Lake Erie & Western Railway Co. v. Kinsey

87 Ind. 514
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1882
DocketNo. 9883
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 87 Ind. 514 (Lake Erie & Western Railway Co. v. Kinsey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lake Erie & Western Railway Co. v. Kinsey, 87 Ind. 514 (Ind. 1882).

Opinion

Franklin, C.

Appellee sued appellant in ejectment for the possession of a strip of ground occupied for the use of its railway. Appellant had taken the statutory steps to condemn the right of way over appellee’s land. Appraisers had been appointed who assessed the damages at $50, and filed their report in the clerk’s office. Appellant immediately paid in to the clerk the $50, took possession of the right of way, and proceeded to construct its road. Appellee, within ten days after the filing of the report, filed with the clerk his exceptions [515]*515thereto, and appealed the case to the circuit court, where a trial was had before a jury, and appellee’s damages were assessed at $790, and, over a motion for a new trial, judgment was rendered thereon, which stood for some six months unpaid, unsatisfied, and unappealed from, when appellee commenced this suit for possession.

The complaint is in two paragraphs. The first is in the usual form in ejectment. The second is the same, with the addition of the proceedings to condemn and appropriate. Appellant answered: 1st. A denial. 2d. The proceedings to condemn up to and including the filing of the report of the appraisers and the payment to the clerk of the fifty dollars. 3d. The whole of the proceedings to condemn and appropriate, with an allegation added that it had prayed an appeal to the Supreme Court from the judgment of $790, and intended to take the case there so soon as it got the proper transcript completed. Before answering appellant moved to strike out all and parts of the second paragraph of the complaint, and also filed a demurrer to said paragraph; all of which were successively overruled. Appellee then filed a demurrer to' the second and third paragraphs of appellant’s answer, which was sustained. To all of which rulings appellant excepted, and the cause was tried upon the issue made by the denial.

The errors assigned in this court are:

1st. Overruling motion to strike out.

2d. Overruling demurrer to second paragraph of complaint.

. 3d. Sustaining demurrer to second and third paragraphs of answer.

4th. Overruling motion for a new trial.

All contemplated harm from irrelevant and immaterial pleadings remaining in may be prerented by objections to the introduction of testimony thereunder. The overruling of a motion to strike out parts or all of a pleading presents no available error. Gill v. State, ex rel., 72 Ind. 266; Cox v. Bird, 65 Ind. 277; Hay v. State, ex rel., 58 Ind. 337; City [516]*516of Crawfordsville v. Brundage, 57 Ind. 262; Moore v. State, ex rel., 55 Ind. 360.

Each of the other three specifications of error presents the same question, and that is as to whether an action of ejectment' can be maintained upon the facts alleged. Or, to make it more specific, can a corporation acquire, title to real estate against the will or consent of the owner, without first paying or tendering full compensation ?

The twenty-first section of the first article of the constitution of this State reads: “No man’s particular services shall be demanded without just compensation. No man’s property shall be taken by law without just compensation, nor, except in case of the State, without such compensation first assessed and tendered.”

Under this provision of our constitution, the Legislature had the right to prescribe the manner in which such just compensation should be ascertained.

The fifteenth section of the act to provide for the incorporation of railroad companies (1 R. S. 1876, p. 704) provides, among other things, in cases where the parties can not agree, for the filing of an act of appropriation with the clerk of the circuit court, and upon the application of either party, for the judge appointing by warrant three disinterested freeholders to appraise the damages, that they shall proceed and forthwith return their assessment of damages to the clerk of said court, who shall record the same, “ and thereupon, such corporation shall pay to said clerk the amount thus assessed, or tender the same to the party in whose favor the damages are awarded or assessed; and on making payment or tender thereof, in the manner herein required, it shall be lawful for such corporation to hold the interest in such lands or materials so appropriated, and the privilege of using any materials on said roadway within fifty feet on each side of the. center of such roadway, for the uses aforesaid. * * * The award of said arbitrators may be reviewed by the circuit court or other court in which such proceedings may be had, on written exceptions filed by [517]*517either party in the clerk’s office, within ten days after the filing of such award, and the court shall take such order therein as right and justice may require, by ordering a new appraisement, on good cause shown: Provided, That notwithstanding such appeal, such company may take possession of the property therein described, as aforesaid, and the subsequent proceedings on the appeal shall only affect the amount of compensation to be allowed.”

