Boomer v. Atlantic Cement Co.

72 Misc. 2d 834, 340 N.Y.S.2d 97, 1972 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1213
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 29, 1972
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 72 Misc. 2d 834 (Boomer v. Atlantic Cement Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boomer v. Atlantic Cement Co., 72 Misc. 2d 834, 340 N.Y.S.2d 97, 1972 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1213 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1972).

Opinion

Matthew M. Dunne, J.

The following decision and determination of damages was written in 1971.

[835]*835After the trial, settlement negotiations continued in which the court participated, and all the attorneys agreed to extend the time for the decision, though made, to be handed down, until such of the cases as could be, or all, were settled.

After lengthy and patient negotiations the Boomer case was settled and discontinued. Later, the Meilak case also was settled and discontinued. This left only the Kinley case, and settlement of it not having been accomplished, the attorneys for Kinley and Atlantic now request the decision.

In order that the complete thrust of the court’s reasoning might be more readily ascertainable, no changes or deletions in the original decision have been made except that the determination of value and damages as to Boomer and Meilak has been excised.

We have been directed by the Court of Appeals “ to grant an injunction which shall be vacated upon payment by defendant of such amounts of permanent damage to the respective plaintiffs as shall for this purpose be determined by the court.” (Emphasis supplied.) (Boomer v. Atlantic Cement Co., 26 N Y 2d 219, 228 [March 4, 1970].) The court described these permanent damages to be such as ‘ ‘ would compensate them [the plaintiffs] for the total economic loss to their property ” (p. 225), and used the words (p. 227), “permanent damages ‘ present, past, and future”’, and stated (p. 226), “All of the attributions of economic loss to the properties on which plaintiffs’ complaints are based will have been redressed ”, adding “ The theory of damage is the servitude on land ’ of plaintiffs imposed by defendant’s nuisance.” (p. 228; emphasis supplied).

The closing paragraph of the decision leaves this court “ entirely free to re-examine this subject ” of permanent damages. We “may again find the permanent damage already found; or make new findings ” (p. 228).

Reference should be made to the long history of this litigation. In 1962 defendant began the operation of a large cement plant at Ravena, about 11 miles below Albany. In 1964 the plaintiffs, neighboring landowners, commenced their actions of injunction and damages alleging injury to property from dirt, smoke and vibration emanating from the plant. A lengthy trial by the court without a jury in 1967 resulted in a judgment establishing a nuisance, but refusing an injunction, and awarding temporary damages to June 1, 1967; it specifically made no finding beyond that date, but, for the guidance of the parties only, did find permanent damages if the parties stipulated to the payment and acceptance thereof, which they did not do.

[836]*836After being through the Appellate Division (30 A D 2d 480 [1968]; 31 A D 2d 578 [1968]; 30 A D 2d 254 [1968]), and the Court of Appeals (Boomer v. Atlantic Cement Co., supra), four of the original seven cases were settled during retrial in September, 1970, leaving the above three cases which were retried in April and May 1971, and to which this court now directs its decision.

On retrial in April and May of 1971, the plaintiffs testified that the conditions then were the same as before. The defendant introduced testimony that it had made three significant developments in the control of emissions: 1. It had converted the primary fuel of the plant from coal to oil. 2. It had put “ an additional spray system in the conveying apparatus from the quarry to the stockpiles at the plant site.” 3. It had replaced the multiclone dust collectors on the clinker cooler with a fiberglass bag-type collector all at the cost of $1,600,000. The rest of the testimony consisted mainly of experts in the field of real estate.

Plaintiffs’ Eanley property is referred to as a 283± acre dairy farm, consisting of a main house with various appropriate barns and farm buildings, including two silos, and three tenant houses, all rented. The property is situated on both sides of Route 9W; and plaintiffs seek $970,000.

Plaintiff’s Boomer property is referred to as about 8 acres, on which are situated a garage in which plaintiff conducted a used auto parts business and did auto body and fender work, and two small one-car garages, one metal, on the westerly side of Route 9W; and plaintiffs seek $350,000.

Plaintiffs’ Meilak property, about 5% acres on the westerly side of Route 9W, consists of a one-family home where plaintiff lived, together with a concrete block type garage used by Mr. Meilak as a truck repair shop and more recently a mobile homes sales lot; and plaintiffs seek $150,000.

The plaintiffs contend that the usual fair market value rule of damages, established under the “ just compensation ” requirement of section 7 of article I of the New York State Constitution, where private property is taken for public use, should not be applied in this private litigation, citing Brevoort v. Grace (53 N. Y. 245, 256) where Judge Grover stated: “If the power exists to take the property of one without his consent and transfer it to another, it may as well be exercised without making compensation as with it, for there is no provision in the Constitution that just compensation shall be made to the owner when his property shall be taken for private use ”, and Matter of New [837]*837York City Housing Auth. v. Muller (270 N. Y. 333, 343) where Judge Crouch stated: Nothing is better settled than that the property of one individual cannot, without his consent, be devoted to the private use of another, even when there is an incidental or colorable benefit to the public.”

Instead the plaintiffs contend that we should use a “ special ” market value rule and a so-called “ contract price ” theory. The “ special ” market is claimed to be based on inflated prices paid by defendant for other properties in the neighborhood.

Under plaintiffs’ ‘ contract price” theory, i.e., the amount that a private corporation would have to pay where it needs such servitude to continue in operation as against a seller who is unwilling to sell his land, plaintiffs ask ‘ heavy damages as will set notice to all the world that an industry cannot move into a town for the first time, an unindustrialized town, with a rural suburb and setting, and cast the substances, pollute the air and the lands of its neighbors, and to blast without any thought of compensation ___

Simply stated, this is asking for punitive damages and invoking the aid of equity to formulate policy. The Court of Appeals, in this case (Boomer v. Atlantic Cement Co., 26 N Y 2d 219, 223), has rejected the latter, and the present court rejects any notion of punitive damages, since we do not see that the wrong complained of is morally culpable, or is actuated by evil and reprehensible motives ”. (Walker v. Sheldon, 10 N Y 2d 401, 404.)

The defendant, insisting on strict compliance of the market value rule, urges that any other considerations would be speculative and uncertain. We disagree and refer to the case of Wakeman v. Wheeler & Wilson Mfg. Co. (101 N. Y. 205, 209), where, in writing of damages, the court says: ‘

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Bluebook (online)
72 Misc. 2d 834, 340 N.Y.S.2d 97, 1972 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1213, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boomer-v-atlantic-cement-co-nysupct-1972.