Joplin & Western Railway Co v. Kansas City

37 S.W. 540, 135 Mo. 549, 1896 Mo. LEXIS 277
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedNovember 11, 1896
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 37 S.W. 540 (Joplin & Western Railway Co v. Kansas City) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Joplin & Western Railway Co v. Kansas City, 37 S.W. 540, 135 Mo. 549, 1896 Mo. LEXIS 277 (Mo. 1896).

Opinion

Macfarlane, J.

This is a suit in equity to enjoin the defendant from constructing its railroad over a strip of land twenty-five feet wide through the west half of the southwest quarter of section 15, township 27, range 33, in Jasper county.

The proceedings and evidence show that plaintiff and defendant, both railroad corporations, were locating and constructing lines of railroad from Joplin to a mining district located in a southerly direction and about four miles therefrom. The Empire Zinc Company owned the tract of land above described, and had thereon extensive mills for reducing lead and zinc ore. Each party wished to reach this mill with its railroad. [552]*552For doing so there appears to be only one accessible route, and this was quite narrow. Plaintiff first adopted its route and made and filed in the office of the clerk of the county court a profile map thereof. The center of the line so adopted was located about thirty-seven and one-half feet west of the mill of the zinc company. For a right of way through this land plaintiff bought a' strip of land twenty-five feet wide, the east line thereof being about twenty-five feet distant from the mill. After plaintiff had partly constructed its road at this point, defendant located its road over the land between the mill and the land on which plaintiff was constructing its road, and on the seventeenth day of May contracted with the zinc company for the conveyance to it of all said land for its right of way. On the same day defendant took possession and commenced preparation for building its road thereon. Afterward, on the same day, defendant commenced proceedings to condemn “for main track and side, track,” the whole of the land for which defendant had so contracted.

This proceeding is to restrain defendant from constructing its road on said land.

The case was heard on answer of defendant, and a motion to dissolve the injunction. The court found for defendant, dismissed plaintiff’s bill, and dissolved the temporary injunction theretofore granted, and rendered a final judgment in favor of defendant.

Plaintiff in due time filed a motion for a new trial, which was overruled by the court. On the same day defendant filed a motion for the assessment of damages, which was continued by the court to the next term. On the same day also plaintiff filed its affidavit for an appeal, which was allowed.

I. A preliminary motion to dismiss the appeal was made by defendant. This motion was taken with the case and should be first determined.

[553]*553The ground for the motion is, that there could be no final judgment, from which an appeal could be taken, until the motion for the assessment of damages had been disposed of.

The statute merely provides that, “upon the dissolution of an injunction, in whole or in part, damages shall be assessed by a jury, or if neither party require a jury, by the court.” R. S. 1889, sec. 5500.

In the case of Railroad v. Burger, 32 Mo. 578, after a judgment dismissing plaintiff’s bill and dissolving the preliminary injunction, defendant filed his motion for the assessment of .damages occasioned by the injunction. The damages were assessed at $5,000. At the same term the defendant filed a motion to set aside the verdict and judgment, which the court sustained, and defendant appealed. The court inpassing upon the ease dismissed the appeal, and gave this reason therefor: “The order setting aside the verdict and judgment left the case standing on Burger’s motion for the assessment of damages; and for anything appearing in the record, that motion still remains undisposed of. Until a final disposition is made of it, no appeal lies.” The statute under which this ruling was made was the same as that now in force.

It does not clearly appear, from the brief statement of the case made by the court, whether an appeal was .taken from the order setting aside the verdict for damages, or from the judgment dismissing the bill. It is, however, clearly stated in the opinion, that, until there has been a final disposition of the motion for the assessment of damages, no appeal lies.

We do not think the view then taken by the court a practical construction of the statute, or that its spirit has been followed by the later cases. It is apparent that damages should not be assessed until there has been a final determination that the injunction was im[554]*554properly granted. An appeal by plaintiff from a judgment dismissing his bill, and dissolving the temporary injunction, may result in a reversal of the judgment and in reinstating the injunction, or even in ordering it made perpetual. In such case there could be no damages, and an assessment previously made, possibly at great cost to litigants, and after occupying much time of the court, would be entirely nugatory. The statute, failing to prescribe the course of procedure, should be given a practical construction. This can only be done effectively by separating the proceeding for injunction from that for damages, and making the proceedings for the recovery of damages independent of the injunction suit. The provision of the statute for the assessment of damages takes the place of a suit on the bond. If an appeal is taken from the judgment in the injunction suit the motion to assess damages should be suspended until the determination of the appeal.

In Cohn v. Lehman, 93 Mo. 584, it was expressly held that an action for damages on an injunction bond could not be maintained until a final decree had been rendered in the cause in which the bond was given, and that a judgment, from which an appeal was taken, without supersedeas, was not final until the appeal had been disposed of.

In Nolan v. Johns, 108 Mo. 433, it was held that the sureties on an injunction bond were entitled to appeal from a judgment for damages, though the proceedings were by motion.

These decisions show, very conclusively, that the court did not regard the original suit for injunction and the proceedings for the assessment of damages, as one and inseparable, as seems to have been held in case of Railroad v. Burger, supra.

We are of the opinion, therefore, that' the assessment of damages on an injunction bond properly fol[555]*555lows a final determination of the injunction suit, and that an appeal from the final judgment may be taken while a motion for the assessment of damages is pending. The appeal, in such ease, would suspend action on the motion until the case was finally determined.

The motion to dismiss the appeal is therefore denied..

II. Plaintiff had, on the eighth of May, 1890, secured by contract with the owner, and by a conveyance from him, a right of way, twenty-five feet in width, over a tract of land, and had filed with the cierk of the county court a profile map of the route adopted in compliance with the requirements of the statute. R. 8., sec. 2564. Not deeming the right of way sufficient for its purposes, on the evening of the seventeenth day of May, 1890, it instituted proceedings to condemn twenty-five feet additional, over said land.

During this time defendant was making preparation to build a railway in the same direction, and near to that being constructed by plaintiff. The object of each of these companies was to reach and secure business from the mill of the Empire Zinc Company which was largely engaged in the reduction of zinc ore.

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Bluebook (online)
37 S.W. 540, 135 Mo. 549, 1896 Mo. LEXIS 277, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/joplin-western-railway-co-v-kansas-city-mo-1896.