Kafka v. Davidson

160 N.W. 1021, 135 Minn. 389, 1917 Minn. LEXIS 812
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedJanuary 19, 1917
DocketNos. 20,189—(187)
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 160 N.W. 1021 (Kafka v. Davidson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kafka v. Davidson, 160 N.W. 1021, 135 Minn. 389, 1917 Minn. LEXIS 812 (Mich. 1917).

Opinion

Taylor, C.

In February, 1911, the owners of a building at the southwesterly corner of Fourth and Robert streets in the city of St. Paul leased the corner store room therein to plaintiff for a term beginning February 15, 1911, and ending August 31, 1917, at a rental of $165 per month. The room was 24 feet in width on the Robert street front and 26 feet in depth, and was occupied by plaintiff as a cigar store. The lease reserved to the lessors the right to terminate it in case they should sell the land or give a ground lease thereof for a term of not less than 25 years, on giving plaintiff six months’ notice of their intention to terminate it and paying him the sum of $1,500. On November 25, 1911, the owners leased the northerly 50 feet of lots 1 and 2 of block 25, St. Paul proper, which included the building in question, to defendant for a term of 100 years, “subject to any existing lease with present tenants.” Thereafter defendant gave notice of his intention to terminate plaintiff’s lease, but plaintiff and defendant subsequently made an agreement whereby the notice was withdrawn and the lease was modified by giving defendant the “absolute right to terminate the lease at any time on giving” plaintiff 60-days’ notice in writing of his intention so to do and paying plaintiff the sum of $1,500 provided for in the lease.

In proceedings for the widening of Robert street, the city of St. Paul condemned a strip of land 20 feet in width along the westerly side of that street and across the property embraced in the ground léase to defendant, and took all of plaintiff’s store room except a strip 6 feet in width across the rear end thereof. The damages for taking the strip 20 feet wide across the entire 50 feet embraced in the ground lease were assessed at the sum of $25,200; the benefits to the remainder of the tract resulting from the widening of the street were assessed at the sum of 13,692, and the sum of $11,508, being the excess of the damages over [392]*392and above the benefits, was awarded to the owners of the property. The assessment was confirmed September 25, 1913. By a previous contract the fee owners had assigned to defendant any excess of the damages over the benefits, and the net amount awarded to the owners was paid to him by the city.

Plaintiff in proper season applied to the board of public works for a separate award to himself of the damages which he claimed to have sustained, but no separate allowance was made to him, and the award was confirmed without being apportioned between the various parties interested in the property. After it had been confirmed plaintiff appealed to the district court. That court rendered judgment confirming the award, and the judgment so rendered was affirmed by this court upon the ground that the award could be made in gross and be apportioned thereafter “between the various parties according to their interests.” State v. District Court of Ramsey County, 128 Minn. 432, 151 N. W. 144.

The city gave the property owners until June 1, 1914, in which to vacate the land taken by the city and subsequently extended the time until June 18, 1914. On June 30, 1914, the city entered upon the premises in question, and removed that portion of the building situated upon the’20-foot strip which had been condemned, leaving the remainder of the building without any front wall. Defendant did not replace the front wall nor remove the remainder of the building, and several weeks later the city declared the remainder of the building unsafe and removed it.

Plaintiff vacated the 20 feet of his room taken by the city on June 18, 1914, and vacated the remaining six feet thereof when the city removed the front wall from the building on June 30. ' He paid the rent for the entire premises until June 18 and a proportional part thereof for the 6-foot strip for the remainder of that month. No rent was paid or demanded thereafter.

In April, 1915, plaintiff brought this action to recover damages for the taking of his leasehold, and also to recover several other alleged claims which he asserted against defendant.

The gross amount of damages to the entire 50 feet embraced in the ground lease having been fixed in the assessment proceedings at the [393]*393sum' of $25,200, it was stipulated for the purpose of this trial that $15,200 thereof should be apportioned as the damages to the northerly 24 feet of such tract which included plaintiffs premises, and that $10,000 thereof should be apportioned as the damages to the southerly 26 feet of such tract. At the close of the evidence the trial court directed a verdict for defendant, and plaintiff appealed from an order denying a new trial.

The condemnation proceedings were in all respects regular so far as the record discloses, and the board of public works had jurisdiction to make the assessments and awards involved herein. Neither party questions this. The proceedings were in rent and all parties having interests in the property were bound and,concluded by the determination made therein of the amount of damages to the property, but the amount so fixed was assessed in gross, and any party entitled to a share thereof could bring an action for his share against any other party to whom such share had been paid. State v. District Court of Ramsey County, 128 Minn. 432, 151 N. W. 144; Eyre v. City of Faribault, 121 Minn. 233, 141 N. W. 170; Smith v. City of St. Paul, 65 Minn. 295, 68 N. W. 32.

Defendant contends at the outset, that the board of public works determined that plaintiff was not entitled to any damages, and that he is concluded by such determination. If the record disclosed that the board had made such determination, it may be conceded that plaintiff would be concluded thereby. State v. District Court of Ramsey County, 95 Minn. 70, 103 N. W. 744, and cases cited therein. But the record does not bear out defendant’s contention. The board made an award in gross for the damages to the northerly 50 feet of lots 1 and 2, being the tract embraced in the ground lease. Plaintiff applied for a separate award to himself for his damages. The board made no separate award, but duly confirmed the award in gross, and State v. District Court of Ramsey County, 128 Minn. 432, 151 N. W. 144, held that in doing so they acted within the power conferred upon them by the city charter. Whether plaintiff is entitled to share in such award was not determined so far as the record shows. As the decision made by the board did not necessarily involve that question, there must be affirmative proof that the question was in fact determined, before such decision can operate to bar plaintiff from subsequently claiming a part of the award [394]*394There is no snch proof. The fact that the board made a few separate awards to tenants of certain pieces of property not here involved, cannot be held as proving that, where they made an award in gross without referring to the tenants at all, they had determined that the tenants had no interest therein.

Plaintiff contends that the trial court adopted an incorrect rule for measuring his damages, and we think this contention well founded.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
160 N.W. 1021, 135 Minn. 389, 1917 Minn. LEXIS 812, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kafka-v-davidson-minn-1917.