Leavenworth Terminal Railway & Bridge Co. v. Atchison

37 S.W. 913, 137 Mo. 218, 1897 Mo. LEXIS 24
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJanuary 27, 1897
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 37 S.W. 913 (Leavenworth Terminal Railway & Bridge Co. v. Atchison) 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
Leavenworth Terminal Railway & Bridge Co. v. Atchison, 37 S.W. 913, 137 Mo. 218, 1897 Mo. LEXIS 24 (Mo. 1897).

Opinion

Macfarlane, J.

This proceeding was commenced in the circuit court of Platte county, in vacation, the object of which was to condemn portions of defendant’s land for a railroad and the approaches to a bridge, over the Missouri river, which was then in course of construction by plaintiff.

The petition was filed on the twenty-ninth day of November, 1892, and publication of notice to defendant, who was a nonresident of this state, was ordered. Notice was duly published, and on the twenty-fourth [223]*223day of December, 1892, plaintiff applied to the judge of said court in vacation for the appointment of commissioners to assess defendant’s damages. The application was continued by the judge to the April term, 1893, of said court, by an order duly entered of record.

At the April term, 1893, commissioners were appointed by the court, who made report on the seventeenth of said month, assessing the damage of defendant at $225.

On the same day, viz., April 17, 1893, the clerk of said court posted in his office a notice which, after giving the style of the ease, was as follows:

“To said defendant, David Atchison:
“You are hereby notified that the commissioners appointed by the court to assess the damages which you may sustain by reason of the appropriation of your property by said plaintiff for the purpose mentioned in its petition, did on the seventeenth day of April, 1893, file and report all their proceedings as such commissioners.”

No further order in said cause was made at that term of court.

At the August term of said court, and on the twenty-sixth of August, 1893, defendant filed his motion praying the court to set aside the report of the commissioners and award him a trial by jury of the damage he would sustain on account of the appropriation of his land.

The grounds of this motion as appeared from the affidavit in support of it were that he had no knowledge of the proceeding and that his damage would be largely in excess of that awarded him by the commissioners.

Upon a hearing at the August term the motion fora jury trial was sustained and the cause was continued to the December term.

[224]*224At the December term of court plaintiff filed a motion to set aside the order of the August term, and to approve the' report of commissioners, which was sustained, the order awarding a jury trial was set aside, and the report of commissioners was approved and confirmed.

Defendant filed a motion for a rehearing, assigning several grounds therefor, which, being overruled, he appealed.

I. Defendant raises, for the first time, in this court, a question of jurisdiction. It appears from copies of plats, filed in this court, that the land affected by the condemnation was originally an island in the Missouri river, lying between the town of Leavenworth, Kansas, on the west bank of the river, and the town of Weston, on the east bank of the river, in the state of Missouri, and known as Leavenworth Island. Defendant insists that the land attempted to be appropriated by this proceeding lies in the state of Kansas, and the circuit court of Platte county in the state of Missouri therefore had no jurisdiction to condemn it.

The question was not raised or determined by the circuit court. There is nothing upon the record which even suggests the jurisdictional question. The land is described throughout the proceedings as being situate in the state of Missouri. None of the motions filed by defendant in the" circuit court called in question the jurisdiction of that court on account of the location of the land.

It is true that a question of the jurisdiction of a court, of the general subject-matter of a suit, can be raised at any stage of the proceeding, even for the first time in an appellate court. It can not be waived, and its consideration does not depend upon whether or not it was directly passed upon by the trial court, or whether assigned as error. Indeed, if the trial court [225]*225had no general jurisdiction of the subject-matter, the appellate court could acquire none and it certainly has the right, at any time, to determine its own jurisdiction.

But a court may have the general right to decide a particular class of cases, and, at the same time, no right to decide a particular case of that class. The circuit court of Platte county has general jurisdiction in condemnation proceedings, but it has no power to condemn land situated in the state of Kansas. If the record showed on its face that the land was in the state of Kansas this court would set aside the judgment of the circuit court, whether the question was raised in that court or not. But, on the contrary, this record shows that .the land condemned is located in Platte county, Missouri. The jurisdiction of the court therefore affirmatively appears.

Defendant, for the first time, in this court, thus presents an issuable question of fact, involving a determination of the division line between two states, and asks this court to hear evidence, and pass upon it, as an original question, and not as an error of the trial court.

Counsel admit that they are able to find no precedent in this state for such practice. They attempt to justify the practice upon the principle, before stated, that a question of jurisdiction of the subject-matter of a suit can be raised at any stage of the proceeding. They also cite some old authorities, in which it is held that an error in fact may be assigned, in an appellate court, when “the party seems to have no other remedy.” Hartshorn v. Wilson, 2 Ohio, 27; Smith v. Pratt, 13 Ohio, 548.

They also cite Waddingham v. Waddingham, 27 Mo. App. 596, as sustaining their position. An examina[226]*226tion of that case will show that the question of fact considered by the court of appeals was one which arose, by the act of the appellant, after the appeal had been taken, and which estopped her to deny the correctness of the judgment.

The supreme court, except in issues raised by certain original remedial writs, has only appellate jurisdiction for the correction of errors committed by courts having original jurisdiction. Generally, it may be said, that an error which can only be shown to exist by proof of facts outside the record, can not be assigned in an appellate court.

There is no necessity to make an exception of this case, if one can be made in any case, for, if the land is in fact situate in the state of Kansas, the circuit court of Platte county, Missouri, had no jurisdiction to order its condemnation, and its judgment is absolutely void and affords no protection to plaintiff, in taking possession of, or trespassing upon, it.

The general rule that this court can only consider questions of error which appear upon the record must govern this case.

II. Under the constitution defendant had the right to have his damages assessed by a jury. But such right may be waived, and if no timely demand for a jury be made, a waiver will be presumed.

The statute fixes no time within which a jury may be demanded, but it does require that exceptions to the commissioners’ report shall be filed, “in the clerk’s office, within ten days after service of notice” that such report has been filed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
37 S.W. 913, 137 Mo. 218, 1897 Mo. LEXIS 24, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/leavenworth-terminal-railway-bridge-co-v-atchison-mo-1897.