Chicago, Sante Fe & California Railway Co. v. McGrew

104 Mo. 282
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedApril 15, 1891
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 104 Mo. 282 (Chicago, Sante Fe & California Railway Co. v. McGrew) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chicago, Sante Fe & California Railway Co. v. McGrew, 104 Mo. 282 (Mo. 1891).

Opinion

Macfarlane, J.

— This is a suit to condemn a right of way thirty feet wide over lot 939 in block 122, out-lot 19 in the town of Camden, Ray county, the property of defendant. • Commissioners were appointed by the judge in vacation. They made an assessment of $3,000 damages and filed their report. This report was afterwards set aside by the court upon exceptions filed by the defendant. The case was tried by a jury, and a Verdict of $7,000 returned, upon which judg'ment was rendered against plaintiff.

The evidence shows that this lot was about one hundred and fifty feet in length north and south, and fifty feet in width. Defendant also owned lots 938 and 940, adjoining, and on either side of lot 939, being of the same dimensions. At the point where these lots are located, the Missouri river runs nearly east and west. The track of the' Wabash railroad extends along the bank of the river near the water’s edge. On the north side of, and adjacent to, the right of way of the Wabash railroad a public street was located. These lots abutted on this public street. Plaintiff located its railroad adjacent to and parallel with the Wabash road, occupying the street by consent of the town, and providing another street north of its located line. Defendant also owned a large tract of coal land lying north, northeast and northwest of these lots. About the center of lot 939, defendant had sunk a coal shaft, by means of which his coalfield was worked. North of the shaft about forty-five feet, and on the same lot, defendant had located his engine-house and engine by which the shaft was operated.

Through lots 938 and 940 defendant had condemned its right of way through to the vacated street on the south. From the river north, the land ascended into the hills beyond the railroads. From a switch of the Wabash lailroad a spur or sidetrack extended opposite [287]*287the shaft. At the entrance of the shaft was a superstructure called a pit top. From this two trestles, one above the other, extended towards the river. These trestles were provided with tracks, and, by means of small cars, the debris of the mine was carried over the upper one and dumped into the ri ver, and the coal was carried over the lower one to the sidetrack of the Wabash road and loaded into its cars. The shaft was about fourteen feet in dimensions east and west, and seven feet north and south. The coal and debris were brought up through the shaft by means of two cages, one oh the east and one on the west side of the shaft, which were lowered and raised by means of a wire cable extending from the engine over a pulley at the top of the pit top. From the bottom of the shaft small rail tracks diverged to different parts of the mine by which the coal was carried from the mine to the shaft and raised by the cages.

Plaintiff’s railroad was located between this shaft and the engine-house, somewhat nearer the engine than the shaft, thus separating them:' In order to operate the mine it was evident that some readjustment of the existing arrangements would have to be made. Several plans were proposed and evidence offered to prove their practicability, the expense necessary to make the changes and readjustment thereunder, and the time necessarily consumed in so doing. The land actually taken was of insignificant value. The damage claimed by defendant and not controverted by plaintiff was on account of interruption of the mining business of defendant, the expense of readjustment and the loss while necessarily engaged in making changes.

The theories upon which the plaintiff insisted the changes could be made, and upon which evidence was offered, were as follows:

That the works could be operated without relocating either the engine or shaft, by what was denominated either an over pull or under pull. The former plan was to erect a superstructure at the engine and operate the [288]*288mine by a cable through, this superstructure over the right of way to the pit top; the latter was to tunnel under the track and make the- connection through the tunnel. Another plan was to move the engine up the hill to the north and pass the cable over the track to the pit top. Plaintiff’s evidence tended to prove the practicability of these theories, and defendant’s evidence tended to prove their impracticability.

Defendant insisted that the only feasible arrangement that could be made was to abandon, entirely, the new shaft, sink another further up the hill north of the location of plaintiff’s railroad, and move the engine and engine house also north. This plan, it was contended, would necessitate the abandonment also of the connection with the Wabash railroad, and delay the business of defendant until a new connection could be made with plaintiff ’ s road when built. Evidence was offered tending to prove the practicability of this readjustment and the expense thereof, the time it would take to complete the change and of damages for loss of the use of the mine until working arrangements could be perfected by connection with plaintiff’s road.

Plaintiff also advanced a theory for readjustment, which it insisted was practicable and would entail much less expense than any of those proposed. This was to remove the engine to the south side of the location of its road on the south end of either lot 938 or 940, which it had already condemned for its right of way. To prove the practicability of this plan plaintiff offered to prove that it had tendered to defendant a release to the south part of these lots to be used for locating the engine-house and engine. This evidence was excluded.

Over plaintiff’s objection, evidence was offered by defendant, and admitted by the court, tending to prove that there would be liability of fire escaping from locomotives and igniting the engine-house and machinery and the superstructure to the shaft while in such near proximity to the railroad, and there would be also increased [289]*289risk to laborers should the engine and shaft be separated by the railroad.

Defendant filed a bill of the items of his damages as follows:

“Damages for being cut off from Wabash railroad until completion of plaintiff’s road. $80,000 00

Permanent damages for being cut off from the Wabash switches, etc................... «5,000 00

Yalue of present shaft...................... 5,000 00

Damages to mining property arising from uncertainty of sinking new shaft and danger of water and sand flowing in and damaging mines....................... 5,000 00

Cost of moving and altering engine, new engine-house and pit top............... 2,000 00

Changes at bottom of mine................ 1,000 00

Damages to mines arising from having to cross and recrpss railroad in going to and from same............................. 1,000 00

“$49,000 00”

The court gave the jury a number of instructions asked by plaintiff, and also refused a number. Several were also given on request of defendant, and the court, on its own motion, gave instructions covering the whole case. It would be impossible to review these instructions in detail within a reasonable limit, and, without attempting to do so, we will merely consider the legal propositions enunciated by them, and undertake to ascertain the law that should govern in determining the rule of damages as applied to the facts in this case.

I.

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Bluebook (online)
104 Mo. 282, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-sante-fe-california-railway-co-v-mcgrew-mo-1891.