Fleming v. Monongahela Railway Co.

95 S.E. 819, 82 W. Va. 1, 1918 W. Va. LEXIS 46
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 5, 1918
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 95 S.E. 819 (Fleming v. Monongahela Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fleming v. Monongahela Railway Co., 95 S.E. 819, 82 W. Va. 1, 1918 W. Va. LEXIS 46 (W. Va. 1918).

Opinion

MilleR, Judge:

The action is in case for the ■alleged unlawful entry by defendant upon plaintiffs’ land adjoining land owned by it, and -doing damages thereto by mailing deep cuts and excavations "thereon and for removing the lateral support thereto to which "they were lawfully entitled.

There was a verdict and judgment for plaintiffs for $5,- • 375.00, to which judgment the defendant sued out the present writ of error.

Upon the trial plaintiffs proved as a part of their case the récord of the verdict and judgment in a proceeding in condemnation against them whereby defendant, as successor, ac- • quired its right and title to the adjoining land, and wherein the original and amended petition with survey and plat exhibited therewith showing by metes and bounds the location .and boundary of the land adjudged to petitioner in said proceedings, and wherein the damages recovered by plaintiffs .herein for the 0.97 acres taken was $8,900.00, and which was •actually paid by petitioner as so adjudged.

The two principal questions now presented, and which so far as we can see are inclusive and conclusive of all other questions involved here are: First, whether the land so eon-[3]*3demned, and the title to which was by virtue of the statute in such cases provided, became vested in the railway company, covers the land invaded by the defendant; and Second, whether the damages awarded by the jury and paid according to the judgment in condemnation included damages for removing the lateral support to the adjoining land of plaintiffs not taken and for which recovery is sought in the present suit;

As described in the amended petition and plat filed therewith and the judgment in the condemnation proceedings the land condemned and transferred thereby to the railway company was as follows: “All of that certain parcel of land situate and lying in the District of Union Independent, in the City óf Fairmont, in the County of Marion and State of West Virginia, and more particularly described as follows, to-wit: Beginning at Sta. 277-92.9 the point where ;the located center line of the Pricketts Branch of the Buckhannon and Northern Railroad crosses the line between John Fleming et al and Geo. Lilley; thence with said line S. 54° 30' W. 23 feet, more or less, to a comer to John Fleming, et al and Geo. Lilley, in the line of Thomas Rubble; thence with the line between John Fleming et al and Thomas Rubble, John Phillips and T. Wilber Hennen, S. 35° 53' W. 280 feet, more or less, to a corner to John Fleming et al and T. Wilber Hennen; thence with the line between said Fleming et al, and Hennen, N. 66° 36' W. 124 feet, more or less, to the center of Merchant Street; thence with the center line of Merchant St; S. 21° 27' W. 40 feet to the line of the Buckhannon and Northern Railroad Co. and C. E. Harden; thence with said line S. 66° 36' E. 259.8 feet, more or less, to the West side of Diamond .Street; thence with the West side of Diamond St. N. 31° 41',E. 216 feet and N. 40° 12' E. 61 feet, more or less, to the line of Geo. Lilley; extended; thence with said line N. 50° 30' W. 105 feet, more or less, to the place of beginning, containing .97 acres more or less” and as described in the amended, plat filed in lieu of the map filed with the original petition.

On the, first of the questions presented the contention of the plaintiffs is that regardless of the literal calls in the petition, plat and judgment of condemnation; defendant was lim[4]*4ited in the calls for the west side of Diamond Street to the line of Diamond Street as laid down on a certain plat or plan of a proposed addition to said City of Fairmont, made in 1903, by J. Miles Prickett, surveyor. Bnt it is clearly shown that for the most part Diamond Street as laid down -on this plat, except for a short distance at the southerly end thereof, was merely projected through the enclosed lands of plaintiffs and that even at the time of the judgment of condemnation in 1914, said map or plat of said proposed addition had never been recorded, or the land opened up, or the plan of said addition accepted by the city, but that the land remained enclosed as a field without other improvements thereon, except one house and a barn and one or two small out buildings, as when platted, and it is not clear that defendant or any of its agents had, any knowledge of said plat.

It is not contended that the lines or boundaries of Diamond Street, as laid down on the plat filed in the condemnation suit, are coincident with the lines of Diamond Street on the plat or plan of the proposed addition made by Prickett, surveyor, in 1903. Indeed, it is plainly apparent from the calls for courses and distances, and from the evidence of the surveyors and of other witnesses that they are not, except for the distance of some sixty feet at the southerly end of said street bounding a cul-de-sac therein, and for which distance the call is S. 40° 12' W. or N. 40° 12' E. 61 feet more or less; thence S. 31° 41' W. or N. 31° 41' E. 216 feet to the Harden line, showing an angle in the street, whereas the corresponding west line of Diamond Street, as laid down on the plat of said Prickett made in 1903, is a straight line run substantially on the first call, and the land in controversy lies between these two divergent’lines representing the western line of Diamond Street as called for in the two plats, and bounding the triangular plot in dispute, covering about one tenth of an acre.

That the defendant is entitled to hold the land and all the land adjudged to it, or its predecessor, in the condemnation suit on the principle of res adjudicata is elementary law, and that this principle is applicable to final judgment in condemnation has been distinctly decided by this court. B. & O. R. R. Co. v. P. W. & Ky. R. R. Co., 17 W. Va. 812; Blake v. [5]*5Ohio River Railroad Co., 47 W. Va. 520. This question of estoppel by judgment is elaborately argued, in the briefs of counsel from all angles of observation, and it is not controverted by counsel for plaintiff, except perhaps on the theory of ambiguity in the description of the land condemned; but we think their position on this theory is unfounded. There is no ambiguity in the judgment or on the face of the record thereof. The question is simply whether the western line of Diamond Street, as called for in the judgment,' is a straight line for the entire length thereof on the bearing N. 40-°’-12' E. or after the distance of 61 feet runs at an'angle"tb the first line on a bearing N. 31° 41' E. as cálled'fordn the judgment. We think the plat and judgment of condemnation are: conclusive and that plaintiffs are estopped and concluded by, that judgment. How can there be any question, on .this proposition? And that the western line of Diamond Street called for is located on the ground substantially as claimed by defendant, is fully established by the record, and proofs in the case. And in so far as the instructions given and’ refused on this question, and especially plaintiffs’ instruction number six, given, we hold them to have been erroneously given" or refused, as the case may be, and we will not undertake to deal with these instructions individually. If the plaintiffs had desired in the condemnation suit to limit the defendant to .Diamond Street as proposed on their plat made in 1903„ they should have done so on the trial of that action;' not having done so, they can not now be heard to deny the rights .of defendant as determined by the judgment, in that suit. .

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Bluebook (online)
95 S.E. 819, 82 W. Va. 1, 1918 W. Va. LEXIS 46, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fleming-v-monongahela-railway-co-wva-1918.