Gershone v. City of Minneapolis

60 N.W.2d 23, 240 Minn. 32, 1953 Minn. LEXIS 672
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedJuly 17, 1953
DocketNos. 36,027, 36,028
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 60 N.W.2d 23 (Gershone v. City of Minneapolis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gershone v. City of Minneapolis, 60 N.W.2d 23, 240 Minn. 32, 1953 Minn. LEXIS 672 (Mich. 1953).

Opinion

Knutson, Justice.

The facts necessary to a determination of the questions raised by this appeal briefly are as follows: On April 5, 1949, the city of Minneapolis passed a resolution. providing for the commencement of condemnation proceedings under its city charter in connection with a grade separation under the tracks of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company at the intersection of East Franklin and Cedar avenues. Appellants are the owners of lots 18 and 19 of block 1, Foster’s Addition to Minneapolis, on which they operate a box factory. This property was located on the fringe of the land required for the street improvement project. In the original condemnation proceeding the city sought to take the north one foot of lot 19, which would include a brick wall- on the north side of appellants’ factory, and appellants were awarded $50 for the land to be taken and $1,950 as damages for the rebuilding of the wall.' Appellants, contending that there were other elements of damage which had not been taken into consideration, filed objections to the confirmation of the report of the commissioners, but the report was confirmed. On March 1, 1950, appellants filed their notice of appeal to the district court.

On March 31, 1950, the city council passed a resolution stating:

“That all proceedings in connection with Condemnation No. 41 pertaining to the grade separation in the vicinity of Cedar avenue and East Franklin avenue be and are hereby in áll things abandoned in so far only as said condemnation affects the following described property; Lot 19, Block 1, Foster’s Addition to Minneapolis; the east-west alley in said block, and that portion of Cedar avenue lying south of the northerly line of said alley extended easterly to the east line of Cedar avenue.”

This resolution was intended to abandon all condemnation proceedings against appellants’ property. Thereafter the city moved .the court to dismiss the appeal. The motion was opposed by appellants, but the court granted the motion. Appellants thereupon appealed from the order dismissing their appeal to the district court- and [34]*34also applied for a writ of certiorari to review the proceedings, which we issued.

It is the contention of appellants that the street improvement project has resulted in very substantial damages to their property by virtue of the fact that Cedar avenue has been cut off in such a way as to create a cul-de-sac depriving appellants of ingress to and egress from their property onto Franklin avenue except by a roundabout route, thereby greatly diminishing the value of the property. They further contend that they have a right to have the damages to their property determined in the condemnation proceedings and that, if the city has a right to dismiss the proceedings as to their property, such dismissal should have been conditioned upon payment of appellants’ expenses, including attorney’s fees, necessitated by the inclusion of appellants’ property in the condemnation proceedings.

The appeal and writ of certiorari present two questions:

(1) Did the city have a right to abandon the condemnation of appellants’ property?

(2) If the city had a right to abandon condemnation of appellants’ property, could it do so without payment of appellants’ expenses, including reasonable attorney’s fees?

It is conceded that the establishment of a cul-de-sac entitles the property owner to compensation for the damage sustained. We are not concerned here with the merit of appellants’ claim for-damages. Appellants concede that the city could have left their land out of the condemnation proceedings in the first instance if it did not actually take any of their property and that, had it done so, appellants would have available an action for consequential damages under our decision in Collins v. Village of Richfield, 238 Minn. 87, 55 N. W. (2d) 628. In that case, we held that a landowner has an adequate remedy at law to recover consequential damages to property for injury caused by a change of grade of a street where no part of the land actually is taken.

Minneapolis City Charter and Ordinances (Perm, ed.) c. 10, § 7, reads as follows:

[35]*35“The City Council shall have the right at any time during the pendency of any proceedings for the improvements authorized in this Chapter, or at any time within ninety (90) days after the final order of the Court, on any appeal from such proceedings, to abandon all such proceedings whenever it shall deem it for the interest of the city to do so, which right to so abandon such proceedings within ninety (90) days after the final order shall apply to all proceedings now pending in which the City of Minneapolis has not yet paid for or obtained title to any property condemned by said proceedings for public use.”

We believe that this charter provison must be construed to mean that the city has the right in a condemnation proceeding to abandon within the time specified the condemnation of any land included therein. Having such right, the landowner must thereafter proceed in a suit for consequential damages in the same manner as if the land had not been included in the first instance. We see no reason why the city should be compelled to determine damages in a condemnation proceeding when it has been abandoned any more than it would be compelled by mandamus to condemn the property if damages resulted where the city did not institute condemnation proceedings at all. We believe that this issue of the case is governed by Collins v. Village of Richfield, 238 Minn. 87, 55 N. W. (2d) 628, supra.

This case is not to be confused with similar situations in which the state is involved. In such cases we have held that the state may be compelled to institute condemnation proceedings by mandamus. State, by Peterson, v. Anderson, 220 Minn. 139, 19 N. W. (2d) 70. That rule is based on the fact that the state is immune from suit and the landowner has no other adequate remedy at law against the state, which is not true where a city is involved. The distinction between the two situations is recognized in the Richfield case.

Where the city abandons the condemnation of land included in a condemnation proceeding, is the landowner entitled to recover expenses, including attorney’s fees, incurred in protecting his rights in the condemnation proceeding?

[36]*36Minneapolis City Charter and Ordinances (Perm, ed.) c. 10, § 6, provides in part:

tc* * *- gaid Court [on appeal] shall allow a reasonable compensation to such Commissioners for their services, and make such award of costs on such appeal, including compensation of such Commissioners as it shall deem just in the premises.
“In case the Court shall be of the opinion that such appeal was frivolous or vexatious, it may adjudge double costs against such appellant.”'

Appellants seek either to have us apply M. S. A. 117.16 or to have us, by analogy, construe the above Minneapolis charter provision as providing for the same result in an abandonment of a condemnation proceeding as provided under § 117.16. Section 117.16 reads as follows:

“All damages allowed under this chapter, whether by the commissioners or upon appeal, shall bear interest from the time of the filing of the commissioners’ report.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
60 N.W.2d 23, 240 Minn. 32, 1953 Minn. LEXIS 672, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gershone-v-city-of-minneapolis-minn-1953.