City of Chicago v. Provus

114 N.E.2d 793, 415 Ill. 618, 1953 Ill. LEXIS 385
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 24, 1953
Docket32778
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 114 N.E.2d 793 (City of Chicago v. Provus) 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
City of Chicago v. Provus, 114 N.E.2d 793, 415 Ill. 618, 1953 Ill. LEXIS 385 (Ill. 1953).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Maxwell

delivered the opinion of the court:

The city of Chicago, appellee, filed an eminent domain proceeding in the circuit court of Cook County against Dorothy Provus and others, to condemn the south 14 feet of a certain lot designated as tract N-3, to construct an improvement as a part of its superhighway system. Later, a second petition was filed to condemn an additional triangular strip of said lot, designated as tract N-4. Appellants filed a cross petition to the original petition, which cross petition was ordered to stand as a cross petition upon the consolidation of the two causes. The jury awarded $11,135 as compensation for both tracts and specifically found that there were no damages to that portion of the lots not taken. A motion for a new trial was denied and appellants take a direct appeal from the judgment entered on the verdict.

Appellants are the owners of lots 23 and 24, which constitute a single, unbroken, unimproved tract of land on the north side of Chicago about seven miles from the Loop, with a combined frontage of 100 feet on North Sheridan Road and extending east along the north line of West Hollywood Avenue 163 feet to Lake Michigan. Tract N-3 is fourteen feet wide off the south side of lot 24 adjoining Hollywood Boulevard, and tract N-4 is a triangular strip adjoining tract N-3 on the north and west, 43 feet parallel to Hollywood Avenue by 32 feet on Sheridan Road.

The city of Chicago, in conjunction with three other public bodies, has a plan for an improvement known as the North Route of the comprehensive superhighway system, commonly known as the North Outer Drive, which has been practically completed. The extension now proposed will be north from Foster Avenue (5200 north) to a connection with and into Hollywood Avenue (5700 north). The acquisition of the two tracts in question is to permit the widening of Hollywood Avenue and to make an easy turn from it into Sheridan Road to facilitate the flow of traffic around the corner.

Appellants contended that, in addition to the loss of a portion of their property, they would be damaged in their ownership of the remainder of the tract. In compliance with an order, they filed a bill of particulars setting up the items of damages claimed by them. Items one and two of the bill of particulars alleged the value of tracts N-3 and N-4 at $13,167 and $2408, respectively, and item three alleged damages to that portion of the lots not taken at $44,486. In addition, items four, five and six were claims for loss of an appraisal fee in connection with a proposed FHA loan, loss occasioned by inability to use architects’ plans for an apartment building, and a claim for mortgage service charges.

Appellee’s answer denied that appellants were entitled to the amount of damages claimed in items one, two, and three and denied that there was any basis for recovery of the damages alleged in items four, five and six. Before trial the court, after arguments, ordered the last three items excluded from the consideration of the jury. After assignment of the case, appellants moved for leave to file an amended bill of particulars to include such items, with some amplifications, which motion was denied. The trial court offered to hear evidence on the question for the record outside of the presence of the jury, but appellants did not avail themselves of this opportunity.

The first and second assignments of error are based upon the court’s withdrawal from consideration of the jury before trial of items four, five and six of the bill of particulars, and the refusal to permit the filing of an amended bill containing such items, respectively. Appellants’ position is that they should have been allowed to make proof of expenditures alleged to have been made by them for financing, appraisal and architects’ fees, and are entitled to be made whole by an allowance of damages to include such expenditures.

It has long been established by this court that the measure of compensation for land taken by eminent domain is the fair cash market value for the highest and best use to which it is available and the decrease, if any, in the fair cash market value of the part not taken. (Forest Preserve Dist. v. Lehmann Estate, Inc., 388 Ill. 416; City of Chicago v. Harbecke, 409 Ill. 425; Department of Public Works and Buildings v. Barton, 371 Ill. 11.) The market value standard thus established precludes taking into consideration as a measure of damages the peculiar value to the owner because of some contemplated improvement by which he hoped to secure an income or profit. (Forest Preserve Dist. v. Hahn, 341 Ill. 599; Sanitary Dist. v. Chicago and Alton Railroad Co. 267 Ill. 252.) Since the outlay of capital for future use planning and financing of improvements to vacant land cannot be said to increase the market value thereof, such outlay comes within the exclusion and should not be considered in ascertaining the fair cash market value.

Appellants cite several cases in support of their position, including Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad Co. v. Siegel, 161 Ill. 638. There the award included damages for cost of removal and loss of profits, and our decision upheld the award. But, as we said in Braun v. Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad Co. 166 Ill. 434, in commenting upon the Siegel case, “the allowance of such items in that case was sustained solely on the ground that petitioner had * * * conceded upon the trial that that might properly be considered.” Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Co. v. Naperville, 166 Ill. 87, also cited, is distinguishable in that it involved damages to railroad property which does not have “market value,” within the commonly accepted meaning of the term, and is in the category of special use properties, such as churches, school, etc. Sanitary Dist. v. Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne and Chicago Railway Co. 216 Ill. 575.

The cases of City of Chicago v. Koff, 341 Ill. 520, and City of Chicago v. Callender, 396 Ill. 371, are distinguishiable from the case at bar in that they involved the taking ¡and destruction of part of the buildings and other improvejments. There the elements taken into consideration made ,a part of the market value. We do not consider either case a departure from the long-established market-value rule. •We are of the opinion that the trial court properly excluded evidence upon items four, five and six of the bill of particulars from the consideration of the jury. Likewise, since the amended bill of particulars was merely an amplification and enlargement of the original bill of particulars, the trial court acted entirely within its discretion in refusing to permit appellants to file the amended bill.

In view of our opinion herein expressed it is unnecessary to consider appellee’s suggestion that appellants were precluded from raising the question of the exclusion of items four, five and six because of their failure to offer evidence in support of such items out of the presence of the jury.

■ All witnesses agreed that the highest and best use to which the property could be put was for apartment building purposes. Petitioner’s witnesses, including Newton C. Farr, with vast experince in the construction and management of multistory buildings, testified unequivocally and positively that there was no damage to the portion of the premises not taken.

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114 N.E.2d 793, 415 Ill. 618, 1953 Ill. LEXIS 385, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-chicago-v-provus-ill-1953.