City of Yale v. Noble

1925 OK 663, 239 P. 463, 113 Okla. 106, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 903
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 15, 1925
Docket15631
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 1925 OK 663 (City of Yale v. Noble) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Yale v. Noble, 1925 OK 663, 239 P. 463, 113 Okla. 106, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 903 (Okla. 1925).

Opinion

*107 . MASON, J.

This action was commenced-in the district court of Payne county, on the 19th day of November, 1921, by the! defendant in error, as plaintiff, against the. plaintiff in error, as defendant, to recover damages which were alleged to’ have resulted from a change of an alleged established grade of streets of said city upon which certain lots of the plaintiff abutted; said alleged change of grade being occasioned by paving the streets on the west and north sides of said lots.

The parties will hereinafter be referred to as they appeared in the trial court.

In addition to other defenses, the defendant denied that there ever had been an establishd grade on said streets prior to the time the grade for said street paving was established in the year 1918.

The case came on for trial, and after the plaintiff had presented her evidence, the demurrer of the defendant thereto was sustained by the trial court and the case was dismissed, from which action the plaintiff duly perfected her appeal to this court and filed her brief herein. No brief was ever filed on behalf of the city, and on the 5th day of February, 1924, this court by opinion, Noble v. City of Yale et al., 101 Okla. 35, 223 Pac. 125, reversed the ease and remanded it to the trial court, with directions to grant a new trial.

On May 6, 1924, the case again came on for trial in the district court, and the parties stipulated that the evidence of the former trial might be used by both parties with the same force and effect as a deposition. The parties, however, reserved the right to object to any of the testimony on account of the incompetency, irrelevancy, and immateriality of the same.

At the close of the plaintiff’s evidence the defendant again demurred to the -evidence, which was overruled by the court, to which the defendant excepted. - The defendant then introduced its evidence.

The jury returned the verdict for the plaintiff in the sum of $3,500, upon which judgment was rendered. Defendant’s motion fo-r new trial was overruled, and it has duly perfected its appeal to -this court.

The only, assignment of ejrror presented by the plaintiff in error which we deem necessary to consider -isriwhether.r-ior not the trial.court erred in. refusing ip.ustaiii the! defendant’s ’ demurrpr ,to the , plaintiff’s' évi-, dencé. ......."" "' ". 7 ’ ,7 .

a:The- defendant .ini er tor, i honre v.er;..’contends that this question cannot be presented for. determination on this appeal, for the reason that the evidence in the second trial is practically identical with that of the first trial, and that the question as to its sufficiency-' was the question presented by the first appeal. Counsel for defendant in error have devoted their entire brief to the discussion of this question and cite many cases, from this and other courts, an examination o».which discloses that they are not applicable to the instant case.

Counsel cite Reed et al. v. Robinson, 92 Okla. 107, 219 Pac. 296, wherein the first paragraph of the syllabus provides:

“Where a case is brought a second time on error to- this court, the first decision will be deemed the settled law of the case, and will not be made a subject of re-examination. This rule extends not merely to all questions actually presented by counsel, but to all questions existing in the record, and necessarily involved in the decision.”

The cases of Midland Savings & Loan Co. v. Sutton et al., 93 Okla. 230, 220 Pac. 663. is also cited, which provides as follows:

“Upon successive appeals of the same case to this court, the law as determined and stated by this court upon the legal questions presented on each appeal becomes and is the law of the case on those questions in all subsequent proceedings, either in the trial, court or in this court, and where the facts are practically without dispute and substantially the same on each successive appeal, this court upon the instant appeal will not re-examine such questions as were formerly determined, but will consider only such questions as were reserved in the former’ decisions and those which are newly presented. ”

All the other cases cited by the defendant in' error announce substantially the Same doctrine.

it ■ is clear that such doctrine does not apply to the instant appeal, inasmuch as. no; legal questions involved herein were considered in disposing of the first appeal. The judgment of the trial court was not reversed on the legal questions presented, but because of the failure of the 'then defendant’ in error .to'file a brief as required by the rules of this court.

, 'l'f :a litigant who has been successful in the, lower court is too careléss, negligent,. or -'indifferent.,to file a, .b$ef in support..'.iff. his- judgment, this!coTjf%i.||iould-not be ,rA¡ q.uired'to,-and will .-no-fe-■ ¡search a volumirh ous’-record to'find some-;-fhéory ■ upon-■ -which-such judgment -may be- sustained.. .Therefore-su,ch~ cases are; ¡reversed and-remanded. *108 for a new trial; but by so doing tbe legal questions involved are not decided.

The contention of the defendant in error herein is without merit, and the cases cited in support thereof are not applicable.

In considering the assignment of error that the trial court erred in overruling the defendant’s demurrer to the evidence, we must look to the plaintiff’s evidence, keeping in mind the well-established rule of thiá court that a demurrer to the evidence admits the truth of all the evidence adduced and all the facts which the evidence tends to establish, as well as every fact and reasonable inference to be drawn therefrom. McKone v. McConkey, 77 Okla. 3, 185 Pac. 520; Oklahoma Hospital v. Brown, 87 Okla. 46, 208 Pac. 785.

Under section 4583, O. O. S. 1921, the may- or and council of any city are authorized to establish and change the grade of any street and to permanently improve the same by paving whenever in their judgment the public convenience may require such improvements.

Section 4584, C. O. S. 1921, provides as follows :

“No change of any grade previously established by the city shall be made without making due compensation to the owners of abutting pr'operty for any damage thereby1 caused to the permanent improvements erected thereon with reference to the previously establisbd grade.”

It will therefore be seen that the cityi of Yale had authority to establish or change the grade of said streets, but if a grade which had; been previously establised on said streets were changed by said city, the plaintiff herein would be entitled to recover compensation for any damages thereby caused to any permanent improvements erected on her property with reference to the previous-by established grade.

This court in the case of the City of Mangum v. Todd, 42 Okla. 343, 141 Pac. 266, had occasion to consider the question under consideration and the sections of the statutes herein involved, and in the second and third laragraphs of tbe syllabus held as follows:'

“2.

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Bluebook (online)
1925 OK 663, 239 P. 463, 113 Okla. 106, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 903, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-yale-v-noble-okla-1925.