In Re Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District

24 N.E.2d 956, 62 Ohio App. 535, 30 Ohio Law. Abs. 161, 15 Ohio Op. 455, 1939 Ohio App. LEXIS 377
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 28, 1939
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 24 N.E.2d 956 (In Re Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District, 24 N.E.2d 956, 62 Ohio App. 535, 30 Ohio Law. Abs. 161, 15 Ohio Op. 455, 1939 Ohio App. LEXIS 377 (Ohio Ct. App. 1939).

Opinion

OPINION

By LEMERT, J.

Earl Darling and Mary Darling, the appellants in the above described proceeding, who have appealed the decís-' ion of the Common Pleas Court (Conservancy Division) rendered December 5,1938, file this their assignment of errors as follows:

1. The court completely ignored the provisions of §8305, GC as to when judgments draw interest.

2. The decision as rendered does not grant to defendants their rights as defined by Art. I, Sec. 19, of the Constitution of Ohio, and the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

On February 26, 1936, there was filed in the office of the clerk of courts of Tuscarawas County, Ohio, the conservancy appraisal record of Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District in accordance with §6828-30, GC. Included among the properties listed in said appraisal record as necessary to be acquired by the Conservancy District in carrying out its official plan was certain property of the appellants, Earl M. and Mary Darling, located in Knox County, Ohio, and appraised at Six Thousand Four Hundred Sixteen Dollars, ($6,416.00).

On March 23, 1936, the appellants filed exceptions to the appraisal of their property in said appraisal record, which exceptions were filed in accordance with the provisions of §6828-32, GC.

On November 21, 1936, the Conservancy Court, composed of one Common Pleas judge from each county in the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District, overruled the exceptions of the appellants and confirmed the appraisal record, including the aforesaid appraisal of the appellants’ property.

Thereafter, on December 1, 1936, the appellants filed in Case No. 21669 in the Common Pleas Court of Tuscarawas County, and being the proceedings in which said appraisal record was filed, their written notice making demand for a jury trial and appeal bond in the sum of One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) in *162 accordance with the provisions of §6828-34, GC.

On January 5, 1937, the Conservancy Court, in accordance with the provisions of §6828-34, entered an order requiring the directors of Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District to begin condemnation proceedings according to law in the'county where the lands of the appellants were situated, in which the amount of compensation to be given them for their property would be determined by jury.

In accordance with the order of the Conservancy Court of January 5, 1937, the directors of Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District, on March 6, 1937, filed in the Common Pleas Court of Knox County their petition against the appellants herein for the appropriation of their property as described in said appraisal record.

Trial was had in said case in the Common Pleas Court of Knox County and on April 5, 1937, the jury returned a verdict in the sum of Twelve Thousand Five Hundred Dollars, ($12,500.00), as compensation for the land to be appropriated for the Conservancy District.

On May 24, 1937, the Common Pleas Court of Knox County entered a judgment confirming the said verdict of the jury.

From the judgment of the Common Pleas Court of Knox County confirming said verdict, the Conservancy District appealed to this court as the Court of Appeals of Knox County. On November 20, 1937, as said Court of Appeals of Knox County, this court affirmed the judgment of the Common Pleas Court of Knox County.

Thereafter, the Conservancy District filed in the Supreme Court of the state of Ohio its motion to certify the record of said case, which motion was overruled by the Supreme Court by entry filed January 26, 1938.

Thereafter, on May 9, 1938, the clerk of Common Pleas Court of Knox County certified to the clerk of Common Pleas Court of Tuscarawas county a 'copy of the entry of May 24, 1937, confirming the verdict of the jury in the case in Knox County, and also copies of the final entries in the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. These certified copies reached the clerk of courts of Tuscarawas County May 10, 1938, and were duly filed that day, all of which was done in accordance with the provisions of §6828-36, GC.

Thereafter, . the clerk of Common Pleas Court of Tuscarawas County, in further compliance with the terms of §6828-36, on June 7,1938, certified to the secretary of said Conservancy District; a copy of the entry of the Common Pleas' Court of Knox County confirming the verdict of the jury.

One month later, on July 7, 1938, the directors of Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District paid to the clerk of courts of Tuscarawas County, as clerk of the Conservancy Court, the sum of Twelve Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($12,500.00) in payment of the verdict and the further sum of Four Hundred Thirty Dollars ($430.00), being the amount of the court costs incurred in connection with said case.

On the same day, the directors of the Conservancy District filed with the Conservancy Court their application for confirmation of title and an order admitting the Conservancy District into possession of the real estate involved.

When this application came on for hearing to the three-judge committee of the Conservancy Court, having jurisdiction thereof under §6828-5, GC, the appellants, Earl and - Mary M. Darling, through their counsel, objected to entry of an order confirming the district’s title and right to possession for the reason that the directors of the district had paid into court only the original amount of the verdict and they contended that before the order confirming title and granting right to possession was entered, the district should be required to also pay into court interest at six per cent (6%) on the verdict of Twelve Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($12,500.00) from the date the same was confirmed by the Common Pleas Court of Knox County; to-wit. May 24, 1937, to the date the sum of Twelve Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($12,500.00) was paid into the Con *163 servancy Court; to-wit, July 7, 1938.'

On September 7,1938, the three-judge committee of the Conservancy Court, by and with the consent of the appellants, entered an order confirming the district’s title and granting it the right to possession of the property, and reserved for further consideration by the full Conservancy Court the question of whether or not the land owners were entitled to such interest.

After briefs of both parties had been presented to the court and the matter orally argued, the full Conservancy Court determined the question of interest in favor of the Conservancy District and, by entry filed December 3, 1938, ruled that the law did not require the Conservancy District to pay interest on the verdict as contended by the appellants. From this last mentioned order of the Conservancy Court, this appeal was taken by the land owners, Earl Darling and Mary- M. Darling.

The question, therefore, which is being presented to this court by these proceedings is, whether or not a verdict rendered by a jury in a case appealed under §6828-34, GC, from the-confirmation of the appraisal record by the Conservancy Court bears interest from the date such verdict is confirmed by the local trial court to the time the amount of the verdict is paid into the Conservancy Court in accordance with the provisions of §6828-35.

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Bluebook (online)
24 N.E.2d 956, 62 Ohio App. 535, 30 Ohio Law. Abs. 161, 15 Ohio Op. 455, 1939 Ohio App. LEXIS 377, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-muskingum-watershed-conservancy-district-ohioctapp-1939.