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Houghton, Cluck, Coughlin and Schubat records, 1928-1959

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Houghton, Cluck, Coughlin and Schubat (Seattle, Wash.)
Title
Houghton, Cluck, Coughlin and Schubat records
Dates
1928-1959 (inclusive)
Quantity
33.42 cubic feet (89 boxes)
Collection Number
0384 (Accession No. 0384-001)
Summary
Records of a law firm of Seattle, Washington.
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

Access restricted. Contact Special Collections for more information.

Request at UW

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was partially provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Historical Note

Houghton, Cluck, Coughlin & Schubat (HCCS) was the primary law firm of the public utility districts of Washington State. HCCS became involved in public power issues in the 1930s largely because Jack Cluck was the chief attorney for the Washington State Grange, the organization which had initiated the fight for public power in Washington. In 1930 the Grange convinced the state legislature to pass a law allowing the formation of county-level public utility districts (PUDs) by a vote of the people. This 1930 law allowed PUDs to acquire the property of private power companies in two ways--through a negotiated sale or through a condemnation suit, a procedure that forced the company to sell its assets to the PUD at what the county court determined to be a fair price. Approximately half of the PUDs in Washington acquired their electrical systems through condemnation suits; HCCS tried all of these condemnation cases. HCCS also provided more routine legal assistance to many PUDs--helping them write contracts, negotiate bond sales, and prepare applications to the Federal Power Commission for building new dams.

Jack Cluck attended the founding meeting of the Washington Public Utility Commissioners’ Association (the state-wide association of PUDs), and HCCS became the Association’s official legal representative. The firm analyzed proposed legislation and wrote bills for the Association. Despite HCCS’s success in condemnation suits, both the Association and the law firm realized that these cases were costly and time-consuming. The process of activating PUDs would be greatly accelerated if many PUDs could join together and condemn an entire company in a single suit, rather than having to sue individually on a county-by-county basis. Accordingly, HCCS wrote Initiative 12, allowing joint condemnation suits by PUDs. The Public Utility Commissioners’ Association and the Washington Public Ownership League lobbied the measure through the Washington state legislature in 1943, but private power firms collected enough signatures to hold a referendum (Referendum 25) on the law. The narrow defeat of Referendum 25 in 1944 sent HCCS back to the drawing board. The firm drafted a law, passed by the legislature in 1949, which allowed PUDs to undertake almost all forms of joint action except condemnation suits. HCCS also played a central role in the negotiations that led to the formation of the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS) in 1957. WPPSS was created to develop power plants that individual PUDs could not afford on their own. HCCS became the legal representative of WPPSS. The records in this accession end in 1959 and thus do not document HCCS’s work in helping WPPSS gain federal authorization to build nuclear plants.

Although the vast majority of HCCS’s work dealt with public power, the firm also had a variety of other clients. Many of Washington’s liberal Democrats hired HCCS to draft their real estate deeds, divorce agreements, wills, and other basic legal documents. The Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, formed in 1948, employed HCCS on a number of cases. In fact, HCCS won a series of suits in the early 1950s that forced medical societies to accept the credentials of doctors who worked for Group Health. (Unfortunately, the case files in this accession do not document all of HCCS’s work for Group Health.)

In the 1930s and 1940s, HCCS had been known as the firm of Houghton, Cluck, Coughlin & Henry, and then as the firm of Houghton, Cluck, Coughlin & Riley. The firm, despite many changes, remains in business today; it is now called Skellenger, Bender, Matthias & Bender.

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Content Description

Correspondence and subject files, court papers, minutes, resolutions, etc., principally concerning electrical utilities in Washington, public utility districts, public power issues, the organization of cooperatives, and the Democratic Party; 1928-1959 (bulk 1937-1949).

The first two series, comprised of general correspondence and a subject series, deal with general Houghton, Cluck, Coughlin and Schubat business. The subject series contain material other than correspondence. The Jack Cluck materials consist mainly of Cluck's personal files, some of which relate to public power issues in which he was involved, representing the firm. The Public Utility Districts materials are comprised of individual files of each PUD with which Houghton, Cluck, Coughlin and Schubat was involved, either as counsel or as advisor.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Creator's literary rights not transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged in 11 series:

  • General correspondence
  • Subject series
  • Jack Cluck materials
  • Public Utility Districts materials
  • Puget Sound Power & Light Co. materials
  • Washington Water Power Co. materials
  • Northwestern Electric Co. materials
  • Bremerton cases
  • State ex rel Robinson, Kinsey M. versus Belle Reeves
  • Federal Power Commission Hearings regarding Northwestern Electric Co., et al
  • Forms

Acquisition Information

Gift of Houghton, Cluck, Coughlin and Schubat, January 1963.

Processing Note

Historical background written by Michael Reese, 1996.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 


2007 (Last modified: 4/16/2018)

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