Blanding v. City of Las Vegas

280 P. 644, 52 Nev. 52
CourtNevada Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 25, 1929
DocketNo. 2833
StatusPublished

This text of 280 P. 644 (Blanding v. City of Las Vegas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nevada Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blanding v. City of Las Vegas, 280 P. 644, 52 Nev. 52 (Neb. 1929).

Opinion

[69]*69OPINION

By the Court, (after stating the facts as above) :

Ducker, C. J.

The ruling of the lower court was proper. The complaint does not show that appellants will suffer any injury special to themselves or different in kind from that which will be sustained by the general public. A showing that an injury of this kind will be sustained is essential to enable a person to maintain an action of this character. Symons et al. v. City and County of San Francisco et al., 115 Cal. 555, 42 P. 913, 47 P. 453; Whitsett v. Union D. & R. Co., 10 Colo. 243, 15 P. 339; Hammond v. County Commissioners, 154 Mass. 509, 28 N. E. 902; City of Chicago et al. v. Union Building Association, 102 Ill. 379, 40 Am. Rep. 598; City of Gary v. Much, 180 Ind. 26, 101 N. E. 4; Heller v. Atchison, etc., R. Co., 28 Kan. 625; Nelson v. Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery Ass’n, 111 Minn. 149, 126 N. W. 723, 127 N. W. 626, 34 L. R. A. (N. S.) 565, 20 Ann. Cas. 790; Greene v. Goodwin Sand, etc., Co., 72 Misc. Rep. 192, 129 N. Y. S. 709; Zettel v. West Bend, 79 Wis. 316, 48 N. W. 379, 24 Am. St. Rep. 715.

The rule deducible from the general current of authority is stated in 13 R. C. L. at pages 75 and 76 as follows: “To entitle a property owner to injunctive relief against the vacation of a street or highway he must show that he will suffer a special or peculiar injury, and not merely such inconvenience as is cast upon all other persons of that neighborhood.”

The case at bar, in so far as the cause of action is based upon the vacation of the street and consequent [70]*70damage to the business of appellants, is identical in principle with Fogg v. N. C. O. Railway, 20 Nev. 429, 23 P. 840, 842. In the latter case the action was to abate a public nuisance alleged to consist of the maintenance of a section of railroad and railroad tracks and the operation of trains thereon, on a street on which the plaintiff’s residence abutted. Damages therefrom were specifically alleged and an abatement of the nuisance and an injunction prayed for. The court applied the foregoing principle, and in the course of its opinion quoted approvingly from Wood on Nuisance, sec. 646, as follows: “The courts very wisely have unswervingly adhered to the rule that an individual, in order to be entitled to a recovery for injuries sustained from a public nuisance, must make out a clear case of special damages to himself, apart from the rest of the public, and of a different character, so that they cannot fairly be said to be a part of the common injury resulting therefrom.”

The question of injury to the real property belonging to appellants, such as shutting off ingress or egress to and from the same, or otherwise injuring their property, is not made by the complaint. Such injury could hardly be claimed for the reason that all of the places of business of the appellants are shown by the complaint to be located some distance from the portion of Main Street vacated by the order of the city authorities. Special injury to the business in which each of the appellants is engaged is the principal contention.

The general averments in the complaint, such as inconvenience to the public by reason of having to travel a greater distance over the proposed street, damage to property rights of adjoining and adjacent owners, increased hazard of accident and collision, do not merit any consideration. The latter are merely conclusions of law, and the former is something which affects all the public having occasion to travel on the new street. The allegations in regard to injury likely to obtain to the appellant Blanding’s wholesale and retail meat business in the city of Las Vegas are not, in our opinion, [71]*71sufficient to constitute that special injury required to be shown. The probability that his meat would become impaired or unfit for sale, if he is required to travel over the proposed street during hot weather, is somewhat remote under the facts stated. The increased distance is only 820 feet. This distance is inconsequential under modern modes of transportation, as is the fact alleged that less speed would be necessitated on account of the increased risk of accident and collision. The fact alleged that he makes 22 trips a day adds nothing to the risk of injury. This is merely more of an inconvenience to him than to others having occasion to travel it less frequently. While unfavorable conditions for travel over the proposed street are alleged, it does not appear that it is impassable, or that such conditions will be permanent.

It is alleged that the present street is the nearest and most accessible route between appellant Blanding’s slaughter and packing house and his market in the city of Las Vegas, but it is not alleged that there are not other routes over which he could transport his meat to the market without risk of injury. The facts stated should be explicit and sufficient to enable the court to determine whether there is any danger of special injury to the appellant. Mere fears of contemplated injury are not sufficient. As stated in Fogg v. N. C. O. Railway, supra: “Injunctions ought not to be granted in cases of this character, unless ‘the threatened use of property or the act sought to be restrained is clearly shown to be such as leaves no doubt of its injurious results; such results as are recognized to be substantial legal injuries. The bill must set forth such a state of facts as leaves no room for doubt upon the question of nuisance, for, if there is any doubt upon that point, the benefit will be given to the defendant.’ ”

No facts from which special injury to the business of appellant Filbey can be clearly concluded are alleged in the complaint. It appears from the complaint that appellant Filbey, like appellant Blanding, does not reside on the present street, but on a highway connecting [72]*72therewith, where he conducts a dairy. It is alleged that he makes eight trips each day from the place where he has his dairy to Las Vegas to deliver his dairy products, and on account of the proposed street being unsafe and unfit for travel will be compelled to travel 1 y5 miles further each way over a more circuitous route to his special injury. It is clear that this is not such injury as the law contemplates of which an individual may complain. It is not injury of a different kind from that suffered by the general public. As in the case of Blanding these allegations show merely an inconvenience of greater degree than to those who may travel that way less frequently.

Counsel for appellants contend that the weight of authority establishes the rule to be that an obstruction of a street or highway, requiring travel by a more circuitous route, constitutes a special injury sufficient to support an action by an individual. We are of the opinion that the weight of authority is decidedly the other way. Among the authorities recognizing the latter view are the following: Stoutemeyer v. Sharp, 89 Ark. 175, 116 S. W. 189, 21 L. R. A. (N. S.) 74; Hitch v. Scholle, 180 Cal. 467, 181 P. 657, 658; Whitsett v. Union Depot, etc., 10 Colo. 243, 15 P. 339; Newton v. New York, N. H. & H. R. Co., 72 Conn. 420, 44 A. 813; Canady v. Coeur D’Alene, 21 Idaho, 77, 120 P. 830; Houck v. Wachter, 34 Md. 265, 6 Am. Rep. 332; Nichols v. Inhabitants of Richmond, 162 Mass. 170, 38 N. E. 501; Tomazewski v. Palmer Bee Co., 223 Mich. 565, 194 N. W. 571; Smith v. Boston, 7 Cush. (Mass.) 254; Jacksonville, etc., Railroad Co. v. Thompson, 34 Fla. 346, 16 So. 282, 26 L. R. A. 410; Illinois Malleable Iron Co. v. Park Com’rs, 263 Ill. 446, 105 N. E. 336, 51 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1203; Dantzer v.

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Bluebook (online)
280 P. 644, 52 Nev. 52, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blanding-v-city-of-las-vegas-nev-1929.