City of Chicago v. Garrity

7 Ill. App. 474, 1880 Ill. App. LEXIS 259
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 8, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 7 Ill. App. 474 (City of Chicago v. Garrity) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Chicago v. Garrity, 7 Ill. App. 474, 1880 Ill. App. LEXIS 259 (Ill. Ct. App. 1880).

Opinion

Bailey, J.

On the trial of this cause, the court, at the instance of Garrity, gave to the jury the following instructions:

“ The jury are instructed that the tenant, Cudney, will be released from the payment of rent for the premises sought to be condemned by this proceeding, whenever possession is taken of the same by the city.

“ The jury are instructed to make' no deduction from the amount to be awarded to the owner of the premises sought to be condemned, on the southeast corner of State and Thirty-first streets, by reason of the leasehold interest upon the same, if they believe from the evidence that the rent reserved by the lease thereof is ecpial to the full annual rent at value of the said property.”

It is manifest, that in this case, the amount of compensation which the landlord and tenant, repectively, are entitled to receive for the property taken or damaged for the proposed improvement, must depend, to a considerable extent, upon the effect which the taking of a portion of the demised premises for the public use, by an exercise of the power of eminent domain, will produce upon the tenancy itself. If the lease is thereby annulled and the tenancy terminated, or even [if the rent is proportionally abated, the landlord is clearly entitled to a larger, and the tenant to a smaller, compensation, than would be their due, if it should be held that the liability of the tenant for the rent continued for the residue of the term, unaffected by the appropriation to public use of a portion of the premises.

We are aware of no decision in this state upon this question, and the decisions of the courts of the other states in relation to it, are not entirely harmonious. We are of the opinion, however, that the weight of authority is clearly in favor of the principle that the tenant remains liable for the entire rent, notwithstanding the condemnation of a portion of the property to public use.

So far as our researches h ave extended, the only state where a different rule prevails, is Missouri. It is true, the case of Gillespie v. Thomas, 15 "Wend. 464, holds that when a portion of the premises is taken, the tenant is entitled to an abatement of the rent, proportionate to the value of the part so taken, but that decision was based exclusively upon a statute of that state, which provided that whenever the entire premises were taken for the opening or widening of a street, the covenants and engagements between landlord and tenant should cease and be discharged, and that where only a part was taken, the rent should be equitably apportioned.

In the same state, however, in Folts v. Huntley, 7 Wend. 210, a case which does not seem to have been controlled by any statute, the demised premises, which consisted of a mill privilege, were taken by the canal commissioners for the purpose of constructing a feeder to the Erie canal, and it was held that such taking was not an eviction by paramount title, so as to relieve the lessee from the payment of rent and the performance of his covenants.

The question first arose in Missouri in Biddle v. Hussman, 23 Mo. 597. In that case, Biddle conveyed to the city of St. Louis a part of the premises previously leased to Hussman, and the part conveyed was afterwards taken by the city by process of condemnation. Subsequently, Biddle sued Hussman for the rent of the entire premises. The court held that, as to the part appropriated to public use, the rent was extinguished, placing their decision mainly upon the effect of the conveyance, but at the same time holding that the condemnation proceedings produced the same result. They say: “ The condemnation was a reassumption by the state of her original title to the land under the right of eminent domain. It was a revocation of the landlord’s title, and may well be considered as extinguishing all rights depending upon the continuance of that title.”

In Kingsland v. Clark, 24 Mo. 24, after a part of the deraised premises had been appropriated to public use by condemnation, a proceeding in equity was brought to ascertain and settle the amount of rent accruing under the lease, and on the authority of Biddle v. Hussman, it was held that a proportionate part of the rent was extinguished.

The case of Barclay v. Pickles, 38 Mo. 143, was an action for the rent of certain premises which had, subsequently to the demise, been taken by the city of St. Louis for a street. The court held that the tenancy was terminated, quoting as the basis of their decision, the following language from Taylor on Landlord and Tenant, Sec. 519: “ As a general rule, whenever the estate which the lessor had at the time of making the lease is defeated or determined, the lease is extinguished with it. If, therefore, a lot of land, or other premises under lease is • required to be taken for city or other public improvements, the lease, upon the confirmation of the report of the commissioners condemning the property, becomes void.”

Mr. Washburn, in his learned treatise on the law of real property, after stating the rule prevailing in Missouri, says: “But the better rule, and one believed to be adopted in most of the states, is, that such a taking operates, so far as the lessee is concerned, upon his interest as property for which the public are to make him compensation, and does not affect his liability to pay rent for the entire estate according to the tenor of his lease. 1 Wash, on Beal Prop. 342.

A leading case on this subject is, Parks v. The City of Boston, 15 Pick. 198. That was a proceeding by a landlord to obtain an assessment of damages for a part of certain demised premises which had been taken by the city for the purpose of widening a street. At the trial the lease was proved by the city, and it was thereupon insisted that the plaintiff should not recover the full value of the land, for the reason that he was still entitled to rent from his tenant during the residue of the term. The court, however, instructed the jury that a part of the land having been taken by lawjfor the nse of the public, without the consent of the landlord or tenant, the lease was thereby determined, and the landlord could not compel the tenant to pay such rent. This instruction was held to be erron eons, and in the opinion of the court delivered by Chief Justice Shaw, the law is laid down as follows : “ But upon what principle can it be mantained, that a lessee under such circumstances would be exempted from the payment of the stipulated rent. The lessee takes his term, just as every other owner of real estate takes title, subject to the right and power of the public to take it, or a part of it, for public use, whenever the public necessity and convenience may require it. Such a right is no incumbrance; such a taking is no breach of the covenant of the lessor for quiet enjoyment. The lessee then holds and enjoys exactly what was granted him, as a consideration for the reserved rent, which is the whole use and beneficial enjoyment of the estate leased, subject to the sov- ■ ereign right of eminent domain on the part of the public. If he has suffered any loss oiqdiminution in the actual enjoyment of its use, it is not by the act of sufferance of the landlord; but it is by the act of the public, against whom the law has provided him an ample remedy. If he is compelled to pay the full compensation for the estate actually diminished in value, this is an element in computing the compensation which he is to receive from the public.”

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7 Ill. App. 474, 1880 Ill. App. LEXIS 259, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-chicago-v-garrity-illappct-1880.