Del Monte Live Stock Co. v. Board of County Commissioners

24 Colo. App. 340
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 15, 1913
DocketNo. 3647
StatusPublished

This text of 24 Colo. App. 340 (Del Monte Live Stock Co. v. Board of County Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Del Monte Live Stock Co. v. Board of County Commissioners, 24 Colo. App. 340 (Colo. Ct. App. 1913).

Opinion

Bell, J.

This action comes before us on an appeal from an 'order and judgment made by the district court of Chaffee county, Colorado, denying the right of the appellants to 'a perpetual injunction and dismissing the action. The ¡complaint alleges, among many other things, that on or about the 3rd day of March, 1908, a petition was pre||sented to the appellees, as county commissioners of the county of Chaffee, praying that a county road be laid out established along a certain course or route, therein idescribed, which ran through certain lands and premises of the appellants; and on or about the 6th day of April, the appellees, at a special meeting, entered, on said |!|petition, an order appointing road viewers, and did appoint road viewers, to view the road described in said pe- and directed said viewers to meet at 10 o’clock [342]*342a. m. of May 9th, 1908, and to mark out said road, to assess the benefits and damages accruing to all persons affected by reason of the laying out of same, to award damages to all persons, in excess of the benefits accruing to him or them, a sum equal to such excess, and to report to the appellees their acts and doings in the premises; that on or about the 15th day of May, 1908, after having met and viewed said proposed road, the viewers filed in the office of the county clerk and recorder of said county a report in writing of their view, and recommended that said road run along a certain course or route mentioned and described in said report; that prior to the first Monday of July, 1908, which was the date of the next regular meeting of said board of county commissioners, the appellants conferred with the various members of said board and protested to the individual members thereof against the opening of said proposed road, and was assured and advised by said individual members that no further action would be taken in the matter; that, however, on the first Monday of April, 1909, appellees, without notice to the appellants or either of them, acted favorably on the proposed road, as far as reported upon, but authorized and directed said viewers to complete their view of said road and make further report thereon with all convenient speed; that on or about the 30th day of August, 1909, •said viewers filed an additional and amended report, recommending the establishment of a road along a course or route mentioned and described in said amended report, which report was approved by the appellees on the 7th day of September, 1909, and said road ordered opened as a public road or highway of said county, and, in compliance with said order, notices were posted in three public places that said road would be opened for public use from and after sixty days from the date of said notice; that the road recommended in the amended report was wholly different from that mentioned and described in the petition, [343]*343and also from that recommended in the original report of the viewers; that the opening of said new proposed road would embrace a large amount of land owned by the appellants ; that the amended and additional report of said viewers does not show that said viewers viewed the property of the appellants, or either of them, over and across which said new proposed road runs; that said viewers in making said report did not allow any damages whatever to said appellants or either of them for the land proposed to be taken, and the report so made does not show that the fights of said appellants or either of them were considered, or that the damages or benefits accruing to them or either of them were in any manner assessed or determined; that said appellants had no actual notice of the action of said commissioners or of said viewers in their efforts or proceedings to take,. condemn or appropriate the lands of the appellants or either of them for the purpose of establishing said proposed road, and have never been given an opportunity to be heard respecting the damages that might be sustained by them in the opening of said road; that, notwithstanding the order of said commissioners made on or about the 7th day of September, 1909, no further action has been taken to this date, January 25th, 1910, by said commissioners, or others, toward the opening of said proposed new road, but the appellants are informed and believe that the appellees are contemplating such opening during the month of February, 1910, and will so open it if not enjoined by the court; that great and irreparable injury would be done to the appellants if said road was opened, and they, therefore, prayed the order and decree of the court perpetually enjoining and restraining said appellees, and their successors- in office,' from opening and establishing the public highway provided for in the order of the commissioners made on September 7th, 1909. The complaint was filed February 11th, 1910. On'the 2nd of April, 1910, the appellants made an [344]*344application for a temporary injunction, which was resisted by the appellees, and upon that day the court denied the temporary injunction, and held that the only relief sought in the action was a perpetual injunction and, therefore, dismissed the action; to which ruling the appellants excepted and took an appeal to the supreme court. The appellants applied to the district court for a temporary injunction'pending.the appeal, which was also denied; and, on May 2nd, 1910, filed their petition in the supreme court for a temporary injunction and general relief. On May 3rd, 1910, the supreme court issued a temporary injunction, and further ordered that the appellees, on the 23rd day of May, 1910, at 10 o’clock a. m., show cause, if any they had, why an order of said court should not be made permanently restraining and enjoining the appellees from doing the things temporarily restrained as aforesaid. On June 6th, 1910, appellees filed an answer in the supreme court, and divers affidavits in support thereof, all of which were, on November 10th, 1910, stricken from the files because said answer raised issues of fact which were not raised in the district court. On June 24th, 1910, appellants moved for a permanent injunction in accordance with the prayer of their petition. On July 2nd and August 27th, 1910, appellees filed a brief and reply brief, which are confined largely to matters raised in the answer and affidavits in support, thereof, which, since their filing, have been stricken from the record, and thus leaves the matters stated in the complaint as confessed. That part of appellees ’ brief which is pertinent to the record, as we are to consider it, charges that the complaint is without equity, and does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action; that the supreme court has no jurisdiction of the cause; and that there is no defendant herein against whom a writ might issue.

We think the complaint, taken as confessed, states a cause of action, and'the chief justice of the supreme court [345]*345must liave so thought when the temporary injunction was issued and when the order was made requiring the appellees to show cause why the writ shoiild not be made permanent.

‘ ‘ Where the power of eminent domain has been delegated to public officers or others who are threatening to make a permanent appropriation of private property to public uses, in excess of the power granted or without complying with the conditions upon which the right to make the appropriation is given, a court of equity will prevent the threat ened wrong without regard to the question of irreparable damages or.the existence of legal remedies which may afford a money compensation.”— Lewis on Eminent Domain, 2nd vol., 2nd ed., page 1356, sec. 632; Browning v. Camden & Amboy R. R. Co., 4 N. J. Eq., 47-57; Bass v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
24 Colo. App. 340, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/del-monte-live-stock-co-v-board-of-county-commissioners-coloctapp-1913.