Jones v. City of Clarksburg

99 S.E. 484, 84 W. Va. 257, 1919 W. Va. LEXIS 32
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedMay 20, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 99 S.E. 484 (Jones v. City of Clarksburg) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jones v. City of Clarksburg, 99 S.E. 484, 84 W. Va. 257, 1919 W. Va. LEXIS 32 (W. Va. 1919).

Opinion

Lynch, Judge:

.In this action, trespass on the case, brought to , August rules, 1915, plaintiff recovered the judgment which defendant seeks to reverse for error committed upon the trial.’ The cause alleged as the basis of the recovery is an injury to a lot owned by him abutting on First Street in the City of Clarks-burg and to two buildings erected on the lot after he purchased it, occasioned by a permanent improvement of the street made by a contractor acting under the direction and supervision of the city authorities in 1912. The chief grounds of complaint specified in the declaration, and to show which plaintiff introduced evidence, are: Alteration of the street grade; excavation and removal of a portion of the bank or knoll through which runs the line common to plaintiff’s lot and defendant’s right of way; the destruction of steps used by plaintiff to enter his premises from the street, and defendant’s failure to restore them; a like interference with plaintiff’s connection with the city water line in the street; and impairment of lateral support.

Plaintiff purchased the lot in 1908, and thereafter improved it by the erection thereon of two buildings without applying to the city authorities to inquire and ascertain where the street grade line, located and adopted by the city authorities in 1899 and represented on the map or plat of the city streets, was, and in which grade line, it appears, no alteration has [260]*260since been made, and with reference to which the work complained of was done. Though the paper grade line for that street had so been established and adopted, the street surface for years prior to the improvement had existed at its natural grade, though worked and cared for by the city authorities, and not until 1912 was the grade altered to conform to the paper grade established thirteen years earlier. Out of this alteration grew the injury of which plaintiff now complains. It is well settled.in this and the majority of states that, if a street, reasonably suitable for use as a highway, be opened and used upon the natural surface as a grade line, and it is recognized and treated by the municipality as a public street, and owners of lots abutting thereon build with reference to such natural grade, before the adoption of a paper grade line by the municipalilty, such natural grade becomes the established grade, and the municipality will be liable to lot owners for damages resulting from a change of that grade. Blair v. City of Charleston, 43 W. Va. 62; Harman v. Bluefield, 70 W. Va. 129; Rutherford v. Williamson, 70 W. Va. 402; Ray v. Huntington, 81 W. Va. 607; 10 R. C. L. p. 174. A somewhat different rule may apply where a street recently dedicated is so rough and uneven as not to be reasonably suitable for use as a highway and cannot fairly be termed a constructed or improved road. Hickman v. Clarksburg, 81 W. Va. 394., But the facts of this case clearly distinguish it from the case last cited. Here the situation was such from long use and frequent recognition by the municipal authorities in working the street that the natural surface grade can fairly be said to have become the established grade.

Though an owner of a lot abutting on such a street purchased it after the municipality had established a paper grade line, but before actual physical grading conforming the street to that line, that fact' will not preclude his recovery for damages to his lot when the natural grade is so altered; but he cannot recover for damages to buildings erected after the adoption of such'paper grade and in disregard thereof. Blair v. Charleston, 43 W. Va. 62. There is “a general concurrence [261]*261of opinion that an owner who improves his property without regard even to a regularly established (street) paper grade has no cause for complaint for the injury done” to his buildings subsequently erected on his property abutting on the street later improved with respect to such established grade, "this upon the theory that it is not unjust, or unfair, but right, all interests being considered, that the purchaser should ’ take notice of such grade and conform with it in afterwards placing improvements on his lot.” Ray v. City of Huntington, 81 W. Va. 607.

This equitable rule forbids allowance of damages such as may have resulted to the buildings erected by plaintiff under the circumstances detailed, as he admits, and the court so instructed the jury trying the case. But whether, in view of the evidence submitted upon the trial of the issue joined, the jury, though properly instructed, may have been misled and included the values of the lots and buildings in their assessment of the amount of recovery to which they deemed plaintiff entitled, is a question answered in another connection. It suffices now to say that, if they did, clearly their finding at least to that extent is erroneous.

Likewise it is also true that, if the jury included in the assessment an amount chargeable to the destruction and removal of the steps by the city authorities or by the contractor performing the work of improvement under their direction and supervision, their verdict compromised the rights of the municipality to that extent also. When or by whom they were erected or since maintained does not appear, but they were there when plaintiff acquired title to the lot. The material fact, however, is their location in part at least within the boundary of the public right of way, though apparently not then or since within the traveled road bed, and not at any time during their existence obstructing the use thereof in any manner. Whether they did or did not obstruct the street, the consecutive owners, including plaintiff, did not thereby acquire the right to maintain them; perpetually within the street right of way, but only while public necessities did not require their removal for the betterment of the street. [262]*262Tbeir erection and maintenance within the street limits did not and could not affect the public rights in the street, “for the reason that there is nothing inconsistent with a public easement for the authorities to allow an abutting land owner the temporary occupation of a public highway not demanded for the present use of the public. ’ ’ Ralston v. Town of Weston, 46 W. Va. 544, 546. Until the contrary appears, the occupancy of any part or the whole of such street is deemed permissive however long it may have remained undisturbed; and although continued during many years, encroachments on a public road or street will not confer title by adverse possession or prescriptive right thereto in any part of the thoro-fare: Ralston v. Weston, cited; Foley v. County Court, 54 W. Va. 16; Clifton v. Weston, 54 W. Va. 250; Elkins v. Donohoe, 74 W. Va. 335; 3 McQuillin, Mun. Corp, § 1396; 2 Elliott, Roads & Streets (3d Ed.) §§ 1187 1188. And as a necessary corollary of these propositions, the city’s right to remove the steps is superior to that of the occupant to maintain them, and the right of removal is coextensive with the limits of the right of way including the whole of its surface.

By no invasion of the boundary can an abutting lot owner deprive the public of their rights therein. And, regardless of the ownership of the fee subject to the easement, the public authorities may remove or cause the removal of any obstruction to the use of the street whenever it interferes with the consummation of a contemplated improvement of the street, whatever may be the character of the impediment. 3 McQuillin, Mun. Corp.,.

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Bluebook (online)
99 S.E. 484, 84 W. Va. 257, 1919 W. Va. LEXIS 32, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jones-v-city-of-clarksburg-wva-1919.