling and judgment of the superior court, by writ of review.

As we view the record before us, there is no room for serious controversy over the facts controlling the rights of the respective parties. Both of these boom companies are public service corporations, in that they are both organized under our statute requiring such companies to catch, hold and sort logs and timber products of all persons requiring such service, upon the same terms and without discrimination (Rem. & Bal. Code, § 7113 [P. C. 405 § 155]), and may acquire property necessary to their corporate purposes by right of eminent domain. Rem. & Bal. Code, §§ 7110 and 7120 (P. C. 405 §§ 149, 169). The Chehalis river, to which Preachers slough is tributary, is a large navigable river some thousand feet or more in width, running westerly through Chehalis [511]*511county into Grays Harbor. Preachers slough is a navigable tributary of Chehalis river some two hundred feet in width. It flows in a sinuous course in a general westerly direction, receiving its waters from the Chehalis river at its southerly shore, and empties into the river a distance of some four or five miles below. Both the river and Preachers slough, as well as other tributaries of the river in that neighborhood, are well suited to the carrying on of boom and logging operations therein.

Respondent, Chehalis Boom Company, was organized and incorporated in the year 1888, under the laws of Washington Territory. Soon thereafter it constructed its boom at its present location, along the north shore of the Chehalis river opposite and above the mouth of Preachers slough. During a period of some three or four years following, respondent extended its boom until it occupied the north shore of the river for a distance of about two and one-half miles. Since then its boom has not materially changed in extent, nor occupied any other portion of the river or the tributaries thereof. In the year 1890, it filed in the office of the secretary of state a plat of the river and tributaries thereof in the neighborhood of its boom, showing the shore line thereof it proposed to use for boom purposes. This was done evidently with a view of complying with the law then existing relative to boom companies. Laws of 1890, p. 470. Thereafter, in December, 1891, it filed with the secretary of state an amended plat showing shore lines of the river and tributaries it proposed to use for boom purposes. This amended plat is now relied upon by respondent as its appropriation of the waters of the river and tributaries for boom purposes. This amended plat covers not only the portion of the river actually occupied by respondent’s boom, but also covers over 40 miles of shore line of the main channel of the river and its navigable tributary streams and sloughs, including the larger portion of Preachers slough, but not including the portion of that slough flowing through section 28 on the south of [512]*512section 21, in which latter section the shore rights sought to be acquired by relator are situated.

About the year 1890, respondent drove two cavéis in Preachers slough some distance above its mouth, evidently to aid in removing piling cut from its adjoining land. It seems plain from the evidence that these cavéis were never used in respondent’s boom business, except possibly upon a very few occasions more than twenty years ago, when rafts were tied up to them. These cavéis, as shown by their conceded location as marked upon the plat exhibit, stood in the slough below section 21 and not opposite the shore rights which relator seeks to acquire. These cavéis rotted out and went adrift many years ago and have not been replaced. No other use of any portion of Preachers slough has ever been made by respondent. In December, 1888, respondent acquired title to all of the upland in section 21, and in June, 1911, it acquired the tide lands bordering upon Preachers slough in section 21. Respondent has never, to any appreciable extent, received logs at its boom through Preachers slough. Indeed, at an early date, respondent aided in obstructing the source of Preachers slough where it flows from the Chehalis river, a considerable distance above respondent’s boom, so that logs and timber products would not float from the river into Preachers slough. During the year 1913, respondent handled in its business approximately forty million feet of logs and timber products, and during the present year will handle approximately thirty-five million feet of logs and timber products. In years past, the amount of logs and timber products handled by respondent exceeded these figures by a considerable amount. Indeed, the necessity of the extension of respondent’s booming facilities is apparently on the decrease rather than increase. We are unable to gather from the evidence that respondent has any serious intention of constructing or maintaining in any portion of Preachers slough a boom or works of any nature to be used by it in connection with its boom business.

[513]*513The relator,WashingtonBoomCompany,was organized and incorporated in January, 1910. Soon thereafter relator acquired logging and boom facilities in Preachers slough where it flows through section 28 immediately to the south of section 21, and commenced business as a boom company. These logging facilities consisted of a log rollway from the tracks of the Oregon & Washington Railway Company to the waters of Preachers slough on the south shore thereof, and the shore rights along that portion of Preachers slough flowing through section 28. Logging had been carried on at this point for a number of years previous by private parties putting their logs in the slough for transportation to market. Appellant soon thereafter acquired and used in its logging operations additional shore rights at other points along Preachers slough. With the facilities thus possessed, relator has built up during its short life a business exceeding in amount that of respondent, handling in the year 1910, thirteen million feet of logs and timber products; in the year 1911, forty million feet; in the year 1912, fifty-five million feet, and in the year 1913, eighty-four million feet. It is plain that relator has necessity for additional facilities; that it needs the shore rights along Preachers slough in section 17, which it seeks to acquire from respondent by condemnation, and that it in good faith proposes to construct, extend and use its present boom along the entire length of that portion of Preachers slough which flows through section 21 and which is immediately below its boom.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
144 P. 719, 82 Wash. 509, 1914 Wash. LEXIS 1551, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-washington-boom-co-v-chehalis-boom-co-wash-1914.