Payne Butler v. Providence Gas Company

This is an action of trespass on the case brought by the plaintiffs against the defendant to recover damages for injury to their oysters and quahaugs, and to their grounds, and for the expense of cleaning the same caused and made necessary by the deposit in the Providence river of tar, oils, and other deleterious substances manufactured by the defendant.

The plaintiffs’ declaration is in five counts, whereof the first count reads as follows: “For that on, to wit, the first day of October, 1903, and on divers other days and times between that day and the commencement of this suit the defendant…