Owens v. Oklahoma Turnpike Authority

1954 OK 345, 283 P.2d 827, 1954 Okla. LEXIS 764
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 7, 1954
Docket35435, 35632
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 1954 OK 345 (Owens v. Oklahoma Turnpike Authority) 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
Owens v. Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, 1954 OK 345, 283 P.2d 827, 1954 Okla. LEXIS 764 (Okla. 1954).

Opinion

WILLIAMS, Justice.

This is an action in condemnation brought by Oklahoma Turnpike Authority hereinafter referred to as plaintiff, against C. E. Owens, Mrs. C. E. Owens, O. O. Owens and Nabob Oil Company, hereinafter referred to as defendants, concerning approximately 35 acres of rural land situated in Creek County, Oklahoma, taken by plaintiff for construction of the Turner Turnpike. Three different Boards of Commissioners were appointed and filed their reports. The report and award of the first such board, in the amount of $3,170, was vacated by the trial court for the reason that two of the defendants were not parties to the action at the time of the appointment. The second such board was appointed and filed a report assessing the award to be paid to defendants at $5,163,250'. Plaintiff filed a motion to vacate such award and for appointment of new commissioners, which was sustained by the trial court and a third such board was appointed. Defendants have appealed from this action of the court in cause No. 35,435. Such appeal must be dismissed, however, since it is an attempt to appeal from an interlocutory order. We said in the syllabus in the case of City of Eufaula v. Ahrens, 58 Okl. 180, 159 P. 327,

“An order setting aside the report of commissioners, appointed to view the property and assess damages sustained by property owners in condemnation proceedings, and directing a new ap-praisement is interlocutory and not final, and an appeal will not lie therefrom.”

The third Board of Commissioners filed a report assessing the compensation to be paid defendants at $40,000. Defendants filed a motion to vacate the third award, which was overruled, the award was confirmed and the matter set for trial by jury on the amount of the compensation. The jury trial resulted in a verdict fixing the compensation at $23,500. Judgment was rendered for plaintiff in the amount of $16,600, the difference between the amount of the commissioner’s award previously paid into court and the jury’s verdict, and defendants appeal from that judgment in cause No. 35, 632. Defendants’ appeal pertains to both the question of the right to condemn and the question of the adequacy of the award, and several contentions are advanced in connection with these questions.

In their first proposition, defendants contend that they were denied a forum in which to present the question of the reasonable necessity of taking the property involved in this proceeding. The record reveals, however, that defendants were heard at length by the trial court on several occasions and certainly were not denied a *830 hearing' or a forum. The real basis for defendants’ complaint seems to be the action of the trial court in excluding certain evidence offered by defendants. Defendants say that the court’s refusal of this offer of evidence constituted a denial of a hearing and of due process. A review of the record reveals that the excluded evidence pertained to the availability of another route for the construction of the turnpike in lieu of the one chosen. The trial court quite properly refused to admit such evidence. Defendants did not contend that the amount of land sought to be condemned was excessive nor did they raise any issue as to the character of the use to which the property sought is to be subjected. Defendants merely contended that the route selected for the turnpike could have been changed in such a manner as to entirely miss the property herein involved and require the use of other property instead. They, in fact, asked the trial court to require plaintiff to change the route of the turnpike to one selected by defendants. The trial court properly refused such request, and excluded the evidence offered by defendants pertaining to the availability and desirability of a route other than the one selected by the Turnpike Authority. In this the court did not err. The same question was before this court in the case of Bilby v. District Court of Ninth Judicial District, 159 Okl. 268, 15 P.2d 38, 40, wherein we said in the body of the opinion therein:

“The first statement made in their brief is: ‘The land owners demanded the right to show that there was no necessity for condemning the right of way for the reason that there was a section line paralleling the land sought to be condemned and that the owners had offered to give the land on the section line to the State with any additional land necessary on either side of the section line which the state might require to be used as a road.’
“The rule is well settled in this state and most others that the question of necessity in such cases is not a judicial question, but is for the Legislature. Arthur v. Choctaw County Com’rs, 43 Okl. 174, 141 P. 1; State ex rel. Dabney v. Johnson, 122 Okl. 241, 254 P. 61; Hennen v. State ex rel. Short, 131 Okl. 29, 267 P. 636.”

And also in the opinion in the case of City of Tulsa v. Williams, 100 Okl. 116, 227 P. 876, 879, we said:

“There is no doubt that the law of eminent domain authorizes the petitioner to fix the situs of its water reservoir. It is entitled to a water supply, and has a right to procure it from any available source. When the city government has chosen the situs for a reservoir, the courts of the state will not inquire into the matter for the purpose of demanding why some other situs was not chosen.”

The same rule is applicable here. Where the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority has selected and designated a route for the construction of a turnpike lawfully authorized to be built, the courts of this state will not inquire into the matter for the purpose of demanding why some other route was not chosen.

As their second proposition, defendants contend that the trial court erred in denying defendants the right and leave to offer all their evidence of highest adaptable use and value of the property involved and in limiting the proper measure of damage to condemnees. Defendants’ contention in regard to this proposition is somewhat difficult of ascertainment. We do not understand just how defendants could be said to have been denied the right to offer their evidence and we do not find anything in the record to indicate that they were so denied. We conclude that defendants’ contention must be directed toward the correctness of the court’s ruling on the admissibility of the testimony offered by them. In argument in support of this proposition, defendants state in their brief:

“The trial court persistently denied defendants the right and leave to offer their all expert testimony of the destructive effect of constructing the toll road * *

*831 and also state:

“The trial court throughout the jury-trial arbitrarily sustained Turnpike’s many objections to defendants’ introducing competent evidence showing the highest adaptable use of defendants’ property and project as a unit.”

Fairly similar argument is dealt with in our treatment of the second portion of defendants’ fifth proposition. Moreover, we- do not consider that the portion of defendants’ brief dealing with this proposition complies with rule 15 of this court, 12 O.S.A. c. 15, Appendix, insofar as such rule provides':

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

NATURAL GAS PIPELINE CO. v. FOSTER OK RESOURCES LP
2020 OK 29 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 2020)
Independent School District No. 5 of Tulsa County v. Taylor
2014 OK CIV APP 40 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 2013)
INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DIST. NO. 5 OF TULSA COUNTY v. TAYLOR
2014 OK CIV APP 40 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 2013)
State Ex Rel. Department of Transportation v. Teal
2010 OK CIV APP 64 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 2010)
STATE EX REL. DEPT. OF TRANSP. v. Mehta
2008 OK CIV APP 25 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 2008)
State ex rel. Department of Transportation v. Mehta
2008 OK CIV APP 25 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 2008)
Oklahoma Transportation Authority v. George Abdo Trust Dated 10-15-74
2006 OK CIV APP 11 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 2005)
In re the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority
1989 OK 21 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1989)
Burrows v. State
1982 OK CR 6 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1982)
McAlester Urban Renewal Authority v. Lorince
1973 OK 148 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1973)
State Ex Rel. Department of Highways v. Robb
1969 OK 47 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1969)
Lloyd v. State Ex Rel. Department of Highways
1967 OK 99 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1967)
Bryant v. Trinity Universal Insurance Company
411 S.W.2d 945 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1967)
State Highway Commission v. Arnold
343 P.2d 1113 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1959)
City of Oklahoma City v. Garnett
1956 OK 137 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1956)
Biles v. Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co.
1956 OK 84 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1956)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1954 OK 345, 283 P.2d 827, 1954 Okla. LEXIS 764, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/owens-v-oklahoma-turnpike-authority-okla-1954.