Ink v. City of Canton

212 N.E.2d 574, 4 Ohio St. 2d 51, 33 Ohio Op. 2d 427, 1965 Ohio LEXIS 423
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 15, 1965
DocketNo. 39208
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 212 N.E.2d 574 (Ink v. City of Canton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ink v. City of Canton, 212 N.E.2d 574, 4 Ohio St. 2d 51, 33 Ohio Op. 2d 427, 1965 Ohio LEXIS 423 (Ohio 1965).

Opinion

Taft, C. J.

Plaintiffs contend that acts of the city before the appropriation proceedings breached the conditions of the [54]*54deeds and caused a reverter of all or at least part of the Ink Park property at that time. There is no basis for snch a contention on the facts as found by the Court of Appeals. We are satisfied that there is sufficient evidence in the record to support those findings of fact.

Plaintiffs’ other contentions raise questions as to the effect of the state’s appropriation of a substantial part of the Ink Park property on the respective rights of the city and of the plaintiffs to (1) the portion of that property still usable for park purposes and (2) the money paid by the state for the portions thereof appropriated and for damages to the residue.

Until the latter part of the Nineteenth Century, there were no reported cases which dealt with such questions. See Courter and Maskery, The Effect of Condemnation Proceedings upon Possibilities of Reverter and Powers of Termination, 38 University of Detroit Law Journal (1960) 46, 47.

Where property is conveyed in fee with a proviso that it is to be used only for a specified use and that the property shall revert to the grantor if such specified use ceases, it would appear reasonable to conclude, that the property would so revert when its appropriation by eminent domain proceedings prevents that specified use. Such a conclusion would appear to be especially reasonable where, as in the instant case, the grantee paid nothing for what had been conveyed to him. A few cases have so held. Crowl, Admr., v. Tidnam (1947), 198 Okla. 650, 181 P. 2d 549; Lancaster School District v. Lancaster County (1929), 295 Pa. 112, 144 A. 901; Pedrotti v. Marin County (CCA 9-1946), 152 F. 2d 829. However, the great weight of authority has held that there is no reverter in such an instance, and that the grantee takes the whole of the amount paid for the property appropriated. Courter and Maskery, supra; 46 Cornell Law Quarterly (1961) 631 et seq.; The Value of Possibilities of Reverter and Powers of Termination in Eminent Domain, Illinois Law Forum (1963) 693; Condemnation of Future Interests (1962), 48 Virginia Law Review 461, 472 et seq.; Condemnation of Future Interests (1958), 43 Iowa Law Review 241, 247.

This court’s opinion in Board of County Commissioners v. Thormyer, Dir. (1959), 169 Ohio St. 291, 159 N. E. 2d 612, 75 A. L. R. 2d 1373, recognizes that such a holding may give a [55]*55windfall to the grantee. He not only gets the value of what he had, i. e., the value of the property with the restriction as to its use, but he gets what may be a greater value that the property would have without any such restriction. At the same time, the grantor’s right of reverter is destroyed and he gets nothing for it.

There may be some justification for such a conclusion where the grantee paid the grantor the full value of the property for the determinable fee. In such an instance, giving the grantor any part of the eminent domain award would represent a windfall to the grantor. Also, since the grantee would have paid the full value of the property, it is reasonably arguable that giving the whole of the award to the grantee would give him the value of no more than what the grantee had paid for when he acquired the determinable fee. See concurring opinion in McMechan v. Board of Edn. of Richland Twp. (1952), 157 Ohio St. 241, 253, 105 N. E. 2d 270. However, where, as in the instant case, the grantee paid nothing to the grantor for the determinable fee, it seems apparent that, at the very least, the amount, if any, by which the value of an unrestricted fee exceeds the value of the restricted fee, is something that should go to the grantor. Before the appropriation, the grantee had no right to the greater value of the property, if it had a greater value without the restrictions imposed upon the grantee. The difference between that greater value and what the grantee lost as a result of the appropriation, i. e., the value of what the grantee had, would seem logically to belong to the grantor. That difference certainly represents the value of something which the grantor expressly refrained from conveying to the grantee. Where the amount of that difference can be determined, as it frequently can, and where the grantee had paid nothing for his determinable fee, there would appear to be no basis whatever for the reason usually advanced for giving the whole of the award in the appropriation proceedings to the grantee. That reason is that the right of reverter of the grantor is too remote and contingent to be capable of valuation.

The other reason sometimes advanced for giving the whole of the appropriation award to the grantee is that, since the law (i. e., the legal taking in eminent domain) has made it impossi[56]*56ble to perform the condition nnder which the property is held, performance of that condition is excused. This is a statement of the conclusion reached rather than any reason for reaching that conclusion. The most that might be said for such a conclusion is that the provision for reverter on breach of the condition as to use is intended by the grantor to compel the grantees to make the specified use of the property. After the property is appropriated in eminent domain proceedings, such provision can no longer have any influence in compelling such use. Hence, the only justification for its existence has disappeared. However, this does not represent a reason for giving the grantee the value of something he has not lost (i. e., the amount, if any, by which the value of the property taken exceeds its lesser value for the restricted use that the grantee could have made of it) where the grantor expressly refrained from conveying that something to him.

As stated in Simes and Smith, Law of Future Interests, 2 Ed. (1956) Section 2013:

“* * * in the usual case the testator [grantor] neither thought of eminent domain nor provided therefor. Now, in fact it may be said that in most other cases of impossibility, the testator [grantor] did not foresee the situation which occurred, nor provide for it; and that is probably true. But it does not follow that this should be treated like the ordinary case of an impossible condition subsequent. It must be remembered that in the usual case the court must give the property either to the devisee [grantee] or to the devisor’s [grantor’s] heirs. There is no third alternative; whereas in the eminent domain case, the court may divide the award between them.”

Also, Courter and Maskery, The Effect of Condemation Proceedings upon Possibilities of Reverter and Powers of Termination (1960), 38 University of Detroit Law Journal 46, 54, states:

u* # * £ke ordinary impossibility situation where a supervening instrumentality has made performance of a condition impossible, there can be no weighing of the respective interests of grantor and grantee, for the realty, as realty, must be awarded to the prevailing party. However, in a condemnation situation, the parties are not contending over an indivisible par-[57]*57eel of real estate but rather over a sum of money which can be divided between the parties if necessary in the interest of substantial justice. * * *”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
212 N.E.2d 574, 4 Ohio St. 2d 51, 33 Ohio Op. 2d 427, 1965 Ohio LEXIS 423, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ink-v-city-of-canton-ohio-1965.