Denver City Irrigation & Water Co. v. Middaugh

12 Colo. 434
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedApril 15, 1889
StatusPublished
Cited by73 cases

This text of 12 Colo. 434 (Denver City Irrigation & Water Co. v. Middaugh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Denver City Irrigation & Water Co. v. Middaugh, 12 Colo. 434 (Colo. 1889).

Opinions

Mr. Justice Hayt

delivered the opinion of the court.

The county court was without jurisdiction in the condemnation proceedings, the amount of award being in excess of $2,000. Railroad Co. v. Church, 7 Colo. 143; Railway Co. v. Otis, 7 Colo. 198. A decision had not, however, been rendered in either of the cases cited at the time of the trial in the county court, and the parties to the condemnation proceedings treated the same as valid, the appellant paying and the appellee accepting the amount of the judgment awarded by that court. The appellant shortly thereafter entered into the possession of the lands condemned, and has since occupied the same, with its ditch and reservoir. Under these circumstances it becomes necessary to determine the status of the party under such void proceedings. It is a' familiar principle of the law that a party accepting and retaining the fruits of a void judgment is estopped from assailing the judgment itself. Kile v. Town of Yellowhead, 80 Ill. 208; Town v. Town of Blackberry, 29 Ill. 137; Felch v. Gilman, 22 Vt. 39; Embury v. Conner, 3 N. Y. 511; Hitchcock v. Railroad Co. 25 Conn. 516. In none of the cases, cited, however, did it become necessary to determine the effect of receiving the benefits of a judgment void for the want [437]*437of jurisdiction in the court over the subject-matter of the suit, although the language used in some of the opinions is broad enough to cover such cases. In the case at bar the court below, in some of the instructions given to the jury, seems to have drawn a distinction between the case of a party accepting the fruits of a judgment rendered by a court without jurisdiction of the subject-matter and a case in which the party has received the fruits of a judgment voidable for the want of jurisdiction over the person, or on account of some informality occurring in the proceedings antecedent to judgment; but this theory is expressly waived by counsel for appellee in their argument filed in this court, and after diligent search I have been unable to find any authority in support of the theory of the trial court. Nothing in the testimony indicates that at the time the appellant paid and the appellee received the amount of the judgment of the county court either party entertained a suspicion of the invalidity of such judgment, .and under these circumstances we must presume that both parties were acting in good faith under the belief that the proceedings in that court were valid and binding, and that the judgment there rendered had all the force and effect of a valid judgment, and that the. money was paid and the land taken with this understanding. And as appellee, after the notice of the invalidity of such proceeding, continued to retain the money so paid, I am of the opinion that he is estopped from denying the validity of such judgment, and that he should be held bound by that adjudication the same as he would have been had the court had complete jurisdiction, and that for the purposes of this action the same should be treated in all respects as a valid judgment. See Kile v. Toivn of Yellowhead and other cases cited supra.

It appears from the testimony adduced upon the trial in the district court that a large number of witnesses were examined in the condemnation proceedings in ref[438]*438erence to the damages that would probably result to ap- ' pellee’s land by reason of seepage and leakage of water from the ditch and reservoir; and under the instructions of the county court the jury were permitted to consider and allow for such damages in that proceeding if they saw proper, but it does not affirmatively appear that such elements of damage were in fact allowed. One juror, sworn as a witness upon the trial in the district court, testified that damages for seepage and leakage were not allowed; other jurors testifying that such matters were taken into consideration by the jury, but could not state whether any damages were allowed for the same or not. Under such circumstances I think it would be very difficult to say just what consideration influenced the mind of each juror in the condemnation proceeding in arriving at the conclusion that the sum of $1,500 should be allowed the appellee as proper compensation for the damages to result to the balance of his land; but, if the judgment of the county court is to be treated as valid, the consideration of this question is not material, for a valid judgment is conclusive between the parties, not only as to such matters as were in fact determined in that proceeding, but as to every other matter which the parties might have litigated-as incident to, or essentially connected with, the subject-matter of the litigation, whether the same as a matter of fact were or were not considered. Freem. Judgm. § 249; Sabin v. Railroad Co. 25 Vt. 363. This principle was recognized by the learned judge in the trial below, in the instructions to the'jury, upon defendant’s plea of res judicata; for, after telling the jury that the plaintiff could not recover for the damages in fact allowed by the jury in the county court, they were also instructed that the law presumed that all past, present and future damages which the improvement would cause, so far as the same might have been reasonably foreseen or anticipated, were included in the award of the jury in the condemnation proceedings. Under these [439]*439and other instructions the jury were left, however, to determine whether the damages claimed might have been reasonably foreseen or anticipated by the jury in the condemnation proceeding, and, if not, they were instructed that the appellee might recover for such damages in this action as well as for damages arising from unskilful or negligent construction or use of the ditch or reservoir, and this is assigned for error.

Upon my first examination of this case I was of the opinion, in opposition to the views of the Chief Justice, that there was no error in these instructions; but upon reflection, and after an examination of the authorities, I have concluded that my first impressions were erroneous, and that the rule in reference to the conclusiveness of condemnation proceedings under statutes similar to our own, which is supported by the better considerations and recognized by the strong 'weight of judicial authority, requires us to hold that damages resulting from seepage and leakage from the ditch and reservoir, not resulting from negligent or unskilful construction or use thereof, ought to have been foreseen and allowed in the condemnation proceedings, consequently are not recoverable in this action, no matter whether such damages were, as a matter of fact, allowed or not. It is provided by our statute that in condemnation proceedings the owner or parties interested in the real estate taken shall be awarded damages, not only for the land or property taken, but also the damages, if any, resulting to the residue of such land or property. The reported cases under similar statutes have generally treated of the damages recoverable for the seizure of land under the right of eminent domain, for railroad or highway purposes; and, so far as I have investigated the decisions, I find the general current of authority to be that all the damages, present and prospective, that are the natural, necessary or reasonable incident of the improvement, must be assessed in the condemnation proceedings, not including such as may [440]*440arise from negligent or unskilful construction or use thereof. Mills, Em. Dom. § 216; Sabin v. Railway Co. supra; Aldrich v. Railway Co. 21 N. H. 359; Railway Co. v. Hopkins, 90 Ill. 316; Sawyer v.

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Bluebook (online)
12 Colo. 434, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/denver-city-irrigation-water-co-v-middaugh-colo-1889.