In re the City of New York

185 A.D. 539, 173 N.Y.S. 320, 1918 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7554
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided December 20, 1918·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinions

Laughlin, J.:

Two awards were made to the coal company, one for $21,654 for seventy-two and eighteen one-hundredths feet of wharfage and bulkhead rights appurtenant to the bulkhead on the outer line of South street beginning at a point forty-eight feet west of the westerly line of Clinton street prolonged and extending westerly therefrom; and $20,000 for damages to its coal plant “ as a whole,” which the commissioners deemed to embrace the use of the premises across South street from the bulkhead as a coal yard in connection with the bulkhead rights. The other appellants owned in different proportions the other three parcels, consisting of Pier Old No. 49, East river, and wharfage and bulkhead rights appurtenant to twenty-nine and three-tenths feet of bulkhead adjoining said pier on the west and to thirty-one and forty-six one-hundredths feet adjoining it on the east, the value- of which was estimated as a whole and a single award of $250,000 was made therefor.

The learned court at Special Term was of opinion that the coal company was not entitled to any award for damages to its plant and that the awards to it and to the other appellants for bulkhead rights were not confined to bulkhead rights as stated in the report, but were erroneously made for interests in the street as well, and on those grounds refused to confirm the report and remitted the matter to new commissioners. I am of opinion that the learned court was right in holding that [542]*542the coal company was not entitled to an award for damages to its plant but was in error in holding that the awards for bulkhead rights embraced awards for interests in the street. This error was doubtless owing to general statements in the opinion of the commissioners, but when their opinion is construed in the light of the petition and of the evidence and of their report, it is quite evident that they made the award for the bulkhead rights, which embraces wharfage and cranage rights only, upon the proper theory. The petition described the bulkhead rights sought to be acquired, not by metes and bounds embracing any part of the street, but by a single line a specified number of feet in length along the outer or southerly line of South street, and the evidence'was directed to the value of the bulkhead rights only without consideration of any right or interest in the street. The bulkhead rights of the coal company are only a few hundred feet westerly of the pier. All of the awards therefor are for property in the same immediate vicinity. With respect to the bulkhead rights an expert for the coal company testified that the wharfage and cranage rights on that part of the bulkhead were worth $400 per lineal foot, but his testimony indicates that he included in his estimate the right of the company to use these rights itself in connection with its plant. The expert for the city testified that they were worth $200 per lineal foot, and he excluded from consideration any right on the part of the company to use these rights itself in connection with its plant. The award shows that the commissioners allowed $300 per lineal foot, and from the fact that they made a separate award for damages to the plant as a whole, it is to be inferred that in determining the amount of the award for the bulkhead rights they did not take into consideration any right to use the same in connection with the plant. The expert for the other appellants testified that their bulkhead rights were worth $500 per lineal foot, and the expert for the city admitted that those bulkhead rights were worth $250 per lineal foot. It appears by the briefs that the coal company is satisfied with the award for the bulkhead rights. A separate award having been made therefor and on the proper theory and there being evidence to sustain it, the court should have confirmed it.

[543]*543South street was seventy feet in width. It was evidently constructed pursuant to a grant from the city to one Rutgers on the 1st day of May, 1817, of land under the waters of East river. The outer line of the grant, as shown by the description and by a map annexed to the grant, was on the northerly or inner line of South street. The grantee covenanted to construct a good and sufficient firm wharf or street ” being the new street called South street for its entire width of seventy feet outside the premises conveyed and forever thereafter to maintain it as his own cost, and he agreed that the street as thus constructed should forever thereafter continue to be and remain a public street or highway the same as other public wharves or streets, and in consideration of his covenants the city agreed that he and his heirs or assigns should forever thereafter “ fully have, enjoy, take and hold to his and their own proper use all manner of wharfage, cranage, advantages and emoluments, growing or accruing by or from that part of the said wharf or street called South street which lies opposite to the hereby granted premises and fronting on the East River,” excepting such part thereof as might thereafter be appropriated for a public slip or basin. The wharfage and cranage rights are incorporeal rights, under which the owner has the exclusive right to collect the established rate of wharfage and cranage of° vessels loading or unloading at the bulkhead. (Kingsland v. Mayor, etc., 110 N. Y. 569; Langdon v. Mayor, 133 id. 628.) The coal company acquired the premises on the inner side of South street opposite the bulkhead, and in 1906 erected thereon coal pockets fifty feet in height with driveways on either side, which together with an office and stable substantially covered the premises. It erected at about the same time a movable house or structure on six railroad wheels on the street at the bulkhead, which could be but was not run on tracks, and on it placed a steam shovel or open grab buckets on an endless chain and a large boiler and forty-five horse power engine to operate the shovel. By these appliances coal was conveyed from boats moored at the bulkhead to a hopper on said house from which it was dropped into carts underneath and was then transported across the street and dumped into like hoppers on the company’s plant where it was elevated [544]*544into the coal p.ockets by like endless chain conveyors. It appears that on the 18th of June, 1891, the board of docks authorized the erection of a derrick mast on the bulkhead to be maintained during the pleasure of the board. It does not appear whether or not such a mast was erected, but on the 9th of September, 1905, the board, by resolution, authorized the substitution of a new portable engine for the old hoister, which it is recited was then on the bulkhead, to be maintained during the pleasure of the commissioners. These permits were not revoked other than by the ouster of the company from the use of the portable house on the 18th of June, 1914; but that was after the city had acquired title in this proceeding on the fifth of the same month.

The city contends that the permits were invalid and that the house was a nuisance. The contention is made on the theory that South street was a public street and not a marginal street or wharf and that the jurisdiction over the street was vested in the president of the borough and the board of aldermen and that the jurisdiction of the commissioner of docks was confined to the wharf part of a widened exterior street or of a new exterior street, which would be marginal wharfs. In my opinion that contention is sound.

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In re the City of New York, 185 A.D. 539, 173 N.Y.S. 320, 1918 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7554 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1918).

185 A.D. 539 (In re the City of New York) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Matter of City of New York (Pier Old No. 49)
124 N.E. 148 (New York Court of Appeals, 1919)