City of Fairfield v. Dashiell

249 N.W. 236, 217 Iowa 474
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJune 20, 1933
DocketNo. 41924.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 249 N.W. 236 (City of Fairfield v. Dashiell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Fairfield v. Dashiell, 249 N.W. 236, 217 Iowa 474 (iowa 1933).

Opinions

Albert, J.

At all times in controversy herein, John W. Wheatley was the owner of a farm consisting of 357 acres. To the south thereof, with a highway intervening, the city of Fairfield was the owner of a quarter section of land. A small natural water course ran across the land of the city and Wheatley in a northerly and southerly direction.

In the spring of 1925, the city of Fairfield was desirous of creating a reservoir, known in the record as No. 3, for impounding water for use in its waterworks. The dam was constructed across said waterway at a point about 120 rods south of the highway, and was 175 yards long and 20 feet high. After construction of the dam, the water impounded thereby overflowed on part of Wheatley’s land, and on February 11, 1929, he filed a petition in equity asking that the nuisance created and maintained by reason of defendant’s construction of said dam be enjoined, and he asked judgment against the defendant for damages in the sum of $4,000.

. After the commencement of that action, the city of Fairfield instituted condemnation proceedings against the plaintiff and his land, resulting in an award of $34,310.83. From this award an appeal- was taken b.y the city to .the district court. In the district court the appeal from the condemnation case was consolidated with the equity case for the purpose of trial, which resulted in a decree on June 16, 1930, so far as the condemnation case was concerned, which fixed the damages at $18,307.34. In the equity case the decree was in part as follows:

“The defendant, City of Fairfield, within four months from and after this date, shall pay to the plaintiff, John W. Wheatley, *476 the amount of the award this day made by this court in favor of John W. Wheatley v. City of Fairfield, Iowa, in law action 9344, the same being $18,307.34, together with interest thereon at the rate of six per cent per annum from and after this date.

“Or, in Lhe event the defendant, City of Fairfield shall appeal the said award of this court * * to the Supreme Court of Iowa, then said City of Fairfield shall, within four months from and after this date, file with the clerk of this court a supersedeas bond guaranteeing to the plaintiff, John W. Wheatley, the payment of the amount of said award * * or such amount as shall ultimately be determined to be due to the said John W. Wheatley by reason of the condemnation of said Wheatley’s land. * * And it is further ordered that in event the defendant, City of Fairfield, Iowa, shall fail to pay said award or take an appeal to the Supreme Court of Iowa, from the award made by this court in said law action No. 9344, and file bond as hereinbefore provided for within four months from and after this date, then a writ of injunction shall issue under the seal of this court restraining the City of Fairfield, Iowa, by and through all of its proper officers, from in any manner using or occupying for waterworks purposes, or any other purpose, the lands of the plaintiff described as follows: [Here follows a description of Wheatley’s land.]”

Both of these cases were appealed to the Supreme Court, and an opinion was rendered therein on February 9, 1932. Wheatley v. City of Fairfield, 213 Iowa 1187, 240 N. W. 628. The action of the district court was affirmed in both cases.

On November 21, 1932, plaintiff filed in the office of the clerk of the district court of Jefferson county, Iowa, in the equity case of Wheatley v. City of Fairfield, a motion for the issuance of a writ of injunction, and for an order requiring the sheriff to remove the dam above referred to, alleging that the city had wholly failed to pay said award but continued at all times thereafter to maintain said dam and to flood the lands owned by the plaintiff involved therein, and alleging that the plaintiff was entitled to a writ of injunction to restrain the defendant from continuing to use, occupy, and flood plaintiff’s land until the damages, as fixed by the award, had been paid to the plaintiff, and asking for fixing of time and place for hearing this motion and prescribing notice to be given therefor.

*477 The hearing was set for December 3, 1932, and notice given accordingly. On November 30, 1932, the city appeared and filed a resistance to this motion, alleging that the city of Fairfield had drained from all portions of said (Wheatley’s) land upon which water had been so obstructed as to be caused to remain thereon because of the construction of the dam on the defendant’s own premises, and asserting that the decree was a full and final adjudication of the rights and remedies of the parties to said cause and could not be modified or changed by the court without showing that there had been a change in the facts and circumstances under and upon which said cause was decided, further alleging:

“This court is without jurisdiction or power to modify or change the terms or provisions of said decree at this time for the reason that no showing has been made, that change has occurred in the facts and circumstances connected with said cause, and there has in fact been no change in the facts and circumstances connected with said cause of action, except that the City has removed the water from said premises, and is not now occupying any part of said premises, either directly or indirectly..”

This matter came on for hearing December 8, 1932, and a reporter’s transcript of all evidence taken on the original submission in both the equity and the law action was introduced in evidence. It was also shown that the city of Fairfield by official action on April 21, 1932, “directed the city engineer to at once drain sufficient water out of said reservoir No. 3 to avoid holding the water on John Wheatley’s land.”

The evidence shows that the city put in what was called “a valve” through the dam to let out part of the water impounded thereby, but the valve did not work automatically and had to be opened and closed by hand and did not wholly free Wheatley’s land from flooding.

After the decision by the Supreme CourL in the appeal, the city formally abandoned the condemnation proceedings.

The district court on this hearing found that plaintiff’s motion should be sustained, and a mandatory writ of injunction should issue for the removal of the dam, and, if the same were not removed by the city within thirty days from the filing of the decree, the sheriff of Jefferson county should be directed to enter upon said premises and remove the same, unless, prior to the expiration of *478 said thirty days, the defendant should pay into the hands of the clerk of that court, for the benefit of this plaintiff, the amount of award fixed by Judge Smith in the condemnation case and affirmed by the Supreme Court. It was further ordered:

“This court retains jurisdiction of this cause for the enforcement of all of the provisions of this decree, and in the event said dam shall be removed as provided for herein, this court expressly retains jurisdiction of this cause and the parties thereto for the determination of plaintiff’s damages to his land up to the date of the removal of said dam.”

A supplemental decree was entered accordingly.

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Related

Kallem v. Kallem
295 N.W. 826 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1941)
Bagley v. Bates
273 N.W. 924 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1937)
Wheatley v. City of Fairfield
264 N.W. 906 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1936)

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Bluebook (online)
249 N.W. 236, 217 Iowa 474, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-fairfield-v-dashiell-iowa-1933.