Missouri Pacific Railway Co. v. Porter

20 S.W. 568, 112 Mo. 361, 1892 Mo. LEXIS 225
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedNovember 29, 1892
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 20 S.W. 568 (Missouri Pacific Railway Co. v. Porter) 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
Missouri Pacific Railway Co. v. Porter, 20 S.W. 568, 112 Mo. 361, 1892 Mo. LEXIS 225 (Mo. 1892).

Opinion

Thomas, J.

This is a condemnation proceeding. The defendant was awarded $10,500 damages to his property and $1,725 interest thereon, making $12,225 in all, and plaintiff appeals.

The record shows that plaintiff commenced two actions in the circuit court of Cooper county, one in May and the other in November,. 1887, to condemn a right of way, one hundred feet wide, for its road, through lots owned by defendant in the city of Boon-ville. The commissioners in the first case reported June 11, 1887, allowing defendant $5,000 damages, and in the second case November 26, 1887, allowing him [366]*366$700. Plaintiff deposited the sums thus allowed with the clerk of the circuit court as required by statute. Both parties excepted, in due time, to the reports, and the court set them aside.

On application of plaintiff the venue was changed to the circuit court of Moniteau county, where, by consent of parties, the two cases were consolidated and tried as one. It was also agreed that the only question that should be submitted for adjudication was the amount of damages defendant was entitled to by reason of the location, construction and operation of plaintiff’s road through said lots.

The evidence contained in the bill of exceptions ■shows that defendant owned eleven lots in Boonville, bounded on the north by the Missouri river, and running south to Water street, which is parallel with the river; the average distance across the lots from the river to Water street is about one hundred and fifty feet, and ■each lot has a river frontage of ninety feet, making the river frontage of all the lots three or four hundred yards; four of the lots extend from First street on the west to Second street on the east, and seven lie east of the latter street, which runs north and south, its northern terminus being the river; ten or twelve years ago defendant conveyed to the Boonville, St. Louis & Southern Railway Company a right of way forty feet wide, next to the river, through all his lots, east of Second street, for what is known as the Tipton branch road. The latter road runs north along Second street till it reaches defendant’s property, where it curves and runs east along the river bank to Fifth street; the right of way condemned in this proceeding includes in it the right of way previously conveyed for the Tipton branch; plaintiff proposed to construct its main line along the river bank, extending west of Second street, and from that line to construct a switch to connect with the [367]*367Tipton branch, on Second street south of Water .street. Defendant had operated a ferry boat across the river at Boonville since 1852, using the lots in question for a landing. After the construction of the Tipton branch, the shore of the river east of Second street was not’ used, indeed could not be used for a ferry landing. Some time prior to the institution of the present proceeding, defendant, by permission of the city, improved the foot of Second street for a landing, which he used up to the time of the trial (which took place in March, 1890), and which he was then using. Of defendant’s lots, west of Second street, there was left outside of the right of way, - ten feet on the south side and from thirty to fifty feet on the north side, according to the meanders of the river bank. The strip left between the right of way and the river can be reached by the way of First street from ‘the west and Second street from the east, and an alley equidistant between these streets extending to Water street; east of Second street the right of way extends to the river. There was quite an elevation of the lots in their natural state from the river to Water street, and, by the construction of the roadbed, this ■ elevation is considerably increased. The river bank west of Second street, by the action of the water, changed often, so that the point of landing of the ferry boat had to be shifted to suit the stage of the river and the grade of the bank.

The questions presented for our decision grow out of the rulings of the court on the admission and rejection of evidence, and the proper measure of damages. It appears very conclusively that' the lots in question were made land chiefly, were low and subject to overflow, and were worth but little except as a ferry landing. Defendant’s witnesses estimated the damages at from $10,000 to $25,000, while the evidence on the part of plaintiff tended to show that the damages were less than [368]*368$4,000. The other facts necessary to an understanding of the points decided will appear in the opinion.

I. In condemnation proceedings, in determining the damage that ought to be allowed the land-owner, “the correct rule tobe applied relates to the value of the land to be appropriated, which is to be assessed with reference to what it is worth for sale, in view of the uses to which it may be put. * * * And, when less than the whole estate is taken, then there is further to be considered how much the portion not taken is increased or diminished in value in consequence of the appropriation.” Railroad v. McGrew, 104 Mo. 282. “So many and varied are the circumstances to be taken into account in determining the value of property condemned for public purposes, that it is perhaps impossible to formulate a rule to govern its appraisement in all cases. Exceptional circumstances will modify the most carefully guarded rule; but, as a general thing, we should say the compensation to the owner is to be estimated by reference to the uses for which the property is suitable, having regard to the existing business or wants of the community, or such as may be reasonably expected in the immediate future.” Boom Co. v. Patterson, 98 U. S. 408.

All damages caused to persons in possession of the land not taken by reason-of the use to which the part taken has been or is to be put, should be taken into the account. These may flow from making ingress and egress to and from the part not taken either impossible or more dangerous and inconvenient. Note to Railroad v. Waldron, 88 Am. Dec. 113.

The court in the case at bar as to the measure of damages substantially instructed the jury in compliance with these general rules; but we think the witnesses were permitted, in some respects at least, to base their estimate of the damages to the part of defendant’s land [369]*369not taken upon erroneous principles. The difference in the market value of the property for the uses to which it is adapted, before and after the appropriation, is the true criterion of the damages sustained. In this instance, however, many of the witnesses stated the difference in the value of the ferry, with and without the railroad, whereas they should have been confined to the market value of the land, for all purposes to which it had been put, or for which it was suitable. We do not here mean by, “market value,” the price the land would bring at public auction and forced sale for cash, but such price as could have been obtained for it, on the usual or ordinary terms of a private sale.

Witnesses may also give the reasons they have for saying the property has been damaged or not damaged, such as the difficulty and hazard of access, and the expense of overcoming such difficulty and hazard, if it be possible to overcome them, and also the facilities of access that remain after the appropriation; but the danger to the public of reaching the ferry landing cannot be considered by the jury, unless such danger results, in some degree, in deterring people from reaching it, and diverting them from it.

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Bluebook (online)
20 S.W. 568, 112 Mo. 361, 1892 Mo. LEXIS 225, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/missouri-pacific-railway-co-v-porter-mo-1892.