Beatty v. Smith

84 N.W. 208, 14 S.D. 24, 1900 S.D. LEXIS 4
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 21, 1900
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 84 N.W. 208 (Beatty v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beatty v. Smith, 84 N.W. 208, 14 S.D. 24, 1900 S.D. LEXIS 4 (S.D. 1900).

Opinion

Corson, J.

This is an appeal from an order vacating and dissolving an injunction order made on the 8th day of May, 1899. A demurrer was interposed to the complaint, and the motion to vacate and dissolve the injunction and the demurrer were argued together, but no order sustaining or overruling the demurrer seems to have been entered. We think we may assume that the - demurrer was in effect sustained, as, in the argument on this appeal, counsel for the respondents take the position that the complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and from the fact that the motion to vacate and dissolve the injunction was granted. The allegations of the complaint may be briefly stated as follows: That the plaintiff was the owner of a certain tract of land in the city of Sturgis, containing about 23 acres, and known as “Beatty’s Park;” that on the 1st of June, 1896, the plaintiff entered into articles of agreement with the Black Hills Exposition Company of Sturgis, S. D., a corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of this state, by which he leased and let said premises to said company for a certain period of each year for the period of 10 years, which more fully appears by the terms of said lease or articles of agreement containing the said covenants, attached to and made a part of the complaint; “ that under the terms of said articles of agreement the said Black Plills Exposition Company erected upon said land certain buildings, consisting of one row of open frame stock sheds, [27]*27one row of open box stalls, one octagonal exhibit building, one row of box stalls, a mile of fence more or less, surrounding on both sides the race course referred to in the said articles of agreement, and a mile, more or less, of other fencing, one beer-hall building, with a counter therein permanently affixed thereto by nails, one grandstand building, and other buildings and refreshment stands, all of which said buildings, stands, and fences rest upon said land, and are permanently affixed thereto by means of posts inserted in the ground or stone foundations built thereunder, and have become an integral part of said land; that in order to prepare said ground for said buildings, and for the building of the race course referred to in said articles of agreement, this plaintiff, in view of and relying upon the revenue that he would receive from the use of said grounds and all of said buildings during the term of ten years, the term of said lease, removed certain valuable trees and allowed certain valuable trees and shrubbery to be removed from said land, and allowed about four acres of excellent garden ground, prepared for gardening purposes at great expense to the plaintiff, to be appropriated to the uses of the said exposition company, and allowed a race course to be made on the best and most fertile part of said land, and otherwise suffered great inconvenience and incurred great expense; that this plaintiff has complied with all the terms and covenants of said lease, but the exposition company has failed to comply with said terms and covenants of said lease, by neglecting and refusing to pay the rent stipulated for the season of 1898; that all of said buildings are large and bulky, the grand stand being 100 feet in length by 50 feet in width, and the said octagonal exhibit building being 60 feet in diameter, and none of said buildings and fences could be removed from said premises without being torn down, and without great injury to said premises; [28]*28and that the removal of said buildings, fences, etc., would destroy the character of said premises as a fair ground, and render them useless for the purpose of holding fairs, exhibitions and expositions.” The complaint then alleges that defendant Smith is the duly qualified and acting sheriff of Meade county, and that, acting under the authority of an execution in his hands, issued out of the circuit court in and for Meade county upon a judgment in an action wherein George W. Mumford was plaintiff and said exposition company was defendant, he entered the said premises of the plaintiff, and made a pretended levy upon the said buildings as the personal property of said company, and has advertised the same to be sold at public auction to satisfy said judgment, and that defendant, unless restrained by order of the court, will proceed to sell said buildings as personal property; and that the same will be torn down and removed, to the great and irreparable injury of plaintiff. A copy of the notice of sale is annexed to the complaint, and made a part thereof. He further alleges that it would be extremely difficult to estimate the compensation in damages that would afford plaintiff adequate relief and that plaintiff has no adequate and speedy remedy at law, and plaintiff prays that said defendant may be enjoined from selling or otherwise interfering with the property. The complaint was duly verified by the plaintiff, and supported by an affidavit of a third party. Upon this complaint and affidavit, a restraining order was granted, and, upon motion made by the defendant upon the complaint and affidavits of the respective parties the same was dissolved.

The first question presented, and the only one we shall discuss, is does the complaint state facts sufficient to entitle the plaintiff to an injunction? It is contended on the part of the respondents that the complaint contains no equity, for the reason that it states no facts showing that plaintiff has not a plain, speedy, and adequate remedy [29]*29at law, or that his damages will be irreparable and that, on the contrary, it affirmatively appears that plaintiff’s alleged title is such as can be established by a court of law, and that his damages are such as naturally flow from an ordinary case of trespass, and are to be estimated by the settled rules of damage applicable to actions at law, and that there was no allegation of the insolvency of the defendants. The appellant’s contention is that as by the terms of the lease it i.s provided that the exposition company may erect buildings upon the premises, and remove the same at the expiration of the lease, which was specified therein to be in ten years, neither the exposition company nor any purchaser at a sale made by a judgement creditor would have the right to remove said buildings before the expiration of the lease, and that by the terms of the lease or contract the plaintiff had a right to use said buildings at all times except when the exposition company found it necessary to use them for exposition purposes, and that by the removal of these buildings the plaintiff would be deprived of their use during 'the rest of the term, and that it would be impracticable to estimate and prove in an action at law the amount of damages that he might sustain. Appellant further contends that, as the exposition company failed to pay the rent when due, it forfeited all right to the buildings and improvements placed thereon, and that they thereby became absolutely the property of the plaintiff, and constituted a part of his realtjc In the view we take of the case, it does not become necessary to decide, and therefore we do not decide, as to the rights of the parties to these buildings and improvements under the terms of the lease. It will he observed that the gist of the complaint consists in the allegation that the Black Hills Exposition Company has erected buildings and other improvements upon the leased land, and that the sheriff, under and by virtue of an execution issued upon a judgment in an action by one Mumford against the expo[30]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
84 N.W. 208, 14 S.D. 24, 1900 S.D. LEXIS 4, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beatty-v-smith-sd-1900.