City of Milwaukee v. Diller

216 N.W. 837, 194 Wis. 376, 1927 Wisc. LEXIS 80
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 6, 1927
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 216 N.W. 837 (City of Milwaukee v. Diller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin 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 Milwaukee v. Diller, 216 N.W. 837, 194 Wis. 376, 1927 Wisc. LEXIS 80 (Wis. 1927).

Opinion

Crownhart, J.

In State ex rel. Allis v. Wiesner, 187 Wis. 384, 204 N. W. 589, this court held the jury provision of ch. VI of the Milwaukee city charter, with reference to the necessity of taking property by condemnation, was unconstitutional. The appellant now seeks to determine the necessity for the taking of property under the procedure of sub. (1), sec. 32.07, Stats., and then to acquire the property by virtue of the city charter provisions, following the unconstitutional provisions of the charter.

The questions involved may be simply stated. Did the decision of this court in the Wiesner Case, supra, have the effect of invalidating the whole of ch. VI of the Milwaukee charter, covering the subject of eminent domain? Or, are the provisions of that chapter, with reference to the determination of necessity, which were held invalid, and the part of the chapter which relates to’ the acquisition of property after the necessity therefor has been ascertained, separable so that we may now say that the legislature, in passing ch. VI of the Milwaukee charter, would have passed the act if it had known that the provisions with reference to determining the necessity for the taking were invalid?

The courts uniformly hold that where a portion of an act is held invalid, the rest of the act may stand unless the invalid portion was an inducement to the legislature for passing the act as an entirety.

Looking at the original charter of the city of Milwaukee and the amendments thereto, it will be seen that ch. VI thereof constitutes a complete scheme for the taking of property under eminent domain. It provides for the determination of the necessity for taking the property, but the provisions of the charter in that regard were held unconstitutional for the reason that the jury provided by the charter was not the [380]*380jury contemplated by the constitution. At the time the Milwaukee charter was enacted, ch. 32, Stats., did not e^ist, so the legislature could not have had in contemplation that if the jury provisions relating to the necessity for taking the property should be held unconstitutional, the invalidated portion of the charter could be supplied by reference to ch. 32, Stats. I-Iowever, counsel for appellant contends that the general Code provisions then in effect provided for civil actions wherein jury verdicts might be had, and it is his contention that the legislature may well have had'the Code in mind and thus have enacted ch. VI of the charter, relying upon the provisions of the Code to supply the jury determination of the necessity in case the provisions of ch. VI with reference thereto should be held invalid. We think this position is untenable. The provisions of the Code relate to civil actions, and manifestly were intended to apply to the ordinary actions in court. But the Milwaukee charter was consolidated and revised by ch. 56, Laws of 1852, while the Code was not adopted until 1856. So the legislature could not have had the Code in mind at that time. As consolidated and revised in 1852, the charter had substantially the jury provision as later amended. The legislature would probably not hive enacted the law in the form it did if" it had understood that it was invalid, but would have substituted in ch. VI, for the invalidated sections, some other scheme which in its judgment would have been valid, as it did in the charter of the city of Madison, ch. 36, Laws of 1882.

In the several city charters which we have examined the legislature included a jury provision for determining necessity as a part of the plan of obtaining private property under eminent domain, and nowhere have we found any charter provision not including it. When, in 1889, the commission, headed by the late Mr. Justice Maeshall, appointed by this court to draft a general charter law, reported its draft of thé law, it included such a provision in legal form as a part [381]*381of the general scheme, which was adopted by the legislature. See history of the general charter law, dissenting opinion by Mr. Chief Justice Cassoday, in Adams v. Beloit, 105 Wis. 363, 376 et seq., 81 N. W. 869. So it would seem that from the organization of the state down to the present, the legislature has considered the jury verdict of necessity a necessary part of any plan for condemnation of private property for city purposes.

We think the provisions of the charter with reference to the verdict of necessity, and the balance of the condemnation proceedings, are not separable so as to leave a workable plan, since the decision in the Wiesner Case, supra.

The appellant, however, did not seek to determine the necessity in this proceeding, under the Code as it existed at the time the charter was enacted or since it was amended.

Ch. 32 of the Statutes is a recent enactment, making a complete, workable scheme for acquiring property under eminent domain in every city of this state. It is available to the city of Milwaukee under sub. (1), sec. 32.02, and sub. (1), sec. 32.03, Stats.

But can it be said that the legislature contemplated that the city of Milwaukee could reach over into ch. 32, Stats., and take the provision relating to necessity for taking property, and in effect incorporate it into its city charter in place of invalidated portions thereof? The rule is stated in 20 Corp. Jur. 881:

“If there are several distinct statutes under which a corporation may condemn lands, proceedings commenced under any one must be conducted throughout under that statute; they cannot be supported or aided by a resort to any other.”

Ch. 32 is made available to the city of Milwaukee by sub. (1), sec. 32.02, as modified by sub. (1), sec. 32.03, which in part reads:

“This chapter does not apply ... to any city of the first class [Milwaukee], except that every such city may conduct [382]*382any condemnation proceedings either under this chapter or, at its option, under other laws applicable to such city.”

In other words, Milwaukee had the optioir to proceed under ch. 32 or under its special charter, but no option is given to it to create a different scheme from either by selecting part of one scheme and part of the other and thus create a plan of its own. Such a proceeding is condemned by the decisions of this state. State ex rel. Manitowoc L. & F. Co. v. Kelley, 167 Wis. 91, 97, 166 N. W. 782. Also, see Mt. Clemens v. Macomb Circuit Judge, 119 Mich. 293, 77 N. W. 936; Big Rapids v. Big Rapids F. M. Co. 210 Mich. 158, 177 N. W. 284.

The general' charter law provided a similar option to cities under special charters, and under such option the city could proceed under its charter throughout, or it could proceed by adopting the general charter provisions of the subject, but it was not permitted to interweave the one with the other into a hybrid -plan to suit its fancy. Under the plan here attempted, the city sought to escape some of the provisions of ch. 32 and select from its charter portions more favorable to the city. Manifestly, such a scheme has all the vices condemned in State ex rel. Boycott v. Mayor, etc. 107 Wis. 654, 659, 84 N. W. 242, where it is said:

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Bluebook (online)
216 N.W. 837, 194 Wis. 376, 1927 Wisc. LEXIS 80, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-milwaukee-v-diller-wis-1927.