Faulkner v. City of Nashville

285 S.W. 39, 154 Tenn. 145, 1 Smith & H. 145, 1925 Tenn. LEXIS 115
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 6, 1926
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 285 S.W. 39 (Faulkner v. City of Nashville) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Faulkner v. City of Nashville, 285 S.W. 39, 154 Tenn. 145, 1 Smith & H. 145, 1925 Tenn. LEXIS 115 (Tenn. 1926).

Opinion

Mb. Justice Hall

delivered the-opinion of the Court.

*147 This is a condemnation proceeding, and originated be: 'fore the City Council of the City of Nashville. The proceeding was instituted by the City of Nashville under the general municipal condemnation statute carried into Shannon’s Annotated Code as sections 1981 to 1984, inclusive. ■ ■ |

Pursuant to these sections, the city passed an ordinance June 24, 1924, ordering that Church street be widened to a uniform width of sixty-five feet between property lines from Thirteenth Avenue North to Twentieth Avenue North.

The section of the charter of the City of Nashville under which Church street was ordered widened reads as follows:

“Sec. 12. Be it further enacted, that the mayor and City Council of the City of Nashville shall, within the limitations of this act provided, have power by ordinance:
• • •
“ (33) To take and appropriate lands and grounds within said city for widening streets or parts of streets, or laying out new streets, avenues, squares, parks, promenades, viaducts and tunnels, or for the building of sewers, conduits, gas works, electric light plants, hay markets, market houses, engine houses, stationhouses, workhouses, city halls, detention hospitals, hospitals, pest houses, disinfecting or disposal plants for garbage and night soil, incinerating plants, dumps, wharves, waterworks purposes, pumping stations, settling basins, reservoirs, and rights of way for water mains, and any other public structure, building or improvement, when the public convenience requires it, under the provisions of sections 1388, 1389, 1390 and 1391 of the Code of Ten *148 nessee, the same being sections 1981 to 1984, both inclusive of Shannon’s Annotated Code of Tennessee.”

Sections 1981 to 1984, inclusive, of Shannon’s Annotated Code, reads as follows:

”1981. "When the owner of the land through which any street or alley or common is to be extended, requires damages for the same, the mayor and aldermen shall appoint freeholders, not exceeding seven in number, who, after first being sworn, shall examine the premises and assess the damages, and report the same to the mayor and aldermen, who shall cause the said report to be spread upon their minutes by the recorder.”
”1982. On payment of said damages into the office of the recorder, for the benefit of the owner of the land, the mayor and aldermen, first allowing said owner a reasonable time therefor, may order the street, alley, or common to be opened.”'
”1983. If any person fail or refuse to open the street, alley, or common so ordered, he shall be subject to a fine of five dollars for every month of his failure or refusal, to be recovered by the mayor and aldermen, by suit before a justice of the peace, for the use of the town.”
”1984. Any person aggrieved by such order for opening a street, alley, or common may appeal to the circuit court. ’ ’

The foregoing provisions delegated the power of condemnation under which the city proceeded to condemn the property of the plaintiff in error, Mrs. Esther Faulkner, hereinafter referred to as the defendant.

In widening Church street it was necessary to cut oil the fronts of some of the buildings and lots fronting thereon. The lot of the defendant fronted forty-nine feet *149 and seven inches on the sonth side of Church street, extended back approximately one hundred seventy-nine feet, and was improved with a two-story brick storehouse suitable for a retail grocery store or a small retail business. This brick storehouse fronted twenty feet on Church street, and extended back a distance of thirty feet.

The City of Nashville, who will hereinafter be referred to as the plaintiff, under the ordinance hereinbefore referred to, condemned seven and one-half feet off of the front of said lot. The storehouse fronting directly on the margin of the south side of said street, it was necessary for the plaintiff to take seven and one-half feet of the defendant’s storehouse, the ordinance providing that Church street should be widened to the extent of seven and one-half feet on both the south and north sides thereof.

Before said street was widened, it furnished difficult traffic as a thoroughfare to serve the public for travel and parking; but, after it was widened, it afforded easy and safe travel to the traffic moving along and on said street. No question is made as to the necessity of the improvement, or as to the right of the city to condemn the defendant’s property for said purpose.

Pursuant to the statute and said ordinance, a committee of five freeholders was appointed, who, after first being sworn, went upon the premises of the defendant, and, after examining the same, assessed her damages at $1,532 for the seven and one-half feet taken by the city, and said committee made a report of its findings to the mayor and city council on July 15, 1924. This report was approved by the mayor and city council on the same *150 date it was filed, and on July 21, 1924, the city clerk notified the defendant of this assessment, and that the amount of said assessment had been set apart to her, and was then in his hands, subject to her order.

On July 28, 1924, the city authorities notified the defendant to give possession to the city of the seven and one-half feet that had been condemned and taken for widening Church street.

The defendant, feeling herself aggrieved at the amount of the award, filed her petition, and perfected an appeal from said award to the circuit court of the county.

The city tendered the amount of the award into court, • and the defendant, under an order of the court, was permitted to withdraw the amount of the award without prejudice to her rights.

Thereafter the case was heard upon a stipulation of facts before the court without the intervention of a jury.

In the stipulation of facts it was agreed that the remainder of the property of the defendant not taken was incidentally damaged by said condemnation in the sum of $900'. In other words, that the value of the defendant’s property, as a result of the condemnation, was $900' less after the condemnation than before.

It is stipulated that the incidental benefits resulting from the ■ widening and improvement of Church street, between said terminal points, to the property of the defendant were greatly in excess of the incidental damages ; that these incidental benefits resulted from Church street, between said points, being widened, from the increase of travel thereon, both by vehicles and on foot, from the increased accessibility to her property, from the convenience of getting to and from it with *151

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Bluebook (online)
285 S.W. 39, 154 Tenn. 145, 1 Smith & H. 145, 1925 Tenn. LEXIS 115, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/faulkner-v-city-of-nashville-tenn-1926.