Matter of City of New York

85 N.E. 1064, 193 N.Y. 117, 1908 N.Y. LEXIS 627
New York Court of Appeals·Decided October 13, 1908·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

Werner, J.

This is a condemnation proceeding instituted by the city of Hew York for the purpose of acquiring certain lands and bulkhead rights on the easterly shore of the Horth *121 river between"Twenty-second street and Twenty-third street, in accordance with a general plan for the permanent improvement of the water front, pursuant to various statutes which need not now be enumerated. The petition designates the property to be condemned as consisting of eleven separate parcels, in only one of which does the appellant claim any interest, and that is parcel number one which is described as All the rights of wharfage, incorporeal hereditaments, terms, easements, emoluments, privileges or other appurtenances of any kind whatsoever appurtenant to the bulkhead along the westerly side of Thirteenth Avenue, extending from the southerly side of West Twenty-third street to the northerly side of West Twenty-second street.”

Attached to this bulkhead, on the water side of the bulkhead line, were a platform and float bridge maintained by the appellant, the Erie Railroad Company, under a revocable license from the city. To the north of the float bridge, and also attached to the exterior side of the bulkhead, were the passenger station, baggage room, restaurant, etc., of the railroad company, located partly upon land under water belonging to the city of New York, and partly upon the submerged lands which formed the continuation of West Twenty-third street. The railroad company was also the lessee from the city of the right to operate a ferry from the foot of West Twenty-third street across the North river to the foot of Pavonia avenue in Jersey City. This lease was dated December 21,1897, and its duration was for five years, subject to the right of the city to enter upon*and take possession of the structures and improvements erected and maintained upon the leased property by the railroad company, upon service of a three months’ notice, whenever the city, through its department of docks, should decide to appropriate the locus in quo for water improvements ; and in the event of such appropriation the railroad company was to be entitled to no compensation for the taking or destruction of such structures or improvements. The railroad company, under a revocable permit from the city, had also laid and maintained across Thirteenth avenue three rail *122 road tracks, by means of which its structures on the water side of Thirteenth avenue were connected with its freight yard on the east side of that avenue. This freight yard was upon lands leased to the railroad company by the same lessors who owned the bulkhead rights and water privileges which have been condemned herein. It was equipped with sheds, platforms, tracks, drives and other things which were essential or convenient to its use as a component part of the whole plant, consisting of the several structures and improvements which have been separately described or referred to.

On the 29th day of August, 1904, the railroad company surrendered to its lessors, Moore and others, all rights under said leases, and all claims or demands against the city of New York to any portion of the award for the value of the wharf cr bulkhead rights condemned herein, and all other rights, claims or demands of every nature, except such claims as the railroad company had by reason of injury to or destruction of its fixtures or property other than the bulkhead. This surrender by the railroad company to its lessors was to take effect as of the 17tli of October, 1902, that being the day upon which title to the bulkhead rights passed to the city pursuant to the provisions of section 823a of the Greater New York charter. No question is presented upon this appeal as between the city and the owners of the bulkhead rights, but the railroad company complains that its reserved rights have been ignored throughout the proceeding. It contends that notwithstanding its surrender to its lessors of the leases under which it held the greater portion of the lands and premises above described, and the release of its share of the damages to which, but for the surrender of its leases, it might have been entitled by reason of the condemnation of the bulkhead rights, it still retained its claim for any incidental damages to its physical equipment which was rendered useless or less valuable by the city’s appropriation of the bulkhead, rights. Counsel for the city meets this contention with the suggestion that since the surrender by the railroad company was made effective as of the day when the city acquired its title to the bulkhead rights, *123 the railroad company retained no interest in the premises for which it could lawfully demand compensation. In support of this contention he cites a number of the so-called elevated railroad cases in which it has been held that easements are inseparable from the dominant estate, and that a- claim for damages for the future impairment or destruction of easements cannot be reserved in favor of a grantor who has parted with his interest in the dominant estate. The commissioners held that the loss to the railroad company of its structures and fixtures, consequent upon their severance from the bulkhead rights which were condemned, was damnum absque injuria, and reported against the railroad company’s claim. The report of the commissioners was in all things confirmed at Special Term. The learned Appellate Division readied the same conclusion, but by a different process of reasoning. It held that as to the structures of the railroad company on the west side of Thirteenth avenue which were attached or adjacent to the bulkhead the railroad company could not recover ,(1) because as to so much of the structures as had been erected under a revocable license from the city there could be no legal damage, and (2) as to such parts of the structures as had been erected upon the land of the city pursuant to the lease granting to the railroad company a right to operate a ferry there was an express covenant that the city might, upon a three months’ notice, terminate the lease and take possession without liability for destruction of structures erected by the railroad company, and (3) as to such parts of the railroad company’s structures attached to the bulkhead owned by the lessors, Moore and others, the structures must be regarded as merely temporary and removable at the will of the city whenever the proper authorities should decide to appropriate the bulkhead rights of private owners for the improvement of the water, front, or if the structures were not temporary they were illegal because in contravention of the provisions of section 712 of the Consolidation Act which was in force when the structui’es were erected. With these conclusions of the court below we do *124 not disagree, and further discussion of them is, therefore, unnecessary.

But the learned Appellate Division also entertained the view that but for the surrender of the leases between the railroad company and its lessors the former would have been entitled to damages for the injury to or destruction of its structures and fixtures in the freight yard located on the easterly side of Thirteenth avenue. This is shown by the following excerpt from its opinion:

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Matter of City of New York, 85 N.E. 1064, 193 N.Y. 117, 1908 N.Y. LEXIS 627 (N.Y. 1908).

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