Beljac Holding Corp. v. State

76 Misc. 2d 324, 350 N.Y.S.2d 489, 1973 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1475
CourtNew York Court of Claims
DecidedJanuary 3, 1973
DocketClaim No. 54717
StatusPublished

This text of 76 Misc. 2d 324 (Beljac Holding Corp. 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
Beljac Holding Corp. v. State, 76 Misc. 2d 324, 350 N.Y.S.2d 489, 1973 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1475 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1973).

Opinion

John- P. -Gualtibbi, J.

There are before the court two motions in this appropriation case, one hy the State to dismiss a portion of the claim and ,the second by the claimant for an examination before trial and the production of records. We shall consider the State’s motion first.

The property involved is located north of the City of Utica, in Oneida County, adjacent to Route 12, a four-lane highway, with two northbound lanes and two southbound lanes which are separated by a mall. In February of 1969, the claimant acquired 20 acres of land fronting on the westerly side of this highway. In March of 1970, an additional 20 acres, were purchased to the rear of the first acquired parcel. The claimant bought the property for the purpose of building thereon a major shopping center.

On November 5, 1969, while the claimant was enagaged in planning this venture, but before the beginning of construction, the State Department of Transportation, under the police powers given it by statute to regulate highway traffic in furtherance of traffic safety, made a determination that left-hand turns from the northbound lanes across the southbound lanes and into property on the west side of the highway, including claimant’s property, were to be prohibited.

This decision was made at a time when the State was reconstructing an eight-mile stretch of Route 12 north of claimant’s property to expressway standards with limited access. The Commissioner determined that left-hand turns and crossings at grade would be unduly hazardous, in view of the increased use of this highway which would result from commercial development and the high speeds which would be generated by the reconstruction.

Claimant filed its claim on February 10, 1972, and we are concerned here with that portion of the claim labeled Appropriation I, which the State seeks to have dismissed. It alleges that “ the property taken consists of suitable access ” from the claimant’s property to Route 12.

The total claim is for $11,005,000 as follows: direct damages— $1,000,000; consequential damages — $10,000,000; prepaid taxes — $5,000.

[326]*326The State claims that claimant is entitled to no damages in connection with this alleged Appropriation I as a matter of law. By numerous and lengthy affidavits submitted by both sides, there are before the court certain undisputed facts. "While the relief sought by the State is a dismissal, the motion will be treated as one for .summary judgment pursuant to subdivision (c) of CPLR 3211 (Rapoport v. Schneider, 29 N Y 2d 396; Epps v. Yonkers Raceway, 21 A D 2d 798; Rager v. Lefkotvits, 20 A D 2d 867).

No portion of claimant’s property was taken. The claimant’s property has precisely the same physical relationship to the highway and access to Route 12 after the administrative decision to forbid left-hand turns as it did before. Southbound vehicles enter and leave claimant’s property as before. Cars traveling northerly, no longer allowed to make a left-hand turn across the southbound lanes, now have to travel less than one mile further, where the State, as part of the new construction, has put in an overhead crossing, enabling those vehicles to get onto the southbound lanes and reach claimant’s property. It appears that, because of the closing of Mullaney Road north of claimant’s property, some of the prospective customers of the shopping center residing in the general area have to travel a distance of up to five or .six more miles in order to shop at this establishment than would be necessary if left-hand turns were permitted.

In this court’s view, under these undisputed facts, any claim for damages is barred by the holdings in Selig v. State of New York (10 N Y 2d 34), Northern Lights Shopping Center v. State of New York (20 A D 2d 415, affd. 15 N Y 2d 688, cert, den. 382 U. S. 826), Bopp v. State of New York (19 N Y 2d 368), Jones Beach Blvd. Estate v. Moses (268 N. Y. 362) and numerous other decisions which have stated the legal principles applicable to a situation like this.

Claimant relies upon a number of cases which hold that if the State, with or without a taking, by any act on its part, destroys access or makes access unsuitable it must respond in damages. However, in each of the cases cited by the claimant there was either a complete deprivation of access to the property, a physical change resulting from a change of grade, or a direct appropriation by the filing of a map. Claimant has called to .the court’s attention no .authority, nor has the court’s own research found any, that would allow damages in a case of no taking, no change of grade or physical impairment of access contiguous to claimant’s property, and where the access to the [327]*327highway was exactly the same before as after the State’s alleged interference.

In Jones Beach Blvd. Estate v. Moses (268 N. Y. 362, supra), the factual situation was very similar to that in the case at bar. The Park Commission prohibited left-hand turns and people had to travel a distance of about five extra miles each way to. reach the claimant’s property. The Court of Appeals said (p. 368) that “ the rights of an abutter are subject to the right of the State to regulate and control the public highways for the benefit of the travelling public ’ ’ and went on to hold that although a property owner might be hurt by the prohibition of left-hand turns he had no remedy unless there was an express statutory provision therefor.

The following language in Northern- Lights Shopping Center v. State of New York (20 A D 2d 415, 420-421, supra) is pertinent : “As for circuity of access, an abutting owner has no legal right to travel from his property to his destination in the most direct way possible. As for diversion of traffic, an abutting owner has no right to the continuation of a flow of traffic in front of his property. * * * Damages resulting from reasonable traffic regulations are noncompensable.”

The claimant relies heavily on Priestly v. State of New York (23 N Y 2d 152). However, there was a direct taking in that case and the court held that access, while circuitous, could also be unsuitable and therefore provide the basis for consequential damages. The physical effect upon the property in that case does not exist here.

That Priestly does not apply to a situation where there is no taking of a portion of claimant’s land is indicated by the Third Department’s decision in Strohsahl’s, Inc. v. State of New York (37 A D 2d 1017). There consequential damages were allowed for loss of suitable access to a parcel where there was a taking. However, the court reversed an award to the same claimant on another parcel where there was no taking saying (p. 1018) that “ governmental acts which do not directly encroach upon private property, though their consequences may impair its use, do not entitle the owner of such property to damages.” The question of suitability of access to the second parcel was not even reached by the Appellate Division despite the fact that the effect of the highway construction was the same for both parcels.

Even assuming that the .State’s act in prohibiting left-hand turns might be compensable without any taking, the claimant would have the further burden of establishing that the access to [328]*328Boute 12 after the State’s prohibition was and is unsuitable as well as circuitous.

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Related

Jones Beach Boulevard Estate, Inc. v. Moses
197 N.E. 313 (New York Court of Appeals, 1935)

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Bluebook (online)
76 Misc. 2d 324, 350 N.Y.S.2d 489, 1973 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1475, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beljac-holding-corp-v-state-nyclaimsct-1973.