José Mompó, a resident of L'Olleria, owns some vegetable garden land near Albaida, in the Orcala district, adjacent to the new road that is being built in the town and that is part of the road that goes from Silla to Alicante via Alcoy (Xàtiva -Alicante section). José complains and claims that the contractor for the works (Antonio Galdó) when he opens the foundations of the wall at the point called Fora-Fora, throws the rubble into the Orcala ravine that is next to the new road.
Debris from earth and rubble that, without respecting anything, neither legislation nor the owner's permission, block the ravine.
In addition, he opened a very small trench (ditch: A long and narrow excavation made in the ground to make a canal) where he faced the bed (cauce) of the ravine. We are in the year 1860.
On October 7th it rained uncontrollably and there was a strong flood of water that could not fit through the ditch made by the builder.
The ravine overflowed and the waters with their violence entered José Mompó's lands, flooding the terrace of road debris that had been dumped in the ravine. The uncontrolled waters jumped from terrace to terrace, abusing and destroying the crops, denying (flooding) the irrigation ditches, the drains, taking away the soil from the terraces, toppling mulberry trees and causing great erosion until they returned to the natural bed of the ravine next to the Aljorf bridge.
A process of claims and possible compensation for damages is initiated. The owner, through his representative (Joaquin Ferràndiz) and the expert (Francisco Penalva-sic-) go to Albaida 4 times to manage the solution, without any result. They ask to empty the terraces of the debris deposits because it is the priority to be able to sow the wheat and that the tenant of the terrace (José Coll) does not suffer any damage.
Both the Public Works Development section (Civil Government) and the national body of Civil, Canal and Port Engineers of Valencia agree with the land owner and acknowledge the contractor's mistake in opening a new section of ravine without respecting the expropriation law and the width of the ravine, BUT they also point out "...the storm was extraordinary because it was so heavy...the gutters and established drains did not let the water out...ruining the esplanade and even the road..." They decide to appoint an expert from the contractor (José Català) who, together with the owner of the terraces, will determine the value of the damage caused by the heavy rain.
It is January 28, 1861 and at eight in the morning the experts are on the terrace to measure the damage and have agreed to go to the town hall on the 30th to make the appropriate declaration of the damage and the assessment of each of the experts. The contractor's expert values the damage at 100 reales (an old unit of account equivalent to a quarter of a peseta) of wages for extracting the stones and rubble from the ravine from the terraces. While the expert of the owner of the terrace values the damage at 250 reales.
On April 20, given the notable difference in prices, the mayor (José Monzó) transferred the proceedings to the Court of First Instance so that the judge, in accordance with the law of 1836, would appoint a third expert in disagreement.
How did it turn out? We don't know.
Past memories, present evils. Man is the only animal that stumbles over the same stone twice.
Joseph Moll
Health and ball
