Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Hadley

101 N.E. 473, 179 Ind. 429, 1913 Ind. LEXIS 51
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedApril 18, 1913
DocketNo. 22,094
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 101 N.E. 473 (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Hadley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Hadley, 101 N.E. 473, 179 Ind. 429, 1913 Ind. LEXIS 51 (Ind. 1913).

Opinion

Cox, J.

This was an action by appellees to recover damages for a trespass upon their lands alleged to have been committed by appellant in lowering the grade of its tracks on an established right of way across those lands and in doing other reconstruction work on its railroad. There was a trial by jury which returned a general verdict for appellees for $1,000. With the general verdict the jury also found the existence of certain material facts by their answers to interrogatories which had been submitted to them by the court. Prom a judgment on the general verdict this appeal is brought.

The errors assigned and not waived are: (1) the action of the court in granting leave and permitting appellees to file a supplemental complaint on oral motion after the jury had been sworn, the statements of counsel made and part of the evidence for appellees introduced; (2) in ovei’ruling appellant’s motion to strike out the supplemental complaint; (3) in overruling appellant’s motion to set aside the submission and continue the cause upon the filing of the supplemental complaint; and (4) in overruling ap>pellant’s motion for a new trial.

1. [432]*4322. [431]*431The filing of a supplemental complaint is done under the authority of §138 of the civil code (Acts 1881 p. 240, §408 Burns 1908, §399 R. S. 1881), which provides that, “The court may, on motion, allow supplemental pleadings, showing facts which occurred after the former pleadings were filed.” Whether such a pleading may be filed rests in the sound discretion of the trial court which may be invoked by oral motion. Section 2 of the act of 1903 (Acts 1903 p. 338, §662 Burns 1908), which [432]*432provides, “That every motion to insert new matter or to strike ou any part or parts of any pleading, deposition, report or other paper in the cause shall be made in writing and shall be set forth the words sought to be inserted or stricken out,” has no application to a motion for leave to file a supplemental pleading. The contention of appellant, therefore,'that because the motion for leave to file the supplemental complaint was not in writing it was error to permit it to be filed and to refuse to strike it out is without support.

3. Nor is there anything in the substance of the supplemental complaint which establishes the correctness of the contention made in behalf of appellant that the court erred in refusing to strike it out or to set aside the submission and continue the cause. It in no sense changed the theory or nature of the cause of action set out in the original complaint. The complaint was filed while the work of reconstruction of appellant’s road across appellees’ lands was being carried out and in it certain wrongful acts were alleged as being committed resulting in certain elements of damage. The supplemental complaint alleged the continuance of the same wrongs charged in the complaint and the completion of the work, and counted upon the same elements of damage as having been fully accomplished. Schmoe v. Cotton (1906), 167 Ind. 364, 79 N. E. 184, and cases there cited.

There is no vital difference between appellant and appellees over the facts involved in the ease. But their controversy grows out of essentially different views of the law which should be applied to these facts and the controversy is involved in several causes for a new trial which appellant contends the trial court erred in overruling. It appears that in 1869 appellant’s predecessor acquired by appropriation proceedings under statutory authority a strip of ground 99 feet wide for a permanent right of way for a railroad through a large tract of ground now owned by appellees. [433]*433The damages to the land occasioned by that appropriation were assessed and paid by the predecessors to appellees in the ownership of the land. At the time the instrument of appropriation was filed by appellant’s predecessor for the purpose of acquiring that strip of ground it also filed in the office of the clerk of the circuit court a map and profile of the route intended to be adopted pursuant to the requirements of §5194 Burns 1908, 1 R. S. 1852 p. 409, §3902 R. S. 1881. The profile showed that the grade of the proposed railroad would require excavation on the right of way so acquired from zero to about fifteen feet in depth, and the road was so constructed with a single track on the land appropriated. Thus was the railroad maintained and operated until 1906 when appellant, which had become the owner of the railroad, acquired by further condemnation an additional strip of appellees’ land lying along the north line of its right of way, which strip was 20.5 feet wide for substantially half the distance through appellees’ lands and 40.5 feet wide for the rest. In this latter proceeding appellant was also given the right to enter upon the adjoining premises of the appellees at a certain point for the purpose of deepening and widening a ditch which crossed the old right of way and to deepen and widen the ditch for a distance of about 400 feet south from the center line of the old right of way. The appropriation proceeding of 1906 was authorized by statutes which provide for the improvement of the line by local alterations. §§5195 (subv. 7), 5247, 5248 Burns 1908, §§3903, 3913, 3914 R. S. 1881. In this proceeding appellant’s complaint or instrument of appropriation showed the purpose of acquiring the additional land for its right of way to be to improve the line of railway by making local alterations by, among other things, cutting down grades and laying additional tracks, and they filed a map and profile showing the grades of the old track and new, and proposed cuts to be made in the process of lessening [434]*434grades, to a maximum, depth of 30 feet. For this second invasion of appellees’ land compensation was awarded to them to the value of the land taken and of a further amount as damages to the residue caused by taking the part appropriated. The award was paid by appellant and accepted by appellees.

Following this second appropriation appellant’s reconstruction work was carried out. The ditch was deepened and widened as contemplated, and grades were reduced by cuts to a maximum depth of about 30 feet or, about 15 feet deeper than the former cuts. This increased depth of cut was substantially all within the limits of the old right of way, the newly-acquired ground being used for a part of the slope of the north side of the cut.

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Bluebook (online)
101 N.E. 473, 179 Ind. 429, 1913 Ind. LEXIS 51, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cleveland-cincinnati-chicago-st-louis-railway-co-v-hadley-ind-1913.