Henkel v. City of Detroit

13 N.W. 611, 49 Mich. 249, 1882 Mich. LEXIS 540
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 18, 1882
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 13 N.W. 611 (Henkel v. City of Detroit) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Henkel v. City of Detroit, 13 N.W. 611, 49 Mich. 249, 1882 Mich. LEXIS 540 (Mich. 1882).

Opinion

Cooley, J.

The object of the bill in this case is to obtain a perpetual injunction against the use by the city of Detroit of Michigan Grand avenue for market purposes to the prejudice of complainant.

Michigan Grand avenue extends from Campus Martius to Randolph street, and is two hundred ;feet in width. Fifty feet in width through the middle, from end to end, was duly taken and condemned by the city for market purposes several years ago, and is now occupied as a public market, with buildings and sheds. This appropriation left seventy-five feet in width for a public street on each side. Bates street intersects Michigan Grand avenue between Randolph street and Campus Martius. Complainant is owner of a lot one hundred and thirty feet in width on Randolph street, facing the easterly end of Michigan Grand avenue, and of another lot fifty feet in width on the northerly side of the Grand avenue. The Randolph street lot is occupied by six four-story brick stores, in two of which complainant carries on business as wholesale grocer, and the other four he has been accustomed to rent. The other lot is covered by a building in which complainant cai’ries on the business of pork packing.

The city hall formerly occupied the westerly end of the present market grounds, but has now been removed. Before its removal the common council passed an ordinance whereby it was declared that the square of ground lying between the east end of the city hall and the east line of Randolph street ” should be “ a public market, to be known as the city hall market.” Another ordinance provided that [253]*253all persons selling or offering for sale, from wagons, carts5 or other vehicles, any vegetables, fish, poultry, butter or fruits, in the vicinity of the city hall market, shall occupy and stand with their teams on that portion of Michigan Grand avenue embraced between the east line of the city hall and the east line of Randolph street.”

Changes were made in these ordinances and additional regulations established, but it will be sufficient for the purpose of this suit to give the regulations as they existed at the time the suit was instituted. Previous to that time the easterly boundary of the market had been changed from the east to the west line of Randolph street, so as to exclude that street. The following are city ordinances:

“All persons selling or offering for sale from wagons, carts or other vehicles, within the limits of the city of Detroit, any vegetables, fish, poultry, produce, meat or articles of any kind, shall occupy and stand with such wagons, carts or other vehicles which they may use in exposing such articles as aforesaid for sale, in the following places, as directed by the clerk of the market, subject to regulation by the common council by resolution, and in no other place or places, to wit:
“ All that space known as the central market grounds, and lying between the Campus Martius and Randolph street, and on such portions of the eastern and western district hay market grounds (so called) as may be laid out and designated for such purpose by the Board of Public Works, under the direction of the common council.
“ In addition to the duties already prescribed, the market clerk shall collect a fee of ten cents from every owner, driver or other person in charge of any team or vehicle standing upon or occupying for market purposes the public market grounds of the city, or any of the streets or public squares adjacent thereto. Por every fee so collected the said clerk shall deliver to the person from whom he collected the same a ticket receipt furnished such clerk by the controller, as hereinafter mentioned.
“ All wagons, carts and other vehicles shall occupy such positions on the market grounds and streets adjacent thereto as the clerk of the market shall direct.
“ There shall be collected from every owner, driver or other person in charge of any wagon, cart or other vehicle using the market grounds or public squares or streets adja[254]*254cent thereto, for market purposes, a rent or fee of ten cents, and for every live calf offered for sale a fee of ten cents, and for every live sheep or lamb a fee of five cents.
“The clerk'of the market shall have charge of the markets, take care of the buildings thereof, attend therein daily during market hours, keep the same in a clean and orderly condition, collect all rents of stalls and stands, and such fees from wagons and other vehicles, also for calves, sheep' and lambs, as may be fixed by the common council; see that market wagons and other vehicles occupy such positions so as not to interfere with public travel, as may be prescribed by the common council; carefully observe that the rules and regulations of the market are properly observed and respected, and make complaint of any infractions of such rules and regulations or of any ordinances of the city.”

It is alleged in the bill of complaint that the use of Michigan Grand avenue and Randolph streets for market purposes began in 1865, and has been increasing from that time to the present; that during the last four or five years, on the principal market days, and during the market hours from six o’clock in the morning until ten or eleven o’clock these streets in the vicinity of complainant’s premises have been so much obstructed by market wagons and vehicles stationed upon them by the market clerk as to exclude all other traffic upon and use of said streets, and as to render the complainant’s places of business inaccessible by the complainant’s own vehicles or those of his customers. This obstruction of the streets in front of and adjacent to the complainant’s premises is averred to be a great injury to his business, and it is alleged that it not only greatly impairs the rental value and prevents him from obtaining suitable tenants, but damages the fee in the land and causes irreparable injury. Complainant insists that it is the duty of the city to so regulate the use of the public streets as to prevent all unlawful or improper obstructions to the use thereof for the purposes to which they were dedicated, but that he has appealed to the proper authorities to do so and redress his grievance in vain. He denies the power of the city to appropriate any portion of the public streets to market purposes, and insists that all ordinances and regulations of the city purporting to [255]*255authorize it are so far null and void. And the bill prays “ That the said city of Detroit, its controller, market clerk, .and other officers, agents, or servants, may be perpetually ■enjoined by the decree of this court from placing or stationing the wagons or other vehicles of market gardeners, farmers, hucksters, or other persons resorting to the city hall or central market, in or upon any part of Randolph street, Michigan Grand avenue, or any other public street or space adjacent to said central or city hall market, and from collecting market fees of any kind from the owner of any such vehicles as may be upon any of such streets and outside •said market grounds.

“ That the damage to the plaintiff’s business and property may be ascertained by proceedings in this cause for .that purpose, and that a decree may be rendered in favor of the plaintiff against the defendant, the city of Detroit, for the amount thereof, with costs.”

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Bluebook (online)
13 N.W. 611, 49 Mich. 249, 1882 Mich. LEXIS 540, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/henkel-v-city-of-detroit-mich-1882.