Chicago, Kansas & Western Railroad v. Cosper

42 Kan. 561
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedJuly 15, 1889
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 42 Kan. 561 (Chicago, Kansas & Western Railroad v. Cosper) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chicago, Kansas & Western Railroad v. Cosper, 42 Kan. 561 (kan 1889).

Opinion

Opinion by

Simpson, C.:

This was an appeal to the district court of Chase county from an award made by commissioners to George W. Cosper, in the condemnation of a right-of-way of the railroad company through his land. Cosper owned a farm of three hundred and sixty acres, adapted to and used exclusively for the raising of cattle. The line of road as constructed and operated, extended for more than three-fourths of a mile through his land. It separated his pasture laud from the creek and timber, and from his stock-water, and, by reason of cuts and embankments, made access from one to the other difficult, and crossings expensive to construct. The commissioners awarded him $672.50. In the district court the jury returned a verdict in his favor of $2,474.41. A new trial was refused, and many exceptions saved, which are assigned for error here, and among the most important are:

1. Railway right of way-value of land taken-competent witness. First: It is insisted that the record shows that many of the witnesses who testified at the trial to the value of the land taken and the damages to the whole tract, did not have the necessary qualifications to express opinions on these subjects. They were farmers living in the neighborhood, who had knowledge of the farm for years, knew . _ 7 its location, advantages, character or soil, and its market value compared to other lands surrounding it. This brings these witnesses fairly within the rule announced by this court in the recent case of L. & W. Rly. Co. v. Hawk, 39 Kas. 638.

[563]*563Second: Witnesses were asked about tbe “value” of the land, and what the land was reasonably “worth,” and responded to these questions with opinions as to the “value” and “worth” of the land. These questions and answers were at first objected to by the attorneys of the railroad company, and finally apparently acquiesced in, as they used the same expressions on the cross-examination of Cosper’s witnesses, and in the examination-in-chief of their own. As 'a rule, both sides used the expressions “value” and “worth,” instead of “market value,” the latter being used very sparingly by either side. We are not disposed, in this state of the record, to give the plaintiff in error the benefit of the objections made and exceptions saved in .the first part of the trial, because practically they were abandoned and waived by the subsequent use by the complaining party of these same words. In fact, all understood that these words were used as synonymous with “market value,” and the court charged the jury that by “value,” it was meant market value, that is, the price the land was fairly worth in the market.

Third: There was evidence offered by the plaintiff below, under objection by the railroad company, of the fact that a ditch had been.made by the company in the construction of the road, in such a way that it caused injury to the land of Cosper, by bringing surface-water in such quantities that the ditch was continually deepening and widening, and the land of Cosper was crumbling into it, and the soil was washing into the ditch. This ditch was partly on the right-of-way, and partly on Cosper’s land. It was about one hundred and sixty rods long, and when constructed was three and one-half feet deep and from five to six feet wide. It was built to catch the surface-water, drain the embankments, and carry the water to the creek. It seems to have been a necessity, as without it the surface-water would overflow the land of Cos-per, undermine and wash away the embankment, and destroy the road-bed. There is no allegation that it was negligently or defectively constructed. It is now claimed that evidence as to the location, use and effects of the ditch, was improperly [564]*564admitted. The plaintiff below could not recover in this action for that part of the ditch that was located on his land and was outside of the right-of-way; neither could he recover for the damages done the adjoining land by that part of the ditch. In the case of Reisner v. Depot & Rld. Co., 27 Kas. 382, this court says:

“Beyond the limit of what was condemned, the company had no right whatever, and if it has used other portions of the lot of the plaintiff, it is not a matter of inquiry upon an appeal from the condemnation. If the company has taken possession of any part of' the lot beyond that which has been condemned, it is a trespasser thereon, and an action of ejectment may be prosecuted for its recovery, or an action for damages may be maintained for all wrongful acts done outside of the right-of-way acquired by the condemnation.”

2. Ditch-damages-jury-limit of inquiry. The plaintiff below had a right to show the location of this ditch, its length, depth and width, as affecting the inconvenience of access from one part of the farm to the other; and he had a right to show that the part of the ditch that b _ r . . . was located on the right-of-way inj uriously affected pjg adjoining land. The record shows that this question was a subject of much comment by the counsel on both sides and by the court, and the following instruction was given, that fairly states the law:

“No claim for damages can be founded upon the negligent and improper construction or apprehended negligent and improper operation of the railroad, or for digging ditches upon plaintiff’s land outside the right-of-way. For all such, actions other than this one, for the recovery of damages thereon will lie. It is only such damages as necessarily result from or which may fairly and reasonably be presumed to result from the construction and operation of the road in a legal and proper manner that can be taken into account by you.”

With this instruction, it was not error to refuse to give the tenth and eleventh instructions asked for by the railroad company. We have carefully examined the evidence, and cannot find that any one witness estimated the damages in dollars and cents, that resulted from the location and construction of the [565]*565ditch. The verdict is a general one, there having been no special questions as to particular items of damages requested, or submitted. It may be that the jury in arriving at their verdict, estimated the damages done by that part of the ditch located on the right-of-way. It was proper that they should have taken this into consideration, and assuming that they did, and indulging in the luxury of the presumption that they obeyed the instruction of the court, and did not consider the effect on the adjoining land of that part of the ditch located on the land of Cosper, there is no cause of complaint on the part of the railroad company.

Fourth: The next complaint is based upon the refusal of the court to give the following instruction:

“You are instructed that the plaintiff, or any person claiming under him, has, and shall at all times hereafter have, the right to make any and all crossings over the right-of-way through plaintiff’s land which plaintiff or such person may desire to make, providing that in the use of the same they shall not so use them as to interfere with the operation of the railroad of defendant over such right-of-way.”

The evidence in the record, as a matter of fact, conclusively demonstrates that the line of road as constructed through this land — for the road was built at the time of the trial on appeal— was so located as to cause great inconvenience of access from one part of the farm to the other.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
42 Kan. 561, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-kansas-western-railroad-v-cosper-kan-1889.