Crowley v. Board of Commissioners

36 P. 313, 14 Mont. 292, 1894 Mont. LEXIS 44
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 26, 1894
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 36 P. 313 (Crowley v. Board of Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Crowley v. Board of Commissioners, 36 P. 313, 14 Mont. 292, 1894 Mont. LEXIS 44 (Mo. 1894).

Opinions

Harwood, J.

By this action plaintiff invoked the power of the court to enjoin the opening of a road through his land, in his complaint alleging: His ownership of a tract of valuable farming land situate in Gallatin county, giving a particular description thereof; that defendant board of county commis[293]*293sioners of said county and road supervisor threaten to, and were about to, open a road through his said land, pursuant to certain proceedings, to wit, a petition for the establishment and opening of said road as a public highway, and the approval thereof, and appointment of road viewers by said board of county commissioners for the purpose of viewing and reporting upon said proposed road, as provided by law; the report of the viewers; the record of the action of the board of county commissioners thereon, approving said report, and ordering that “said road is hereby established, and ordered opened, according to a resolution adopted by the board of commissioners hereto attached, and recorded in the journal of proceedings of the board of commissioners”; also, the notice that, pursuant to those proceedings, said defendant Sloan, road supervisor of the district wherein said road is established, had been ordered to open and work the same from and after sixty days from the date of said order, in accordance therewith. A copy of which petition, report, resolution, notice, etc., was attached to the complaint as exhibits, to be pait thereof. And the plaintiff proceeds to allege: That pursuant to those proceedings the defendant board of county commissioners and said road supervisor of that road district threaten and are about to open a public highway through the described tract of land of plaintiff for the distance of one mile, “one-half mile of which will pass through said land diagonally, and the same will appropriate about six acres thereof for said road, compelling plaintiff to build fence a distance of a mile and a half, at a cost of two hundred and eighty-eight dollars”; thereby, rendering valueless, for farming purposes, thirty acres of said land, which is of great value to plaintiff, and that he will thereby also suffer great and irreparable injury and damage to all of his premises. That the proposed opening of said road by defendants, and the pretended notice, and all the proceedings upon which the order for opening said road is based, are null and void, and without any force and effect, for various alleged causes, which are specifically enumerated. in the complaint. Such of these alleged grounds for avoiding said proceedings as are relied on by appellant to support his complaint on this appeal will be set forth and considered further along in [294]*294this opinion. Upon the filing and presentation of the complaint to the judge of the district court within and for said county, together with the usual bond in such cases, a temporary injunction was by the court granted, forbidding the opening of said road until otherwise ordered by court. Thereafter, defendants appeared, and demurred to the complaint on the ground that it failed to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and such demurrer was, upon consideration, sustained. Consequently, the temporary injunction, being without support, was dissolved. Plaintiff declined to amend his complaint, and judgment of dismissal of the action, with costs against plaintiff, was therefore entered, from which judgment and order dissolving the injunction this appeal is brought up by plaintiff.

It is apparent from the record and briefs of counsel that the demurrer was sustained because, in the opinion of the court, the complaint, with the exhibits thereto, shows that the county commissioners had proceeded regularly, and according to the provisions of statute, in the matter of ordering said road opened, as far as that proceeding had gone before injunction issued. With this premise, we proceed to examine the claims on which plaintiff’s counsel insist that the proceedings for opening said road are void, as specified in the complaint and their brief.

It is several times averred in the complaint that the proposed road is not sufficiently described in the proceedings for opening the same; but nowhere, either in the complaint or brief, is there specification of defect or error in such description. The proposed road appears to have been sufficiently described to enable plaintiff to make a verified allegation in his complaint that said road “runs through plaintiff’s said land a distance of a mile, and for a distance of half a mile, runs through said land diagonally”; that such road will appropriate about six acres of said land, and compel plaintiff to build a mile and a half of fence, at a cost of two hundred and eighty-eight dollars. It seems that plaintiff was able to deduce from the description of said road such exact data as to its ¡proposed location and effect on his premises, and all this appears to be directly and readily deducible from the description of [295]*295said road given in the various exhibits attached to plaintiff’s complaint. That description, as given in the notice of the road supervisor that he would proceed to open said road as directed by said board of commissioners, and work the same sixty days after the date of said order, reads as follows: “Beginning at the N. W. cor. of the N. E. of sec. 22, T. 1 N., It. 2 E., and run 2,643 feet S. on the quarter line of said sec. 22; thence, in a S. W. direction, to a point on the south line of sec. 22, 1,698 & 8/10 feet east of the southwest corner of said sec.; thence, on same course south, 18 degrees 39 minutes west, 386 & 7/10 ft.; thence south, 10 degrees 45 minutes west, 4,195 & 3/10 ft.; thence south, 42 degrees 40 minutes west, 1,125 & 5/10 ft., to southwest corner of section 27, T. 1 N., It. 2 E.,—in Gallatin county, state of Montana.” If this description is not sufficient, plaintiff has failed to specify the points wherein he has discovered defects or uncertainty.

There is also an objection that the petition for the opening of said road did not accurately describe the same, and furthermore, that the road, as finally ordered opened, after report of the viewers, and consideration of the question of opening such road, deviated somewhat from the description in the petition therefor. It is not unlikely that after report of the viewers, and consideration by the county commissioners of the question of opening such road, some deviation from the original proposed location, as set forth in the petition, might be made. Nor has any provision of law been cited, or any reason suggested, forbidding such an exercise of discretion on the part of the public agents charged with the duty of establishing public highways. Such objection seems to be without force. Besides, in this case, the variation between the petition and final order for opening the road does not appear to be very great.

It is further contended that the proceedings of the county commissioners in this matter did not show that the viewers appointed were qualified “as householders of said county,” as provided by statute. The resolution of the board of county commissioners authorizing the opening of said road, a copy of which is attached to the complaint, recites “that, in accordance with the order of said board of county commissioners, made March 14, 1893, appointing three persons, who possess the [296]*296statutory qualifications, as a board of viewers, and fixing the time for their view, the said road is established, and ordered opened.” Such is the affirmance of the resolution of the county commissioners as to the qualification of the road viewers appointed in that behalf.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
36 P. 313, 14 Mont. 292, 1894 Mont. LEXIS 44, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crowley-v-board-of-commissioners-mont-1894.