N. Y. P. & O. R. R. v. Stubbings

12 Ohio Cir. Dec. 699
CourtOhio Circuit Courts
DecidedApril 15, 1888
StatusPublished

This text of 12 Ohio Cir. Dec. 699 (N. Y. P. & O. R. R. v. Stubbings) 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
N. Y. P. & O. R. R. v. Stubbings, 12 Ohio Cir. Dec. 699 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1888).

Opinion

Laubie, J.

The New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad Company against Margaret Stubbings is proceeding in error brought to reverse the judgment of the court below, upon the verdict of a jury in the case pending in that court, wherein Margaret Stubbings was plaintiff and the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad Company jand others were defendants.

The action below, as finally submitted to the jury, was one to recover damages sustained, as is claimed by the plaintiff below, by reason of the construction and operation of the railroad of the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad Company across Federal street in this city, at the point where Mrs. Stubbing’s property abutted upon the street.

A number of exceptions were taken during the course of the trial, and while the exceptions largely occur in the evidence to the jury, yet there is no point made to us, that the verdict is contrary to the evidence. It seems to have been brought before us, all the facts, for the purpose of enabling the court to fully understand the nature of the case and the objections made.

The first error claimed, is in the reception of evidence on the part of the plaintiff below, by reason of the damages sustained by her.

It seems that when Mrs. Stubbings became the owner of the property in question there was a railroad track across Federal street at precisely the same location now claimed to be owned by the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad Company. This track was a private switch, for the company described in this proceeding as Brown, Bonnell & Co. It was their switch, running from, perhaps, one or two railroad tracks into their mill and which existed ior a number of years m this condition in front of the plaintiff’s property', without complaint upon her part. It appears that it was there and the track was there in operation at the time she purchased this property.

The complaint is that this track was subsequently, perhaps in the year 1882, taken possession of by this railroad corporation and the grade changed, raised lrom eighteen inches to two feet or more across Federal street; that the egress and ingress to her property was thereby damaged; and that from a private switch of a private corporation, this railroad company transferred this track into a track of a railroad company and made it part of its main line or branch line, called the Girard branch, running from its track in the neighborhood of Youngstown to the town of Girard, thus transforming what was a private switch of a private company into the mam track of the railroad company, making it into a public railroad.

The plaintiff below inquired of witnesses, for the purpose of fixing the damages sustained by plaintiff, what the value of her property was just, prior to the appropriation, and what its actual or market value was immediately thereafter; or, in other words, the decrease or loss by reason of the changed use and character of this railroad track.

There was objection made and there seemed to be this difference between the court and counsel ior the defendants, the railroad company. Counsel for the railroad claimed that the measure ot damages was not the difference in the actual value of the property, but that it was the differ* [701]*701ence in the rental value and could not be regarded as permanent injury to the property itself. The court seemed to hesitate to go to the extreme length, as claimed by the counsel for the plaintiff below. At all events there was a complete line ol demarcation upon ttie point by counsel for the railroad and the court as to the question of permanent injury, whether the plaintiff was entitled to recover for permanent injury or whether it would be confined to the rental value.

In this connection it may be as well to consider and determine points expressly complained of.

The judge in his charge referred to this question of damages, perhaps in three different places. First, he says to the jury in his charge:

“Upon this question the court says to you as a matter of law, that if the lands of the plaintiff mentioned and described abut upon Federal street, she has in addition to the general interesi which the public has in the street, an incidental title to certain facilities and franchises, one of which is the right of ingress and egress to her lot, and if you should find that this right has been subtsantially impaired by the defendants in the location and operation of their railroad, along said street, if you find that they have so done, and that the location of said railroad track by the defendants is permanent in its character, then upon this proposition you should find m favor of the plaintiff, and in your determination of the damages she has sustained, if you find that she has sustained damages by reason of the acts of the defendant, you should not limit your inquiry as to such damage, to the rental value of the property from the time the street was so used and occupied by defendant until the filing of the petition, or the difference in the rental value thereof, but you may and should consider any substantial injury to the land of plaintiff that may be proven to exist by reason of the means of ingress and egress to the lands from the street, having been impaired by defendants in the locating of their railroad track and the use of the same for the purposes for which it was designed and -has been used by defendants, and for this purpose you should consider the change of grade, if any has been shown to have been made, the manner in which the railroad tracks have been located and any other matters shown to exist that would establish this fact as well as indicate clearly that the improvement was made permanent in its character.
“In determining this question, you may and should consider the condition of the property claimed to be affected by the acts of the defendants, and if from the testimony you find that piior to, and at the time the defendant constructed their railroad track along the street, if you find that the same was so constructed, that a railroad track used and owned by a private corporation had been laid along said street and in front of said property, and where the same abutted upon the street, this should be taken into consideration by you, and your verdict in case you should find for the plaintiff, should only be for such amount as would compensate the plaintiff for damages she sustained, if any, by reason of the change of the character, construction and use of such track by the defendants. If you find in favor of the plaintiff upon each and all the propositions submitted to you, under the directions here given, your verdict should be for the plaintiff in such sum as will fully compensate her only for any actual damage she sustained -at the time the defendants occupied the street by reason thereof.

[702]*702Now while it may be stated in regard to this charge that it does not in a very definite form instruct the jury what they should regard as a measure of damages, yet it said no more than the law would allow as recoverable; as far as the court did go it was right. If the parties wanted the court to go further, it was their privilege to have asked for instruction, but that was not the difference between the counsel and the court.

Counsel for the railroad company maintained that the measure ot damages was the difference in rental value at the time of the filing ot the petition, and not one of permanent injury to the property itself.

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12 Ohio Cir. Dec. 699, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/n-y-p-o-r-r-v-stubbings-ohiocirct-1888.