J. P. Sand & Gravel Co. v. State

367 N.E.2d 54, 51 Ohio App. 2d 83, 5 Ohio Op. 3d 239, 1976 Ohio App. LEXIS 5885
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 8, 1976
Docket75 AP-577
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 367 N.E.2d 54 (J. P. Sand & Gravel Co. v. State) 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
J. P. Sand & Gravel Co. v. State, 367 N.E.2d 54, 51 Ohio App. 2d 83, 5 Ohio Op. 3d 239, 1976 Ohio App. LEXIS 5885 (Ohio Ct. App. 1976).

Opinions

Holmes, J.

This matter involves the appeal of a judgment of the Court of Claims which sustained the motion of the director of the Department of Transportation of Ohio, a defendant, to dismiss the complaint on the basis that the *84 court lacked subject matter jurisdiction, and that the complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The facts in brief upon which the complaint was filed in the Court of Claims and which have given rise to this appeal are as follows.

The plaintiff, J. P. Sand & Gravel Company, appellant herein, for a number of years owned certain lands in the southern part of Columbus, Ohio, which it had mined for sand and gravel and subsequently refilled and leveled. Starting in 1971, it offered this land for sale for commercial use and had in fact sold some four acres of the land to a certain trucking company.

On October 18, 1971, the director of the Ohio Department of Transportation, acting pursuant to R. C. 5511.01, notified the city of Columbus, through its department of development, that the state contemplated certain highway construction on or about the lands of the appellant. This code section, which grants the director of transportation rather wide authority in the planning process for the state highway system, in pertinent part, is as follows:

* * Any changes made in existing highways by the •director or any additional highways established by him following such hearing shall be certified to the following authorities interested therein: the legislative authority of municipalities * * * and the municipal, township, or county officer authorized to issue land use or building permits. * * *
“* * * [T]he authority authorized to approve the zoning change or subdivision plat or the authority authorized to grant the permit for land use or the erection, alteration, or moving of the building shall give notice, by registered or certified mail, to the director, and shall not approve a zoning change or subdivision plat or grant a permit for land use or the erection, alteration, or moving of a building for one hundred twenty days from date notice is received by the director. * * * Upon notification that the director has found acquisition at that time not to be in the public interest, or upon the expiration of the one hundred twenty day period or any extension thereof, if no notice has been received from the director, said authority shall proceed in accordance with law ”

*85 The appellant, in essence, alleged in its complaint that the city of Columbus, having been notified of the desire of the director of transportation to acquire certain , of the appellant’s property, prevented the issuance by the city of any building permits, any lot split approvals, any subdivision plat approvals, and any zoning change approvals.

Appellant further alleged in its complaint that at the time the alleged restrictions were imposed, it had a number of prospects for the purchase of portions of its land, but that the restrictions imposed by the stated section of law prevented it from acquiring the necessary approval for splits of its property for conveyance.

The appellant claims that it had made periodic inquiries throughout 1971, 1972, and until May 1973, to the Department of Transportation as to its plans concerning the property of the appellant, but that the state did' not give the appellant its plans until May 1973, when the department informed the appellant that its plans would be delayed considerably into the future.

The plaintiff alleged that the restrictions remained in effect on the 24.8 acres of land until August 31, 1973, when the state furnished plaintiff with a descripton of the 5.74 acres of land that it would take for highway purposes.

The appellant argues that, due to the financial reverses in the country, generally, in 1973, the demand for any commercial property such as it had for sale had diminished or disappeared, and that it was seriously financially damaged thereby.

The complaint contains two claims for relief. Plaintiff seeks damages for the permanent and complete taking of its 5.74 acres, in the amount of $120,000; for the temporary partial taking of its 19.06 acres, in the amount of $133,000; and for the decrease in market value of the 19.06 acres caused by the taking of the 5.74 acres, in the amount of $30,000.

The second claim for relief is a tort action in which the plaintiff seeks the recovery of damages resulting from the defendant’s willful or negligent abuse of its power of eminent domain.

The Court of Claims, as previously stated, dismissed the complaint upon the basis of a lack of jurisdiction of the *86 subject matter, aud that the complaint failed to state a claim upon which the court could grant relief.

The plaintiff assigns the following errors herein:

“1. The Court of Claims erred in dismissing plaintiff’s complaint.
“2. The Court of Claims erred in implying that the plaintiff must submit evidence to support the allegations of its complaint and, thereby, applied an improper legal standard in ruling on defendant’s Eule 12(B) motion to dismiss.
“3. The Court of Claims erred in holding that the Court of Claims has no jurisdiction of claims for relief involving the taking of real property without compensation because the State of Ohio has previously consented to be sued for such takings in Chapters 163 and 5519 Eevised Code.
“4. The Court of Claims erred in holding that the plaintiff-appellant was guilty of laches because the restrictions imposed pursuant to Section 5511.01 E. C. were not effective for more than 120 days after they were first imposed.
“5. The Court of Claims erred in holding that the plaintiff-appellant could have obtained a writ of mandamus to compel the appropriation of its property.
“6. The Court of Claims erred in holding that the Court of Claims has no jurisdiction of claims for relief involving the taking of real property without compensation because in the Court of Claims damages are determined by a judge and not by a jury.
“7. The Court of Claims erred in holding that plaintiff-appellant may recover only compensation for property taken and not damages caused by governmental activity prior to an appropriation.
“8. The Court of Claims erred in holding that plaintiff-appellant could recover only those damages which would be recoverable in an appropriation proceeding:
“9. The Court of Claims erred and abused its discretion in dismissing plaintiff’s Complaint instead of retaining the case and exercising its equity powers to issue a manda *87 tory injunction ordering the defendant to appropriate plaintiff’s property forthwith.”

At the outset, we hold that the Court of Claims did review the content of the pleadings and did so treat the defendant’s motion as one upon the pleadings and not as a motion for summary judgment.

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Bluebook (online)
367 N.E.2d 54, 51 Ohio App. 2d 83, 5 Ohio Op. 3d 239, 1976 Ohio App. LEXIS 5885, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/j-p-sand-gravel-co-v-state-ohioctapp-1976.