Bingham & G. Ry. Co. v. North Utah Mining Co. of Bingham

162 P. 65, 49 Utah 125, 1916 Utah LEXIS 118
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 22, 1916
DocketNo. 2877
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 162 P. 65 (Bingham & G. Ry. Co. v. North Utah Mining Co. of Bingham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bingham & G. Ry. Co. v. North Utah Mining Co. of Bingham, 162 P. 65, 49 Utah 125, 1916 Utah LEXIS 118 (Utah 1916).

Opinion

FRICK, J.

The plaintiff, a corporation, in August, 1910, commenced this proceeding under our statute to condemn a certain strip of ground, a portion of which is indicated by what are designated as tracts A and B, for railroad purposes. Tracts A and B, which are more particularly in question here, extend over certain mining claims which are owned by the defendant North Utah Mining Company of Bingham, a mining corporation, and in which claims or tracts aforesaid the defendant William Robbins claimed some interest as lessee. The claims of the other two defendants are not material now.

In plaintiff’s amended complaint the strip of ground that is sought to be condemned is fully described by metes and bounds, and the purposes for which the same is to be used, and the nature or extent of the interest sought to be acquired by the proceedings, are stated thus:

“That for the purpose of operating said railway and carrying on the business of the plaintiff as such railway company, it has become and is necessary for the plaintiff to use and occupy the ground owned by the defendants hereinbefore [127]*127described, and the whole thereof for an easement for the erection of structures necessarily incident to the operation of said railroad, and for a right of way for the construction, maintenance and operation of said railway in the carrying or transportation of mineral bearing ores and other property from the mines in the vicinity of the said town of Bingham to the reduction works, mills and smelters at and near the town of Garfield, and the transportation of supplies and other prop* erty and persons to and from the mines and mills in the vicinity of said town of Bingham; that the title desired and required by the plaintiff in said premises sought to be obtained is a permanent right of way and easement for the purposes aforesaid. ’ ’

In an amendment to the amended complaint the extent of tract A is reduced from 1.40 acres to .74 acres, and tract B is reduced from 1.87 acres to 1.22 acres, and the interest sought to be acquired by the plaintiff in said two tracts is stated thus:

“That the title desired and required by the plaintiff in said premises sought to be condemned is a permanent right of way and easement for the purposes aforesaid. ’ ’

The plaintiff prays judgment as follows:

“Wherefore the plaintiff prays that an order may be made by this court permitting the plaintiff to occupy the premises sought to be condemned and hereinbefore described, pending the action, and to do such work thereon as may be required for the construction, maintenance, and operation of said proposed railway upon such terms and conditions as are required by the statute in such case made and provided, also that said defendants and each thereof be adjudged to produce and bring forward any and all claims that they or any of them have or make upon the above-described tracts of land, or any part thereof, that the respective interests of said defendants in and to said premises be adjudged and that said land herein particularly described and sought to be condemned be condemned for the use of said plaintiff for the purpose and to the extent herein set forth, and that the value of said land to the extent of the defendants’ interest therein be ascertained in the manner provided by law, and when so assessed and ascertained, the plaintiff hereby offers and agrees to pay the same [128]*128to the party who may be entitled to such damages, and that the plaintiff may have such other and further relief in the premises as it is by law entitled to. ’ ’

In accordance with the prayer of the complaint, and in pursuance of our statute, the district court, on the 28th day of August, 1910,'made and entered the following order:

“It is, therefore, hereby ordered and adjudged that the plaintiff be and it is hereby permitted and authorized to occupy the premises sought to be condemned in this action, pending the action, and to do such work thereon as may be required for the purposes for which said premises are sought to be condemned, according to the nature thereof.
“It is further ordered, adjudged and decreed that before entering upon or occupying said premises, the plaintiff shall file herein a bond to the defendants in the penal sum of twenty-five thousand ($25,000) dollars, conditioned to pay the adjudged value of the premises, and all damage in case the property be condemned, and to pay all damages arising from the occupation before judgment in case the premises be not condemned, and all costs adjudged to the defendants in the action.
“It is further ordered and adjudged that, pending the action, the defendants, their respective agents, servants and employees be¿ and they are, hereby restrained from hindering or interfering with the occupation of the said premises by the plaintiff, and the doing thereon of the work required for the purposes for which it is sought to condemn the said land.
“Done in open court this 28th day of October, A. D. 1910.”

After this the defendant mining company filed its answer to the complaint in which it set forth its interest in the whole of the mining claims affected by the taking o'f tracts A and B aforesaid. It also specifically set forth in its answer that the ground sought to be condemned contained valuable minerals, and was, and for a long time had been, worked as a metal mine, and with much particularity also set forth the nature and extent of the developments of the mining claims and in what way and to what extent the construction and operation of the proposed railroad would damage the whole of the mining [129]*129claims, and also set forth the value of the particular parts sought to be condemned.

The defendant Robbins set forth that he was a lessee of certain parts of the underground workings of the mining claims sought to be condemned, and how and to what extent he was damaged by the proposed construction. The. interests of the other two defendants are not material here.

Upon the issues the question of damages was submitted to a jury which returned two verdicts, one in favor of the defendant Robbins, hereinafter called lessee, for $4,000, and the other in favor of the other defendants for $11,650. The court entered separate judgments upon the verdicts, and the plaintiff appeals from both judgments.

A number of errors are assigned, and we shall, as briefly as possible, consider such as are deemed material:

The principal assignment relates to the refusal of the district court to permit the plaintiff to amend its complaint during the trial except upon the terms imposed by the court, and that the court erred in not permitting certain offers of proof in that regard without the proposed amendment to the complaint. Briefly stated, the questions presented by the foregoing assignment arose as follows: When the plaintiff commenced this proceeding in August, 1910, it asked and obtained an order, under our statute, giving it full and exclusive possession of tracts A and B, which are parts of the strip sought to be condemned, for the purpose of constructing its railroad and improvements thereon, which order we have hereinbefore set forth. In November following the plaintiff amended its complaint by reducing the area of the two tracts, as before stated.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Gillman Ex Rel. Gillman v. Hansen
486 P.2d 1045 (Utah Supreme Court, 1971)
Shurtleff v. Salt Lake City
82 P.2d 561 (Utah Supreme Court, 1938)
Utah Copper Co. v. Stephen Hayes Estate, Inc.
31 P.2d 624 (Utah Supreme Court, 1934)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
162 P. 65, 49 Utah 125, 1916 Utah LEXIS 118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bingham-g-ry-co-v-north-utah-mining-co-of-bingham-utah-1916.