De Vore v. State Highway Commission

54 P.2d 971, 143 Kan. 470, 1936 Kan. LEXIS 4
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedMarch 7, 1936
DocketNo. 32,664
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 54 P.2d 971 (De Vore v. State Highway Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
De Vore v. State Highway Commission, 54 P.2d 971, 143 Kan. 470, 1936 Kan. LEXIS 4 (kan 1936).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Hutchison, J.:

This was a condemnation action commenced by the state highway commission to condemn other and additional land after having procured a deed from the landowner to that part of his land upon which the actual roadway and its embankments were located. One of the tracts condemned is an irregularly shaped tract, or rather, several small narrow tracts and one large tract on the east bank of Grouse creek, all in the northwest quarter of section 23, and amounting to 5.37 acres; and the other was a tract immediately north of the highway 1,050 feet east and west and 200 feet wide, located in the northeast quarter of section 22. It contained 4.83 acres and is frequently referred to as a borrow pit, these two tracts making a total of 10.2 acres.

[471]*471The landowner continued to own 552 acres in the tract from which the right of way was conveyed and this 10.2 acres were condemned. It was in a body two miles long and all but one. fourth of it one half a mile wide north and south. It was described as being about three fourths pasture land. Silver creek ran in a southerly direction through the northeast quarter of section 22 near the east side of that quarter section. Grouse creek ran in a southerly direction through the northwest quarter of section 23 near the east side of that quarter section. There were deep draws where these creeks crossed the half-section line or south edge of this tract of land. The old road had been.on this half-section line until it approached these deep draws. It then veered south and crossed these creeks at easier crossings, then returned northerly to the same half-section line. When this road became state highway No. 166 the highway commission decided to straighten it and have it continue across these draws on the half-section line, and for that purpose purchased from John De Vore and wife the necessary right of way for that purpose. Later, and for. use in the construction of this road, the highway needed the additional land and commenced this action to condemn this additional 10.2 acres, claiming it was needed mainly for borrow pits or from which it could get extra dirt needed for the fills. The appraisers appointed by the court returned an appraisement of the 5.37-acre tract, at $200 and the 4.83-acre tract at $300, or a total of $500. From this appraisement the landowners appealed, and the highway commission deposited this sum with the county treasurer.

On the trial in the district court before a jury much of the evidence of the landowners went to show the probability of damages to the remaining 552 acres from flood waters by reason of the method of the construction of the highway, embankments, fills and bridges. Such evidence was introduced over the objections of the highway commission until the plaintiffs rested their case, although the trial' court had frequently expressed doubt as to the correctness of the rulings thereon. At the close of plaintiffs’ testimony the court excluded from the consideration of the jury evidence as to damages to the remaining land by reason of floods and prospective floods, informing the jury that it had nothing to do with any damage that comes from the building of the road, nor from the grade, nor from the sufficiency of the bridges.

After the introduction of testimony by the highway commission and the giving of instructions the jury brought in a verdict for the [472]*472landowners for $6,431, and answers to special questions, showing that $1,431 was for the 10.2 acres of land taken and $5,000 was for the depreciation in value of the 552 acres by reason of the land taken. On the hearing of the motions of both parties for a new trial the court reduced the verdict from $6,431 to $5,000, with interest thereon, and overruled both motions. The highway commission appealed from the judgment rendered thereon, and the landowners filed a cross-appeal.

The highway commission, the appellant, urges its grounds for error under the following questions involved:

“1. Does the record contain any substantial, competent evidence to support the verdict and judgment, or was the verdict rendered upon conjecture and speculation, or under the influence of passion and prejudice?
“2. Did the admission of evidence of damages, not flowing out of the condemnation, and not directly resulting therefrom, substantially prejudice the rights of this defendant?
“3. Is the defendant required to pay interest upon a judgment in a condemnation appeal?”

The appellees urge the negative of each and all of the questions, and under their cross-appeal propose the following question:

“Does not the act of the trial court in ruling out all evidence concerning flood damage, and taking such evidence from the jury, require a new trial as to the amount of damages arising from waters and flood water?”

We will first consider the cross-appeal where the appellees maintain that the highway is to be regarded as one entire thing and the landowner is entitled to recover all damages directly resulting to. the remainder of his land from the location and construction of -the road, whether the roadbed be actually placed on that portion of the right of way taken from his land or not, citing C. K. & N. Rly. Co. v. Van Cleave, 52 Kan. 665, 33 Pac. 472. This was a case where there was only one effort to acquire the land for the construction of a railroad either by condemnation or by deed, and because the railroad company actually placed the railroad entirely on the adjoining land to the south and used the plaintiff’s land only for embankments and borrow pits, it was held that the owner was entitled to recover any damage suffered as depreciation in the value of the remaining land by reason of the construction of the railroad crossing and improper construction of the road. In this Kansas case Blesch v. Chicago & Northwestern Ry. Co., 48 Wis. 168, 2 N. W. 113, is cited with approval, and it was where only six inches of plaintiff’s land was needed for embankment, and the court held it was all one [473]*473right of way and the owner was entitled to recover all loss which he had sustained by reason of the road being built and operated on or over part of his land. This instance, too, was the first and only attempt to procure the land for railroad purposes.

The case of Smith v. Wyandotte County, 113 Kan. 244, 214 Pac. 104, cited by appellees, is more nearly like the case at bar in that the land on which the highway was located had already been appropriated and the highway constructed and in use. The condemnation proceedings were to condemn land for the widening and improvement of the highway, and the court there held:

“Where a strip of land is taken from an entire tract for the widening and improving of a highway, the owner is entitled to compensation to the extent of the value of the land taken and for injury to and depreciation of the remainder of the tract resulting from the appropriation; and in determining the damages to which he is entitled, consideration may be given to the character of the improvement and its effect upon the part of the tract not taken, including interference with access to the tract and the use to which it is devoted or reasonably adapted.” (Syl.)

All the damages to the land not taken is therein definitely limited to that caused by the improvement, not to the construction of the road originally.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
54 P.2d 971, 143 Kan. 470, 1936 Kan. LEXIS 4, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/de-vore-v-state-highway-commission-kan-1936.