City of St. Louis v. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co.

197 S.W. 107, 272 Mo. 80, 1917 Mo. LEXIS 139
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJuly 27, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 197 S.W. 107 (City of St. Louis v. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co.) 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
City of St. Louis v. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co., 197 S.W. 107, 272 Mo. 80, 1917 Mo. LEXIS 139 (Mo. 1917).

Opinion

FARIS, J.

This action was commenced by the city of St. Louis for the purpose.of condemning the property of appellant, the National Lead Company, and others, as a right-of-way for the western approach to a bridge across the Mississippi River, called locally the Municipal or Free Bridge. The commissioners appointed by the court awarded to appellant for the land taken and for consequential damages the sum of $67,100. Exceptions were promptly filed by appellant and upon a trial by the court sitting as a jury, the court found for appellant exactly the amount of damages which had been given to it by the commissioners. Thereupon appellant took and perfected this appeal.

The appellant is engaged in the city of St. Louis in the manufacture of white lead, and for the purpose of [84]*84carrying on this business it has constructed an extensive plant at First and Lombard Streets. The factory of appellant is located upon two separate parcels of land, called in the record the “north tract” and the “south tract,” which are separated from each other by said Lombard Street. Appellant had improved both parcels of land for the purpose of carrying on its business of manufacturing white lead, by erecting thereon factory buildings, warehouses and other structures, and by installing in such buildings the necessary accessories, machinery and appliances for its trade.

The evidence discloses that in the manufacture of white lead it is necessary to devote a large amount of space to a process called in the nomenclature of the trade, “corroding” the lead. That part of appellant’s plant situated south of Lombard Street (and called hereinafter for convenience the “south corroding yard”) was used by appellant in the corroding process and upon it, as the proof shows, some 48 per cent of the lead processed in the factory was corroded. There was also a yard north of Lombard Street, and hereinafter referred to as the “north corroding yard,” which was likewise devoted to similar purposes, and on which the remainder of the lead made by appellant was corroded. The south corroding yard, of which the city appropriated 17,800 square feet, contained in all 22,872 square feet; thus leaving, after the condemnation, only a wedge-shaped parcel containing 5072 square feet. The taking of the portion mentioned from the south corroding yard rendered the latter wholly useless for lead corroding purposes, and it is therefore strenuously contended that since, by the taking of the south yard 48 per cent of appellant’s corroding area was destroyed, this fact so depreciated the value of appellant’s factory as a lead factory as practically to destroy it. This, for the reason that upon the remaining corroding area it is impossible to operate the plant to its full capacity, and since it cannot be operated to its full capacity, the overhead expense renders it financially impossible to operate it at all. Upon this view appellant made below, and now makes here, two claims [85]*85for damages: (a) -That it is entitled to the actual damages .sustained by reason of the physical taking of its south corroding yard, that is, of the tract located south of Lombard Street, and (b) that it is entitled to consequential damages by reason of its entire plant being depreciated in value as a result of the city’s taking part of the south corroding yard, without which the plant cannot be operated successfully, or profitably.

Many witnesses were called both by the city, and by appellant. The testimony of these witnesses, as to the value of the south corroding yard which was actually and physically taken, varied greatly; the values fixed by some of the witnesses thereon being two or three times greater than the value fixed by other witnesses in the case. Likewise the depreciation which appellant urges will accrue to its plant by the physical taking of 48 per cent of its corroding yard area was fixed at amounts which varied greatly. Some of the witnesses fixed this latter depreciation alone at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars; others said no depreciation would result, and others testified that depreciation in varying amounts would result, thus fixing the amount thereof from nothing to a quarter of a million dollars.

Against the second contention of appellant set out above, the city, while not seriously disputing that appellant’s plant could not be operated profitably or successfully without the south corroding yard, urges nevertheless that the value of the plant was not depreciated because other parcels of land could have been procured by appellant to take the place of the south corroding yard condemned by the city, upon which the necessary corroding process could be carried on by appellant as conveniently and economically as theretofore on the yard condemned.

At the request of appellant the trial court made, pursuant to the statute in such behalf, separate findings of fact and conclusions of law. Among these findings of fact the court specifically considered the point in this case which is most strenuously urged upon our attention by appellant. Its findings upon this point and [86]*86its conclusions of fact upon the controlling questions in the case are thus set out:

“That the city of St. Louis, plaintiff herein, has by an ordinance duly passed, authorized the appropriation of a strip of land 100 feet wide, for a right-of-way for its Municipal Bridge approach over that portion of said tract located south of Lombard Street and has under the authority of said ordinance condemned and appropriated for said bridge approach' 17,800 square- feet off of the northern portion of the tract lying south of Lombard Street, leaving a triangular strip containing 5072 square feet south of the-part appropriated.

“That the taking of the 17,800 square feet south of Lombard Street depreciates the market value of the 5072 square feet south of the part taken, because it is left in a wedge-shape and separated from the remainder of defendant’s property north of Lombard Street by the 100-feet-wide right-of-way for the bridge approach, appropriated under this proceeding, and by Lombard Street, a public highway.

“That the taking of the 17,800 feet south of Lombard Street does not depreciate the market value of the 60,000 feet north of Lombard Street, because it is shown from the evidence that for all marketable purposes this part is of sufficient size and is worth as much on the market without the part south of Lombard Street as it was worth when the same owner owned both parcels. The court further finds that immediately west of and contiguous to the part north of Lombard Street there is and was for sale when the commissioners’ report was filed in this case, and when the money was paid into court for the use of exceptor herein, 21,000 square feet of land which could he acquired for about $50,000, and which was just as available for use in connection with the part remaining as the part appropriated.

“That if the defendant wished to continue to use the part remaining north of Lombard Street, for a lead manufacturing plant, it could by a re-arrangement of it in connection with the 21,000 square feet, use it to just as good advantage and as economically as it could be [87]*87used before the appropriation of the part south of Lombard Street, and that it would be just as valuable in its rearranged and readjusted condition as it was before the appropriation by the city of the part south of Lombard Street.

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Bluebook (online)
197 S.W. 107, 272 Mo. 80, 1917 Mo. LEXIS 139, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-st-louis-v-st-louis-iron-mountain-southern-railway-co-mo-1917.