Murray Meat & Live Stock Co. v. Newhouse Realty Co.

155 P. 442, 47 Utah 622, 1916 Utah LEXIS 97
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 16, 1916
DocketNo. 2842
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 155 P. 442 (Murray Meat & Live Stock Co. v. Newhouse Realty Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Murray Meat & Live Stock Co. v. Newhouse Realty Co., 155 P. 442, 47 Utah 622, 1916 Utah LEXIS 97 (Utah 1916).

Opinion

STRAUP, C. J.

The plaintiff and "the defendant Newhonse Realty Company are the owners of adjoining lots in the business district of Salt Lake City. The plaintiff has a warehouse and meat refrigerator plant on its ground, the north wall of which is near or on the division line, of the two lots. As alleged by the plaintiff, the defendants, in making excavations on the realty company’s property to erect a building thereon, negligently removed earth near and underneath the wall of plaintiff’s building and injured it. Both defendants deny the alleged negligence. The realty company pleaded that its eodefendants were independent contractors who, as such, made the excavations. The Schravens pleaded a counterclaim, in which they alleged that they had notified the plaintiff of their intention to make the* excavations and warned it to protect its building and wall, but that it neglected to do anything in such respect, whereupon the Schravens themselves protected the wall by shoring, bracing, and propping it, for'which they ask.reasonable compensation. The case was tried to the court and jury, who rendered a verdict in plaintiff’s favor for $650 against the defendants Schravens. only. They appeal.

After stating that the plaintiff’s right to recover was predicated on negligence, and after defining negligence, the court charged the jury:

“7. You are instructed that the owner of land can lawfully excavate up to the line thereof, although such excavation may endanger a building situated upon the adjoining land; but it is the duty of the owner before making such excavation to give to the owner of the adjoining land notice of his intentiQn to make such excavation a sufficient time before commencing to enable such person to take such precautions. for the protection of his building as may be reasonably necessary, and it is also the duty of the person making such excavation [624]*624to use ordinary care, skill, and caution to prevent injury to tbe building upon the adjoining land; and if the owner making such excavation gives such due and timely notice to the owner of the adjoining land, and exercises ordinary care, skill, and prudence in making such excavation, he is not liable for any damages resulting therefrom to the building upon the adjoining premises; but, if he should fail to give such notice, or should fail to exercise ordinary care, skill, and prudence in making such excavation, and such failure is the proximate cause of injury and damage to the adjoining buildings, then he would be liable for such damage.

“8. You are instructed that where one about to make an excavation notifies the adjoining landowner of such intention, and the adjoining landowner refuses or neglects to take the necessary steps to protect his building, such refusal and neglect does not excuse nor relieve the person making the excavation from the duty of exercising ordinary care, skill, and prudence in making the same; but, notwithstanding such neglect on the part of the adjoining owner, the person making the excavation would be liable for any and all damages which proximately resulted from any acts of negligence" in making such excavations. ’ ’

“11. You are instructed that as a matter of law the defendants J. F. and H. E. Schraven are not, under the evidence in this case, entitled to recover upon their counterclaim against the plaintiff, and you cannot therefore find any verdict for said defendants thereon; and you are also instructed that the plaintiff is not entitled to recover against the Newhouse Realty Company, and you cannot therefore find any vei’diet for the plaintiff against said defendant.

‘ ‘ 12. If you should find for the plaintiff, you should award it such amount as from the evidence you may find its building, together with its refrigerating plant and machinery installed therein, was damaged, by any negligent acts of the defendants J. F. and H. E. Schraven in making the excavation complained of. ’ ’

The only exception to these instructions by the appellants is:

[625]*625“We reserve an exception to paragraphs 7, 8, 11, and 12 of the charge of the court as given. ”

1,2 Attempts, however, are made to complain of all of them, except No. 8. They relate to separate and distinct propositions. The exception is general as to all of them, and, under the repeated rulings of this court (Farnsworth v. U. P. Coal Company, 32 Utah 112, 89 Pac. 74, and cases there cited), is of no avail, unless the whole of all of the specified instructions is bad. Confessedly 8 is good, for, while it is assigned, yet nothing is urged against it. But it is earnestly urged that 11 is bad. Let us look at it. It itself contains two' separate and distinct propositions: One, that the Schravens are not entitled to recover on their counterclaim; the other, that the plaintiff is not entitled to recover against the realty company. The whole of that instruction is not complained of. Complaint is made of only the portion denying appellants relief on their counterclaim. That is all that is urged against it. The portion denying the plaintiff relief as against the realty company is not complained of, nor is any attempt made to show that it is bad. Even had there been a general exception to the whole of paragraph or instruction No. 11, it would have been of no avail, since the paragraph contains two separate and distinct propositions, one of which only being claimed erroneous and nothing whatever urged against the other. Bad as such an exception would be, the one which was taken is still worse. When we look at 12, and when it is considered in connection with the whole charge, we see nothing wrong with that. And, indeed, very little is urged against it. The same conclusion is reached as to No. 7. It is not claimed that it is a misstatement of the law, or that the jury, in such respect, were misdirected. It is argued that it ought not to have been given because the Schravens were not the owners of the ground upon which the excavation was made; that the plaintiff had notice from the realty company a month or more before the commencement of the excavations that it intended to remove earth and erect a building; that since the realty company gave the plaintiff notice, and since, as is argued, the plaintiff relied on the realty company to protect its wall and manifested an intention not itself to do anything to protect it, [626]*626the appellants were not required to give the plaintiff any notice. But such questions, or arguments, are not pertinent to the charge. It is not open to the construction that, though the plaintiff had due notice from the realty company, yet the appellants also were required to give notice. The evidence respecting the suggested matters is in conflict. It is claimed, on the one hand, that the plaintiff had due and timely notice to protect its wall, and that it, for days and weeks, saw the excavations being made and the work carried on, and hence knew, or ought to have known, that in the ordinary prosecution of the work the support of its wall would be weakened; and therefore, without notice, ought to have taken necessary steps to protect its wall and building.

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Bluebook (online)
155 P. 442, 47 Utah 622, 1916 Utah LEXIS 97, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/murray-meat-live-stock-co-v-newhouse-realty-co-utah-1916.