Lloyd Booth Co. v. Mahoning Co.

12 Ohio Cir. Dec. 706
CourtOhio Circuit Courts
DecidedApril 15, 1898
StatusPublished

This text of 12 Ohio Cir. Dec. 706 (Lloyd Booth Co. v. Mahoning Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Circuit Courts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lloyd Booth Co. v. Mahoning Co., 12 Ohio Cir. Dec. 706 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1898).

Opinion

Faubib, J.

The case of the Floyd Booth Company against the board of commissioners of Mahoning county and others, is in this court on appeal, and is a proceeding for an injunction to restrain the defendant from the erection of a viaduct or approaches to a bridge in front of the plaintifi’s premises upon ' Market, street in this city. The case was tried upon the pleadings and the evidence, and the facts as found by the court will be stated as I proceed in the opinion.

It seems from the evidence and the admissions in the pleadings that Market street, named in this proceeding, is one of the principal streets in this city; that it extends in front of the premises of the plaintifi running frpm north to south towards the Mahoning river; that it has been a street of the city for a period of time from which the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, and more than twenty-one years before the commencement of this suit the city had established the grade of this street from the north southward to, and past, the premises of the plaintiff, and that grade and the street has been substantially from that point to this. There was shown to be slight variations in parts ot the street where it did' not conform accurately to the established way, but that was immaterial by action of the proper authorities.

The establishment of a grade consists in the action of the city or municipality in defining it and publishing it in the proper manner, and that was done in this case. The grade actually in existence upon the street was substantially that which had been established by the city. This grade descends trom Front street, a point about 210 feet north of the line of the plaintiff’s premises, where Front street intersects Market street at right angles. It was there that the grade descended until in front of the portion ot the plaintiff’s premises, where it reaches perhaps the bottom of the grade established.

The plaintiff, a manufacturing corporation, purchased the premises in question, and for the purpose of its organization, it erected upon the north part of the lot, perhaps twenty-five feet westerly from the line ot [708]*708Market street, a frame building as a foundry, and subsequently purchased additional premises on the south; and there, flush with the sidewalk, it built what is said to be a machine shop of great dimensions, ■ isome lorty feet high, the front of which faces upon the street, composed ¡principally of glass, in order that the proper light and proper ventilation may be had.

Market street originally did not extend to the river bank, but at .some time prior to the time mentioned, the city or somebody having authority so to do, which is not determined in this case by any of the evidence, so far as we now remember, extended Market street across the river by the construction of a bridge and approaches thereto. The bridge commenced upon Market street south of the line of the Pittsburgh and Western Railway Company and south ol the south line of the premises of the plaintifl, so that Market street stretched then across the river, but the approaches to tire bridge were south of the premises of the ¡plaintifl, and did not in any manner encroach upon the street in front of their premises.

A bridge crossing a depression where there is a public street or highway constructed, forms a part of the street or highway, just as ■much so as any other part of the street, so that Market street prior to ithe time of the commission of the acts in question upon the part of the defendant, extended northward and southward to and across Mahoning lriver to the blufl upon the opposite side. In that condition it remained ifor some years; how long we are not prepaied to say, because the evidence does not disclose when the first bridge was built. At all events .for some years it had been in that condition.

Market street is ninety-four feet wide. The commisssioners of the county took upon themselves the right, and which they have the right ,to do, to lay out a county road from certain portions oí Market street, ■ perhaps commencing on the south line of Front street and at this intersection with MarXet street and stretching southward across the river, ifollowing the line of Market street to the blufl upon the other side and to a point higher than Market street then reached upon the south side of the river; at least such was the intention as they extended it perhaps 'beyond the line of this bridge on the south.

To this there was no objection on the part of the plaintifl and no question is made of that in this case. The commissioners of course laid out the street no wider than they were empowered to do by the statute, which was sixty feet and they make the center of it the center of Market street; and now come in the acts which are complained of, and they are that the commissioners determined to make a new highway at this point of the line where they had established the county road. They determined to erect a bridge and its approaches, spoken of as a viaduct, commencing at the south line of Front street, two hundred and ten feet north of the north line of plaintiff’s premises, and stretching from there along the line of the county road that they had then established, to a .point on the south side of the river, at an elevation much higher than the then roadway and grade. Starting from Market street they ■intended and perhaps did build solid masonry, as a part of the approach, .some distance, perhaps one hundred and seventy feet southward towards ■the premises of plaintiff, sixty feet in width, and this on an ascending ' grade which would carry the approach to the bridge to tfie southern ¡point determined upon at the top of the bluff on the south side of thei , river, and thus in effect make two roadways on Market street.

[709]*709In front of the plaintiff’s premises the commissioners proposed to construct this bridge or viaduct upon pillars, resting upon stone foundations sunk to the level of the street, steel or iron pillars perhaps a foot in width or in diameter, and in front of plaintiff’s premises there would be a double row of these pillars, perhaps the nearest one, the nearest row to the plaintiff’s premises, three hundred some leet therefrom to the east. Now it is claimed that this would create no detriment whatever to the plaintiffs premises, in that it would not interfere with access thereto, but we hold against that contention, and find that it would materially affect the rights of the plaintiff in the street.

I have always said that the construction of this roadway would of itself affect travel upon the street; even the plaintiff itself, its officers and servants, desiring to cross the river at this point and use Market street for that purpose, would be compelled to go northward from their own premises and from the north line of those premises two hundred and ten feet at least before they could reach the end of the viaduct and enter upon the street across the river; and the travel from the north to the south side of the city at this point would necessarily be diverted from the street in front of the plaintiff’s premises, as theretofore existing, and would be compelled to pass over the approaches to the bridge from Front street and thus again travel upon the street would be diverted. And in addition thereto, it would materially interfere with the access to their premises.

It is useless in our opinion to say that these piers and columns thus intended to be constructed in front of plaintiff’s premises would in no manner interfere with the access to their building. It would in our opinion materially interfere with the access thereto.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
12 Ohio Cir. Dec. 706, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lloyd-booth-co-v-mahoning-co-ohiocirct-1898.