Howe v. Callaway

95 S.W. 974, 119 Mo. App. 251, 1906 Mo. App. LEXIS 227
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 2, 1906
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 95 S.W. 974 (Howe v. Callaway) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Howe v. Callaway, 95 S.W. 974, 119 Mo. App. 251, 1906 Mo. App. LEXIS 227 (Mo. Ct. App. 1906).

Opinion

ELLISON, J.

This proceeding is an application to the county court of Lafayette county to turn a public road where it runs through the petitioner’s land to another part of his land. Thex’e was a remonstrance of twelve freeholders. The petition was referred to the road commissioner who made his report thereon. After-wards the county court made an order turning the road as asked and the remonstrants appealed to the circuit court. In the latter court the appeal was dismissed on the ground that no appeal would lie in such case. The remonstrants thereupon brought the case here.

The proceeding is based upon the following statute (section 9447, Revised Statutes 1899) : “Any person wishing to cultivate or enclose land through which any [255]*255road, may run, may petition the county court, first giving notice as in the case of neAV roads, for permission to turn such road on his own land or the land of any other person consenting thereto, at his own expense. The court shall thereupon cause the road commissioner to view the same and report the practicability of the proposed change, and the distances and situation of the ground, and proposed changes, at the first term of the court thereafter; and, if upon the report, the court be satisfied that the public will not be materially injured thereby, it shall order such change, and upon satisfactory proof of such road being opened in such manner as to be equally convenient to travelers, the court shall malee an order vacating so • much of the former road as lies between the different points of intersection, and cause the report thereof to be recorded.”

The sole question presented by counsel is the right of appeal. If the right exists at all it must be founded upon the statute. We decided a case under this statute, brought here on appeal, but the question of a right to appeal was neither presented- nor considered. [Self v. Gowin, 80 Mo. App. 398.] The right of appeal was denied to less than twelve remonstrants in Schroeder v. Jabin, 94 Mo. App. 111, but it was not decided whether tAvelve would have had the right.

A careful examination of the question has satisfied us that the circuit court took the correct view of the law in deciding that there was no right of appeal from the county court. There are seA^era! sound reasons sustaining that view. As before remarked the right of appeal must be based on the statute. Exclusive original power is given to the county court in road matters and formerly the right of appeal, practically, did not exist as such appeal amounted to no more than a certiorari. There was no trial anew in the circuit court and if the county court had followed the forms of law, its decision was final. A statute, however, has been interposed enlarging the right of appeal in certain cases and pro[256]*256viding for a trial ele novo in the circuit court. So that uoav the right of appeal is considered not to exist unless it could accomplish some practical purpose by being tried aneAV in the circuit court, and AAdien no neAV trial is provided for, no appeal can be taken. [Scott Co. v. Leftwich, 145 Mo. 26; Sheridan v. Fleming, 93 Mo. 321; St. Louis Ry. Co. v. St. Louis, 92 Mo. 160.]

Applying this rule to the present case, Ave find that proceedings of this nature are based upon a special provision of the road laAv, which we have set out above. In that provision there is no right of appeal granted, nor is there any provision for any further hearing beyond the county court. The Legislature has provided for appeals in road cases and for trials anew in the circuit court in certain cases. [Section 9419, Revised Statutes 1899, viz., Avhere damages are assessed, or a road is opened, changed or vacated.] But clearly, those specifications of the right of appeal contemplate cases Avhere there may be contesting parties, not cases in which no provision is made for such contests. Thus section 9416, provides for a remonstrance and contest over the establishing of neAV roads, or changing existing roads, and section 9448 provides for the same thing in the vacation of roads already established. But the statute upon which this proceeding is had, is not to change a road, or to vacate a road, in the sense used in section 9419, providing for appeals, and the other sections providing for contests by remonstrants. The purpose of the statute upon which this proceeding is based is to “turn” a road from one part of a man’s land to another and no remonstrance is contemplated and no remonstrants are recognized as contestants, since no provision is made for either. It is plainly a special, separate and independent provision appearing in the road law for the benefit of the individual landoAvner, Avho must make the change himself and at his OAvn expense. He is only required to obtain the consent of the county court. And to the’ end that that court may be properly advised as to the truth [257]*257of the petition and that “the public will not be materially injured” and that the road, as turned, will “be equally convenient to travelers,” it is provided that notice must be given to the public so that the public may be protected by having an opportunity of giving the court whatever information is required. But -in none of this, is there any suggestion of an adversary proceedings, whereby individuals are authorized, as a matter of individual right, to appear and have a trial with the right of appeal. It was in the sense of furnishing, the court with information as to the interest of the public, that we stated in Self v. Gowin, 80 Mo. App. 398, that objecting parties who felt an interest, might go into the county court.

It seems to us that the question has been directly passed upon by the Supreme Court. The case of Over-beck v. Galloway, 10 Mo. 364 (approved in Foster v. Dunklin, 44 Mo. 216), was, like this, an application for permission to turn a public road from one part of Over-beck’s land to another. Galloway came into the county court and undertook to have himself made an adversary party. The court said that “In the establishment of new roads, or the changing of roads already established, or the vacation of existing roads, wherever it is probable that individual or private rights will be affected, the statute provides for the making of such individual parties by summoning them to appear and show cause if any they have or can, why the prayer of the petitioners should not be granted. But where, as in this case, a change in the road is desired for cultivation, and the change is upon the land of the petitioner, and the objection to the change is based upon the supposed injury to the public convenience, the statute does not prescribe any method by which that interest may be protected against the unwise or injudicious action of the county court.” The statute of 1845, article 1, chapter 151, under which that case was decided, is practically iden[258]*258tical with the present statute. The same distinction existed then as now, between opening new roads, or changing roads already established, or vacating existing roads, and the mere turning a road from one place to another on the petitioner’s land.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
95 S.W. 974, 119 Mo. App. 251, 1906 Mo. App. LEXIS 227, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/howe-v-callaway-moctapp-1906.