In re City of New York

213 A.D. 187, 210 N.Y.S. 387, 1925 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8461
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided June 12, 1925·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

McAvoy, J.:

The appeals in this proceeding relate to two out of three parcels which the city was acquiring for the purpose of improving the water front of the East river appurtenant to the bulkhead along the easterly side of Tompkins street from Stanton to Houston streets.

The appeal taken by the claimant, the State Ice Manufacturing Corporation, claims that an award of $50,000 for its bulkhead rights is inadequate. In this appeal the city is the respondent.

The appeal taken by the city of New York relates to the finding that the Nassau Ferry Company, a claimant in the proceeding, had title to what is known as parcel No. 2 on the damage map, which is 121 feet long and is the center parcel of the three taken in this proceeding.

Parcel No. 1 extends northerly 200 feet from the northerly side of Stanton street.

Parcel No. 2, being the next northerly parcel, covers 121 feet.

Parcel No. 3, the next adjoining to the north, extends 79 feet to the southerly side of Houston street.

[189]*189No dispute arises over the award made for parcel No. 3, title to which is admitted to be held by the Nassau Ferry Company.

Parcel No. 1 is not disputed as to its title, which is alleged to be vested in the State Ice Manufacturing Corporation.

Title to parcel No. 2, however, is claimed to be vested in the city of New York.

After a hearing before the learned court at Special Term on the petition of the city to fix compensation for the various rights taken by the city, the court at Special Term awarded $50,000 for parcel No. 1; $30,250 for parcel No. 2, and $19,750 for parcel No. 3.

The city makes no objection to any of the awards upon the ground that the amount of compensation determined by the court was excessive, but as pointed out heretofore, the claimant, the State Ice Manufacturing Corporation, owner of parcel No. 1, claims that its award is inadequate. The ground upon which the inadequacy is claimed to be based" is that the court refused to consider the claimant’s ownership in the upland plot across Tompkins street in connection with the ownership of the bulkhead rights included in parcel No. 1, it being claimed that the upland plot, which was an acre in area, was available for conjunctive use with damage parcel No. 1, although Tompkins street intervenes between the properties. It is undisputed that the claimant and its predecessors in title had the exclusive use of the entire bulkhead for many years, but the court excluded all evidence of the entire ownership and confined the proof of damage to estimates of the value of the bulkhead rights separate and apart from the upland.

The city’s contention in this regard is that since the present owner did not show that said bulkhead was used continuously and constantly in connection with the use of the property on the westerly side of Tompkins street, it could not obtain consequential damages by reason of the taking by the city of the wharfage rights included in the bulkhead known as damage parcel No. 1.

There was no proof that the claimant, the State Ice Manufacturing Corporation, ever used the bulkhead or bulkhead rights in common with its property on the westerly side of Tompkins street.

In the cases wMch the claimant cites as authority for the award of damages for consequential damages where bulkhead rights are taken when the upland is in a common ownership, the common use of the upland property in connection with the bulkhead, either immediately adjoining or across an intervening roadway or street had been shown, but this does not appear to be decisive of the claim. It is doubtless true as matter of experience that the bulkhead rights are more valuable as part of the entire ownership in property immediately opposite, although a street intervenes, [190]*190than the bulkhead standing alone without the adjoining ownership. It has frequently been pointed out that the market value of the land to be taken may be considered in the light of its prospective use, and that such is the significance of the word “ available ” when used to describe the basis of use compensation to be awarded by the courts.

The award is to be made for the fair market value for all available uses and purposes. It is true, too, that market value includes every element of usefulness and advantage in the property, if it possesses advantages of location or is available for any useful purpose whatever. The fact that the owner has not made the precise use of the place which it is claimed would be its most advantageous employment does not militate against his right to have the value assessed which would make for the highest compensation.

We said in Matter of Daly v. Smith (18 App. Div. 194, 197): “It is doubtless true, and settled by authority, that the landowner is not limited in compensation to the use which he makes of his property, but is entitled to receive its greatest valúe for any purpose.” And in Matter of City of New York (198 N. Y. 84, 88) the court said: “ When the State compels a man to give up his land for public use, and permits him to recover, not what he thinks it is worth, but only its fair market value, he should at least have the right to prove every element that can fairly enter into the question of market value.”

It would seem that since appellant’s bulkhead rights were not only appurtenant to the upland but'were part and parcel thereof and that they were necessary to the fullest enjoyment of the upland as a frontage on a street, the claimant would have the right to have his consequential damages fixed to the upland property by reason of its availability for conjunctive use with the bulkhead taken. Such use undoubtedly enhances the value of both the property and the easements, and since it is impossible to determine what that value is, because evidence thereof was excluded, the final decree fixing damage in that respect should be reversed and the matter remitted to the trial court to take proof of the damage, occasioned to the upland by the taking of the bulkhead rights and to assess damages accordingly as to parcel No. 1.

The decree in respect to parcel No. 3 is not appealed from, either as to the amount of the award or the title to the property. The other question presented for consideration on the city’s appeal is as to the ownership of the wharfage rights appurtenant to the 121 feet of bulkhead on the easterly side of Tompkins street known as parcel No. 2 on the damage map.

The claimant, the Nassau Ferry Company, insists that the [191]*191evidence, both oral and documentary, establishes conclusively that title to both parcels Nos. 2 and 3 on the damage map was vested in that company on December 7, 1921, the date when title became finally vested in the city of New York. Since this is a question of origin of title, it will be necessary to seek out the source of the early grants of the land in question, the various acts passed by the Legislature which have affected the city’s waterfront, and to follow the chain of title to the time of the taking by the city.

The city originally became seized of the lands between high- and low-water marks around Manhattan Island by the Dongan charter of 1G86, and this grant was confirmed by the Montgomerie charter granted in 1730. (See 1 Colonial Laws of New York [Comp. Stat. Rev. Comm.], 184, 193, 194; 2 id. 578, 588, 596, 599, 632, 633.) These charters were confirmed by chapter 584 of the Colonial Laws, passed on October 14,1732. (2 id.

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In re City of New York, 213 A.D. 187, 210 N.Y.S. 387, 1925 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8461 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1925).

213 A.D. 187 (In re City of New York) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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