Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Eaton

26 N.E. 575, 136 Ill. 9, 1891 Ill. LEXIS 939
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 24, 1891
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 26 N.E. 575 (Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Eaton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Eaton, 26 N.E. 575, 136 Ill. 9, 1891 Ill. LEXIS 939 (Ill. 1891).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Magruder

delivered the opinion of the Court:

The appellant herein filed its petition, on October 23, 1889, in the County Court of Madison County, in vacation, seeking to condemn the right of way for its line of railroad through said county. The county judge endorsed upon the petition an order fixing a day for the hearing, and the clerk proceeded to-draw a jury under the statute. Appellee, defendant below, filed his cross-petition, claiming damages to contiguous lands-not taken. This case and two others were heard together by consent, and separate verdicts were rendered. In the present-case, the verdict was $268.50 as compensation for the land taken, being 3.58 acres, and $1000.00 as damages to the lands not taken, amounting, in all, to $1268.50. Motion for new trial was overruled and judgment rendered upon the verdict. Such judgment is now brought here for review by appeal.

It is objected, that two witnesses, Eaton and Judy, were allowed to testify as to the cost of improvements upon the portion of the farm not taken for right of way. Counsel are mistaken in saying that the testimony is as to the cost. The witnesses merely stated how much the improvements were worth to the land, or, in other words, the value of the land with the improvements upon it. We cannot say that the statements thus made were improper, or worked any injury to the petitioner, when considered in connection with the rest of the testimony. Where certain evidence shows the value of the land not taken with the improvements thereon, as such value is before the construction of the road, and other evidence shows the reduced value thereof as it will be after the construction of the road, the jury are enabled to determine the extent of the depreciation, and, consequently, the amount of damages caused by the improvement. The point decided in J. & S. E. Ry. Co. v. Walsh, 106 Ill. 253, that the cost of the improvements is not a true test of the value of the premises, does not arise in this case.

It is objected that one of the witnesses was asked and allowed to answer the following question : “what would be the damage from having that pasture there open for six months by the railroad taking possession of the tract of land—by it being. unfenced ?” The question was proper in view of the ruling of this Court in St. L. J. & S. R. R. Co. v. Kirby, 104 Ill. 345, where it was held, that, under the law, the railroad company is not bound to fence its road until six months after it is completed, and that “the inconvenience of having a man’s land temporarily thrown open in the progress of the construction of the road, may be a material element, and justly require compensation.” To the same effect is C. & C. R. R. Co. v. Brake, 125 Ill. 393.

In connection with this subject the appellant criticizes the second instruction given for the defendant below, which told the jury that defendant was “entitled to recover all the damages that the evidence shows he will sustain by reason of his land being so thrown open and for six months after said railroad is open to use.” The said second instruction is not objectionable under the doctrine of the Brake case, and when read in connection with instructions given for the petitioner, which told the jury “that the damages, contemplated in law, to be paid for injury to contiguous land not taken, are such and such only as are the direct result of the taking of the right of way; that such damages, to be legitimately allowed, must be direct and proximate, and not remote and possible only; that * * * the inconvenience of using the lands not taken, resulting from the opening of the right of way up to the time the law requires the railroad company to fence its track, is proper to be taken into account in estimating for damages to contiguous lands not taken.”

It appeared from the evidence that the land of appellee, through which appellant sought to condemn the right of way, was a dairy and stock farm and valuable for the purposes of grazing and pasturage, and that its value for such purposes would be diminished if it was allowed to remain open and unfenced for six months after the completion of the road. We see no objection to this evidence under the decisions of this court. (Johnson v. F. & M. R. Ry. Co. 111 Ill. 413; DeBuol v. F. & M. R. Ry. Co. 111 id. 499; C. & E. R. R. Co. v. Jacobs, 110 id. 414; Dupuis v. C. & N. W. Ry. Co. 115 id. 97; C. B. & N. R. R. Co. v. Bowman, 122 id. 595; C. & C. R. R. Co. v. Brake, supra.) We find nothing in the evidence or the instructions, from which the jury could be authorized to allow damages for loss of business or profits. The Court correctly instructed the jury, that, if the lands not taken were depreciated in value by the construction and operation of the railroad, the measure of damages would be the difference in their market value before the construction of the road and after its construction, and that all the matters and circumstances, which were brought to their attention by the testimony, should only be taken into consideration in so far as they aided in determining the amount of such difference. It is true, as stated by counsel, that it was held in the Brake case to be incompetent and improper for the jury “to enter upon conjecture as to the probably injury to stock, or the damages that might result therefrom. ” But, here, they were especially cautioned against indulging in any such conjecture by an instruction given for the petitioner, which told them that they were not authorized “to allow anything by their verdict by reason of any supposed damage to stock from the use of said right of way for railroad purposes,” and that “the law considered the probable damage to stock as too remote and speculative to be considered in estimating the just compensation to be paid for such right of way.”

A witness was asked what, effect a trestle-work and embankment upon the right of way across the defendant’s farm would have “in regard to flooding the rest of his land ?” If we understand the objection made by appellant’s counsel to this question, it is the assumption, alleged to be contained in the question, that the company will depart from its plans and specifications. But we do not think that such a construction can be fairly placed upon the interrogatory. The engineer of the company testified that, according to the profile and survey introduced in evidence, a trestle 128 feet long and 20 feet high would be constructed, and that dirt would be used to make a bank “on the clover patch.” If the effect of such trestle and embankment would be to flood a portion of the land, such flooding would be a proper element of damage to be considered by the jury. The reply of the witness to the question could not -have injured the company, as he answered that he had had no experience in such matters and could not tell how much flooding would be caused by the embankment if there was one, though he thought that “it would flood some.”

Two persons, called as jurors and examined and accepted by the petitioner, were challenged by the defendant, on the ground that each of them had served as a juror on the trial of a cause in a court of record in said county of Madison within one year previous to the time of his being offered as a juror. The County judge sustained these challenges, and his action in this regard is now urged as error by the appellant.

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Bluebook (online)
26 N.E. 575, 136 Ill. 9, 1891 Ill. LEXIS 939, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-peoria-st-louis-railway-co-v-eaton-ill-1891.