Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co. v. Cincinnati, Sandusky & Cleveland Railway Co.

30 Ohio St. (N.S.) 604
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 15, 1876
StatusPublished

This text of 30 Ohio St. (N.S.) 604 (Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co. v. Cincinnati, Sandusky & Cleveland Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co. v. Cincinnati, Sandusky & Cleveland Railway Co., 30 Ohio St. (N.S.) 604 (Ohio 1876).

Opinion

Johnson, J.

This is a petition in error filed in the district court of Erie county, Ohio, to reverse the judgment of the court of common pleas, and by that court reserved for decision here.

On the 23d of December, 1871, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company filed, in the probate court of said Erie county, its statement in writing “to appropriate, for the construction of its railroad, the right and privilege of crossing with its track and way the track and way of the Cincinnati, Sandusky and Cleveland Railroad Company . . . west of the city of Sandusky, where the line of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad . . . crosses the said Cincinnati, Sandusky and Cleveland Railroad. . . . The amount of land being a strip of land sixty-six feet in width, one hundred feet in length, across, and at right angles with said track and right of way of the said Cincinnati, Sandusky and Cleveland Railroad. The said corporation — the L. S. & M. S. Ry. Co. — appropriated the following rights and interests, to wit:

“ 1. The right of entering upon said right of way, surveying, marking, laying out a strip sixty-six feet wide across said C. S. & C. right of way, to be owned, occupied, and [607]*607enjoyed as right of way by the said two railroad corporations jointly with equal joint rights and privileges.
“2. The right of making suitable substructures and super-! structures, and constructing its track on and over said premises, with necessary ditches and culverts.
“3. The right of cutting the iron of said C. S. & C. R. R. at such crossing, inserting therein suitable crossing frogs at the grade of the said C. S. & C. Railroad, to be forever afterward maintained at the joint expense of said two companies. The right of using, in the construction of said railroad track, all materials on said premises, suitable for such purposes.
“The right and interest intended to be appropriated are, the right of using said premises jointly in connection with said C. S. & C. R. R. Co., absolutely and fully as a railroad track, and of appropriating the property, rights, and interests of said C. S. & C. Railroad Company as fully and amply as said L. S. & M. S. Ry. Co. hath or can acquire, the same for such purposes, and the right of maintaining and repairing said railroad track.”

In January, 1872, on a trial before the probate court, the jury assessed defendant’s damages at $10,034.50, and after motion for a new trial was overruled, judgment was entered on the verdict.

This judgment was reversed by the court of common pleas, and the cause was again tried to a jury, with a verdict in favor of defendant for $60, for the property appropriated, and consequential damages to the remaining portion of defendant’s property at $6,500.

The plaintiff, upon his motion for a new trial being overruled, took a bill of exceptions, embodying the evidence and the charge of the court, which presents the questions involved.

On error to the district court, the case was reserved for decision here.

No objection is made to the verdict fixing the compensation for the property taken — that is, the value of the right [608]*608of way across defendant’s track; but only to that part for consequential damages.

The defendant claimed the right to recover as consequential damages the cost of maintaining and keeping up said crossing, and the expenses incident to it, such as the wages of watchmen, oil, lights, watch-house, etc., which are required in order to comply with the statute. Against the objection of the plaintiff, the court permitted evidence to go to the jury touching these expenses, and charged the jury that they were a proper subject for consideration in estimating defendant’s consequential damages.

Evidence was also admitted, showing the amount of such expenses annually, and what sum of money placed at interest would produce an income sufficient to defray the increased expense of operating defendant’s road.

The evidence being closed, counsel for plaintiffs requested the following charges :

“ 1. That in estimating the damages to said C. S. & C. R. R. Co. the jury should take into consideration any direct damages it may sustain by reason of the appropriation of its property, and this would include : 1. One-half of the value of the land and its embankments; 2. Any damage from cutting its iron.
“ 2. But the jury are not to take into their estimate of damages to said C. S. & C. R. Rl Co. any consequential damages, such as: 1. Expense of keeping a watchman or flagman, or maintaining a target; 2. Any expense in keeping the crossing in repair.
“ 3. The act of the 24th of March, 1860, is a constitutional and valid law, and applies in this case. That it fixed the burdens imposed upon the two roads so crossing, and it also defines how these burdens are to be borne ; and by that act all of the expenses of keeping up the crossing and watchman, or flagman, at the joint expense of the two companies owning said roads. And, therefore, the jury can not take into their estimate of damages in favor of the C. S. & O. R. R. Co., any cost of maintaining said crossing, or of keeping such watchman or flagman.
[609]*609“ Which charge the court refused to give ; but (having first stated 'that he should call the L. S. & M. S. Ry. Co., the plaintiff, and the C. S.. & O. R. R. Co., the defendant,) did ■ charge the jury as follows :
“ This proceeding was instituted by the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company to appropriate the right of way for its road across the road of the Cincinnati, Sandusky and Cleveland Railroad Company at two points; one for the main line of the northern division of the road, and one for a branch of its main line. The application has been withdrawn as to the branch line, and the only matter now in controversy between the parties are those which relate to the crossing for its main line. The fact that the Lake Shoi’e and Michigan Southern Railroad Company is a corporation, and that it has power to make the appropriation that it now seeks to make, are admitted by the defendant. It becomes your duty, therefore, in the first place, to assess the amount of compensation due to the defendants by reason of the appropriation of the property of the defendant here sought to be appropriated. The plaintiff seeks to appropriate, as a way for its road, sixty-six feet in width across a strip of land one hundred feet in width, upon, and along which, defendant’s road is located. It seeks to make this appropriation, subject to the right of the defendant to use the same land, as a way for its use. The value of this piece of land, subject to the right of the defendant to maintain and operate its road across it, and to use it as a way for its road, is the amount of compensation due to the defendant, by reason of the appropriation. That amount is to be awarded to the defendant without deduction on account o.f any benefit from any improvemént made or proposed by the plaintiff". The property actually taken is to be paid for at its value.
“ 2.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
30 Ohio St. (N.S.) 604, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lake-shore-michigan-southern-railway-co-v-cincinnati-sandusky-ohio-1876.