Oregon Elec. Ry. Co. v. Terwilliger Land Co.

93 P. 334, 51 Or. 107, 1908 Ore. LEXIS 38
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 21, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 93 P. 334 (Oregon Elec. Ry. Co. v. Terwilliger Land Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oregon Elec. Ry. Co. v. Terwilliger Land Co., 93 P. 334, 51 Or. 107, 1908 Ore. LEXIS 38 (Or. 1908).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Moore

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is a motion to dismiss two appeals. A statutory proceeding, analogous to an action at law, was commenced by the Oregon Electric Company, a corporation, against the Terwilliger Land Co., a corporation, to condemn a strip of land sixty feet in width over and across certain lots in the city of Portland. A supplemental complaint was filed in which it was stated that, after the proceedings were instituted, the defendant [109]*109conveyed the land described in the complaint to the South Portland Improvement Co., a corporation, which latter artificial being was, by order of court, made a party defendant. The answers admitted most of the allegations of the complaint, but averred, inter alia, that the true value of the land and the damage which would result from the taking thereof was $65,000. The replies put in issue the allegations of new matter in the answers, and the cause having been tried, a verdict was returned June 15, 1907, to the effect that the plaintiff, was entitled to appropriate the land specified, upon the payment to the South Portland Improvement Co. of $27,745, which sum was found by the jury to be the measure of the damages sustained. Five days thereafter, the money so awarded was paid into court, upon the deposit of which a judgment was rendered on the verdict, and the plaintiff immediately appealed. The court on July 24, 1907, on the defendants’ motion, ordered the clerk forthwith to pay to the party adjudged to be entitled thereto, the money so deposited, from which determination the plaintiff took another appeal.

1. It appears from the undisputed affidavits filed in this court on the part of the defendants that, after the judgment of condemnation was given, the plaintiff took and retained possession of the land, and built thereon a railroad which it is using for its own purposes, and that, pursuant to the order of the court, the South Portland Improvement Co. received from the clerk the money so deposited. The defendants’ counsel, in support of the motion interposed, invoke a clause of the organic law of this state which declares: “Private property shall not be taken for public use, nor the particular services of any man be demanded, without just compensation; nor except in case of the state, without such compensation first assessed and tendered (Const. Or. Art. 1, § 18) ; and insist that, when the plaintiff .left with the clerk the sum of money assessed as damages, [110]*110the deposit was a voluntary payment of the award, whereby the South Portland Improvement Co. became immediately entitled thereto, and that the plaintiff, having taken possession of the land and built its railroad thereon, thereby accepted all the benefits that could be obtained from the adjudication and waived its right to appeal therefrom. The plaintiff’s counsel, disputing these propositions, maintain that the fundamental law of Oregon, which asserts that “no person’s property shall be taken by any corporation, under authority of law, without compensation being first made or secured in such manner as may be prescribed by law” (Const. Or. Art. 11, § 4) permits the remuneration for private property when taken for a public use by any corporation to be secured; that the enactments adopted conformable to the superior rule, authorizing such compensation, when assessed by a jury as damages, to be deposited in court, is intended to secure the payment of the award; and that the statute expressly grants to a plaintiff corporation the right to appeal from a judgment appropriating land, and also confers authority to take possession of the premises, notwithstanding a stay of proceedings may have been executed.

The legislative act referred to, so far as deemed involved herein, contains the following clauses:

“Upon the payment into court of the damages assessed by the jury, the court shall give judgment appropriating the lands, property, rights, easements, crossing, or connection in question, as the case may be, to the corporation, and thereafter the same shall be the property of such corporation”: B. & C. Comp. § 5102.
“Either party to the action may appeal from judgment therein, in like manner and like effect as in ordinary cases; but such appeal shall not stay the proceedings so as to prevent such corporation from taking such lands into possession, and using them for the purposes of the corporation, or from proceeding to exercise the right, enjoy the easement, or make the crossing or connection condemned”: B. & C. Comp. § 5103.
[111]*111“If a judgment in such action be reversed, and a new trial had, and at such second trial the jury assesses the damages of the defendant at a greater sum than before, the court shall, in addition to the judgment appropriating the land, right, easement, crossing, or connection as provided-in Section 5102, give judgment in favor of the defendant for such excess”: B. & C. Comp. § 5105.’
“If the defendant accept the damages paid to the clerk, he waives his right of appeal, and if he do not, such sum shall remain in the control of the court, to abide the event of the appeal, and if the defendant or unknown owner of the land do not appear and claim the same, it shall be invested for the benefit of whom it may concern, as in case of unclaimed moneys in the sale and partition of lands”: B. & C. Comp. § 5106.

In case a judgment of condemnation is reversed and a new trial ordered, the statute makes no provision that judgment shall be given in favor of the plaintiff for the excess of the money which it has paid into court, if, at a subsequent hearing, the jury assess the defendant’s damages at a less sum than was awarded to that party at a prior trial. It will be remembered that Section 5102, B. & C. Comp., provides that, when the damages assessed in the manner indicated have been paid into court, a judgment shall be given appropriating the lands to the plaintiff corporation, “and thereafter the same shall be the property of such corporation.” It would seem from this clause that the right to the land or easement was thus forever transferred. The property, however, is held by a plaintiff corporation so long apparently as the judgment remains unreversed, for a perusal of Section 5105, B. & C. Comp., would seem to indicate that, in case a new trial is had, the court is required to give another judgment of condemnation. It would thus appear that, while a party to a judgment may appeal from some specified part thereof (B. & C. Comp. §549), the questions of law appearing upon the transcript may be reviewed (B. & C. Comp. § 555), and the judgment reversed or modified in the respect men[112]*112tioned in the notice of appeal, and not otherwise (B. & C. Comp. § 556), and that on a reversal of a judgment of condemnation the cause is remanded for retrial on all the issues. It is quite probable that a recognition of such assumed consequences prompted the plaintiff’s counsel to specify in the notice of appeal that a review of the entire judgment was sought, and not that part of it which expressed the measure of damages awarded.

The right to take an appeal from a judgment of condemnation is expressly granted by the legislative assembly to a plaintiff corporation: B. & C. Comp. § 5103.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
93 P. 334, 51 Or. 107, 1908 Ore. LEXIS 38, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oregon-elec-ry-co-v-terwilliger-land-co-or-1908.