Banner Milling Co. v. State

117 Misc. 33
CourtNew York Court of Claims
DecidedNovember 15, 1921
DocketClaim No. 15474
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 117 Misc. 33 (Banner Milling Co. v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Banner Milling Co. v. State, 117 Misc. 33 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1921).

Opinion

Cunningham, J.

On April 7, 1917, and’ for many years previously, the claimant, a domestic business corporation, was the owner of a parcel of land in the city of Buffalo, lying between Ohio street and property of the state known as the Ohio Basin. The premises had a frontage on Ohio street of 234.4 feet and extended back to the “blue line ” defining the Ohio Basin. The latter was, and ever since its construction had been, used for the accommodation of the boats and commerce of the Brie canal with which it had water connection. On this site since 1887, claimant had conducted a very successful flour manufacturing business, its profits during the last ten years of its operations averaging more than $50,000 annually. The northerly portion of the property, in width sixty-six feet, was unoccupied by buildings. The structures comprising the claimant’s plant consisted of (1) a five story brick mill, eighty-two feet by fifty-four feet, having a total capacity of 800 barrels- of flour per day; (2) a grain elevator, with a marine leg-extending over the dock along the Ohio Basin, used in the elevation and storage of grain from boats, being thirty-six and one-half feet by 'forty-two feet and higher than the mill, its walls to the second story being of brick and above that point of laminated- plank construction; (3) an engine and boiler room of brick one story high; (4) a two story brick warehouse, fifty-four and one-half feet on Ohio street by ninety-one feet deep; (5) a frame barn with a frontage of about thirty feet on Ohio street; (6) a brick smoke stack; (7) a timber dock extending from the rear of the buildings to the water of the Ohio Basin and over which dock was a canopy roof. The plant was fully equipped with machinery and apparatus for its operation.

On April 7, 1917, pursuant to chapter 746 of the [37]*37Laws of 1911, as amended, the state made a permanent appropriation of property of the claimant and served upon it a map and a notice of the appropriation. An inscription on the map described the property by metes and bounds. The course and distance of the boundary line measuring the greatest depth of the property from the east line of Ohio street was given in the description thus: “ Thence along said division line north 71 degrees 03 minutes E, 85.0 feet to the Blue Line on the westerly side of Ohio Basin.”

After the description was this paragraph: This appropriation covers merely lands, buildings and other structures. All fixtures, machinery or appurtenances which may be deemed as fairly removable remain the property of the owner and are subject to his disposition.”

The claimant demands damages in the total sum of $653,850 by reason of this appropriation. The items of the claim are as follows:

(1) For the lands, structures and other tangible and intangible property appropriated, comprising one integral whole, $350,000, with interest from April 7, 1917.

(2) For the claimant’s going milling business taken, interrupted and destroyed by the appropriation, $300,000, with interest from April 7,1917.

(3) For expense of watchman, insurance and other protection of the property after the appropriation and prior to December 4,1917, $1,350.

(4) Expense of obtaining title searches, maps, printing charges and other expenses imposed upon the claimant by reason of the appropriation, $2,500.

This proceeding is important not only because of the very substantial sum involved, but also because of some interesting and somewhat unusual inquiries [38]*38incident to it. They. may he ontlined briefly, as follows:

(1) It will be noted that the above-quoted description defines the distance from the east line of Ohio street to the ‘ ‘ blue line ’ ’ on the westerly side of Ohio Basin as eighty-five feet, which the state contends was the depth of claimant’s property. The claimant contends that its premises extended a depth of ninety-one and four-tenths feet from Ohio street,— that is, that the blue line ” is distant ninety-one and four-tenths feet from Ohio street. Thus the title to a strip of land at the rear of claimant’s premises is in dispute. On the land in controversy and more than eighty-five feet from Ohio street stood claimant’s dock, canopy, and elevator leg, and a portion of the elevator building, of the boiler building, of the storehouse and of the bam. The claimant contends it has record title to this strip, and if it has not, then title by adverse possession, and if neither, then that it is entitled to recover the value of the structures on the disputed area, because they, at least, are its property and have been appropriated.

(2) The claimant argues that it is entitled to recover as a separate item of damages the “ going value ” of its plant and business.

(3) It claims that the good will ” of its business has been taken and destroyed by the appropriation and that this is compensational as a separate item of damages.

(4) The claimant contends that the appropriation does not define the machinery and fixtures appropriated and that all, therefore, have been appropriated and must be paid for, and if this is not correct, then that substantially all the machinery should be classed as not “ fairly removable ” and must be paid for. We will discuss these matters consecutively.

[39]*39We find that the state is correct in its contention concerning the location of the “ blue line.” This is a matter of fact and it is needless to discuss it here. The record evidence and the testimony of the state’s engineer, Mr. Speyer, establish the “blue line” at a distance of eighty-five feet from Ohio street. It follows that the claimant has no record title to the strip in question on which an important and valuable part of its plant stood. The claimant, however, argues strenuously that it has title by adverse possession to this strip. The facts are not in dispute. The claimant’s plant, dock and structures were erected in 1882, and continuously stood in the same location to the date of the appropriation. Previous to their erection, other structures of its predecessors in title intruded upon this strip substantially to the same distance. And this was so continuously, from a date more remote than the year 1877 to the time of the construction of the claimant’s plant. Prom these facts, the claimant contends that it has title to the debated strip by adverse possession. In support of that claim it relies on section 362 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which reads:

“ Sec. 362. When the people will not sue.

“ The people of the State will not sue a person for or with respect to real property, or the issues or profits thereof, by reason of the right or title of the people to the same, unless either,

“ 1. The cause of action accrued within forty years before the action is commenced; or,

“ 2. The people, or those from whom they claim, have received the rents and profits of the real property, or of some part thereof, within the same period of time.”

The state answers that title cannot be acquired from the state under these circumstances by adverse [40]*40possession. This question was recently before the Appellate Division, third department, in the case of People v. Baldwin, 197 App. Div. 285. The lands involved were situated within the Forest Preserve, as defined by statute. The court said (p.

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Bluebook (online)
117 Misc. 33, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/banner-milling-co-v-state-nyclaimsct-1921.