Appellant insists that, under this statute, when it paid into the clerk’s office the $50 awarded by the appraisers, the title to the land immediately passed to the appellant; and the fact that the appellee was awarded a much greater amount on the appeal makes no difference; that the title had already vested in appellant, and appellee must look to his judgment for compensation.

Such a construction of the statute would be in conflict with the constitution, and would make it unconstitutional and void in this respect. But we think the statute plainly admits of a construction that makes it in harmony with the constitutional provision that just compensation shall be first made or tendered.

The payment of the amount awarded by the appraisers gives the corporation a right to the immediate possession and a prima faeie claim to the land subject to an appeal in ten days after the award is filed. If no appeal is taken, at the end of the ten days the title vests and relates back to date of payment. If an appeal is taken no title vests, and the corporation has no greater right than that of a license under the statute to hold possession and proceed with the construction of its road pending litigation. When the compensation has been finally fixed on appeal, then the corporation must pay or tender the compensation so fixed, and on failure to do so it acquires no title to the land, and its license to hold possession and prosecute its work ceases. Just compensation must be first made or tendered. The verdict of the jury and the [518]*518judgment of the court determine what that just compensation is.

The prayer for an appeal, and the intention to take an appeal, do not continue the litigatiou or in any way interfere with the finality of the judgment as to the just compensation; and if the judgment on appeal is for more than the award of the appraisers, the difference must be paid or tendered before the land can be finally taken. Mills Eminent Domain, section 137; Peterson v. Ferreby, 30 Iowa, 327; Richards v. DesMoines Valley R. R. Co., 18 Iowa, 259; Blackshire v. Atchison R. R. Co., 13 Kan. 514.

The amount found due on appeal must be paid or tendered before the title passes. Levering v. Philadelphia, etc., R. R. Co., 8 Watts & S. 459; Mills Eminent Domain, section 139.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Truck City of Gary, Inc. v. Calumet Realty Corp.
918 N.E.2d 10 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2009)
Hammond v. GRAOCH ASSOCIATES NO. 52, LP
909 N.E.2d 1086 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2009)
Greensboro-High Point Airport Authority v. Irvin
163 S.E.2d 118 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1968)
General Grain, Inc. v. Goodrich
221 N.E.2d 696 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1966)
State v. Young
199 N.E.2d 694 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1964)
State Ex Rel. Ensley v. Superior Court Etc.
159 N.E.2d 115 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1959)
State Etc. v. Marion Cir. Ct. Etc.
157 N.E.2d 481 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1959)
Garrett v. London
1924 OK 970 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1924)
Schnull v. Indianapolis Union Railway Co.
131 N.E. 51 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1921)
Stinchcomb v. Oklahoma City
1926 OK 154 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1921)
Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad v. Sedwick
124 N.E. 512 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1919)
Denver, W. & M. Ry. Co. v. Adkinson
1911 OK 18 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1911)
Toledo & Chicago Interurban Railway Co. v. Wilson
86 N.E. 508 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1908)
Indianapolis Northern Traction Co. v. Dunn
76 N.E. 269 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1905)
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Hayes
74 N.E. 531 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1905)
Enid & Anadarko Railway Co. v. Wiley
1904 OK 70 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1904)
Cincinnati, Richmond & Muncie Railroad v. Wabash Railroad
70 N.E. 256 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1904)
Chicago, Indiana & Eastern Railway Co. v. Wysor Land Co.
69 N.E. 546 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1904)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
87 Ind. 514, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lake-erie-western-railway-co-v-kinsey-ind-1882.