State v. Superior Court of Washington for Ferry County

• Decision Date: 12 May 1927
• Docket Number: 20452.
• Citation: 255 P. 1025,143 Wash. 687
• Parties: STATE ex rel. WHITE PINE SASH CO. v. SUPERIOR COURT OF WASHINGTON FOR FERRY COUNTY et al.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

255 P. 1025

143 Wash. 687

STATE ex rel. WHITE PINE SASH CO. v. SUPERIOR COURT OF WASHINGTON FOR FERRY COUNTY et al.

No. 20452.

Supreme Court of Washington

May 12, 1927

Department 2.

Certiorari by the State of Washington on the relation of the White Pine Sash Company, against the Superior Court of the State of Washington for Ferry County and C. H. Neal, Judge thereof and the Hedlund Lumber & Manufacturing Company, seeking review of a judgment in eminent domain proceedings by the Lumber Company to acquire a right of way for a logging railroad. Affirmed.

Alex M. Winston, of Spokane, for relator.

Davis Heil & Davis, of Spokane, for respondents.

PARKER J.

This is a certiorari proceeding in this court, wherein the relator White Pine Sash Company, seeks review and reversal of a judgment of the superior court for Ferry county adjudicating in favor of the Hedlund Lumber & Manufacturing Company the necessity for, and its eminent domain right to acquire by condemnation, a right of way for its proposed logging railroad over land of the relator, as a private way of necessity, to enable it to remove to market a large amount of timber from lands belonging to the United States, which timber it has purchased from the United States. The condemnation proceeding was prosecuted and the judgment in question rendered, under chapter 133, Laws of 1913, being section 6747 et seq., of Remington's Compiled Statutes.

The Hedlund Lumber & Manufacturing Company is a large concern maintaining its plant at Spokane. It has purchased from the United States approximately 337,000,000 feet of standing merchantable timber, covering approximately 121,000 acres of government land in Ferry county, known as the Twin Lakes unit, and has also purchased from the United States approximately 67,000,000 feet of standing merchantable timber, covering approximately 8,300 acres of government land in Ferry county, known as the Sherman Creek unit. By its purchase contracts with the United States it is required to remove the timber from these units at the rate of 30,000,000 feet per annum. The Twin Lakes unit lies on the west side of the Columbia river, bordering thereon, being some 20 miles southerly from Hedlund Spur, a station on the Great Northern Railway. The Sherman Creek unit lies some 4 miles west of the Columbia river, and some 10 miles southwesterly from Hedlund Spur. The Great Northern Railway crosses the Columbia river from the east to the west side about 1 mile south of Hedlund Spur. There is no railroad on the west side of the Columbia river south of that crossing nor any railway shipping point on the west side of the Columbia...