Oklahoma City v. Page

1931 OK 764, 6 P.2d 1033, 153 Okla. 285, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 462
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 8, 1931
Docket19922
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 1931 OK 764 (Oklahoma City v. Page) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oklahoma City v. Page, 1931 OK 764, 6 P.2d 1033, 153 Okla. 285, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 462 (Okla. 1931).

Opinion

SWINDALL, J.

The petition in the action was filed August 21, 1919, and in it the plaintiff alleged that the defendant was com. mitting a nuisance by the discharge of unpurified sewage into the North Canadian river at Oklahoma City to the damage of the plaintiff, who was a riparian proprietor. The principal complaint was as to the discharge from the larger of two outlets, that had been in use about a year prior to the filing of the petition. The plaintiff alleged that her land had agricultural value, was valuable as a residence, and had peculiar value for platting and sale as residential lots because of its proximity to Oklahoma City. She alleged that the nuisance rendered the premises unfit for a home, made it impossible to keep tenants in the tenant- houses, destroyed the usable value of the land, andj destroyed the value for platting and sale. She alleged that by the nuisance the value of the premises was reduced from $500 an acre to $100 an acre, and that the conduct of the defendant constituted a taking and damaging of her property within the meaning of section 24 of article 2 of the state Constitution. She prayed for damages in the sum of $4S,000, which was the alleged depreciation per acre multiplied by the acreage which she claimed to own, 120 acres.

The judgment on the first trial was for the defendant, but it was reversed in an opinion reported in 129 Okla. 28, 263 Pac. 448, in which it was held that the plaintiff had stated a cause of action and was entitled to compensation for such damage as she could prove she had sustained, whether temporary or permanent, and the opinion repudiated the idea that if she had contended the nuisance to be permanent, she could not recover if it was temporary. In commenting- on the character of the nuisance it was said that it appeared to be permanent, because it could not be known when, if ever, the city would abate it.

In a recent opinion, in Oklahoma City v. West. No. 21070 (decided Nov. 10, 1931), 155 Okla. _____, 7 P. (2d) 888, we approved that part of the former opinion relating to the right to recover for all damages sustained, and disapproved that part that indicated that the nuisance should be considered permanent. We feel that any *287 thing in the former opinion in this case that indicated that the nuisance should be held permanent was invited by erroneous positions taken by the parties. The plaintiff was complaining of a common-law tort, and of conduct that is still a common-law tort, and we fail to see any necessity of alleging that the conduct of the defendants constituted a taking and damaging of her property under the constitutional provision. That allegation (notwithstanding another allegation that the conduct was unlawful) was well calculated to indicate a doing of what was considered as authorized and was, therefore, to be considered permanent. On the other hand, although the city contended that the nuisance was temporary, it contended that in the action permanent damages could not be recovered, and if the court conceived the damages to be permanent, there would be a tendency to hold that, since they must be recoverable, the nuisance was permanent.

Although in an action for a temporary nuisance there can be no assessment of damages upon the theory that the nuisance is permanent, because that would permit a recovery for what has not been done and what it cannot be considered will be done, it does not follow that if permanent damage has actually been sustained from a temporary nuisance and is not conditioned upon future conduct, recovery for it can be denied.

Upon the second trial the defendant still contended that the nuisance was temporary, and still contended that in an action upon a temporary nuisance “permanent damages” were not recoverable. In our opinion a traverse of the damages was the proper move, rather than a denial that they could be recovered, for the possibility that they had been sustained could not be denied, and if they had been suffered, recovery must follow. However, the defendant did much more than that. On May 24, 1928, the day on which the second trial was held, which resulted in a judgment for the plaintiff for $10,000, from which this appeal is taken, the defendant filed a second amended answer. That was nearly nine years after the filing of the petition and nearly ten years after the beginning of the discharge from the larger sewer outlet. Apparently desiring- to overcome the idea that the nuisance should be considered permanent because it could not be known when, if ever, the city would abate it, the city alleged that it had abated it. But it did not stop at that. It alleged the date of the claimed abatement, “November, ____, 1927,” which was only about six months prior to the filing of the answer. It also denied that there had been any depreciation in the usable value or in the “real permanent value” of the premises either up to the filing of the petition, or even to the time the second amended answer was filed, and alleged that when the second amended answer was filed the premises were more valuable than before and that the increased value was due to proximity to the city, and that any inconvenience or annoyance to the pla'ntiff was due solely to the premises being in proximity to the growing city.

The plaintiff replied denying abatement, again alleging a taking and damaging, and alleging that even if the nuisance should be abated it would not restore any of the alleged depreciation in value because it had already become permanent and irremedial.

A motion to require the plaintiff to elect whether to sue for “temporary or permanent damages” was overruled. The plaintiff proved the commission of the nuisance, introduced evidence to prove that upon its commission the property had been seriously reduced in market value, and introduced evidence as to what damage had in fact been done to the premises and what effect the nuisance had upon the use of the premises for agricultural purposes and as a home, and she introduced evidence to the effect that the nuisance was still being continued. The defendant introduced evidence as to the abatement. The plaintiff then introduced evidence to prove that if the nuisance should be abated it would not restore any of the depreciation in market value, the most conservative evidence upon that point being that it would restore little, if any, of the depreciation. The plaintiff had not only introduced evidence as to a difference in market value before the commission of the nuisance and immediately upon its inception by the discharge of the largest outlet (the depreciation at that time, of course, being then as a matter of law conditioned on continuance of the wrong), but she had also introduced evidence that during the continuance of the nuisance the premises and the section of the city in which they are situated, had been rendered by the nuisance undesirable as residence property and that the section had become populated by colored people living in huts. It was this change of condition that was given in the plaintiff’s rebuttal evidence as a reason why aDatement of the nuisance would not restore any, or in any event, very little, of the depreciation in market value of the premises, malting" depreciation as to that element of value permanent.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1931 OK 764, 6 P.2d 1033, 153 Okla. 285, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 462, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oklahoma-city-v-page-okla-1931.