Portneuf-Marsh Valley Irrigation Co. v. Portneuf Irrigating Co.

114 P. 19, 19 Idaho 483, 1911 Ida. LEXIS 28
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 4, 1911
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 114 P. 19 (Portneuf-Marsh Valley Irrigation Co. v. Portneuf Irrigating Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Portneuf-Marsh Valley Irrigation Co. v. Portneuf Irrigating Co., 114 P. 19, 19 Idaho 483, 1911 Ida. LEXIS 28 (Idaho 1911).

Opinions

AILSHIE, J.

This is an action for condemnation. The plaintiff sought by its action to condemn a right to enlarge the defendant’s (the Portneuf Irrigating Co., Ltd.) canal to such capacity that it will carry the volume of water the Portneuf Irrigating Co. desires to carry through the canal, and also the plaintiff’s appropriation. The case was tried before the court and a jury, and judgment was entered allowing the defendant’s damages at $4,500. The plaintiff has appealed from the judgment awarding damages.

The only question presented on this appeal is the correctness of an instruction given by the court to the. jury. The last sentence of the following instruction given by the court is the part to which appellant took exception, and now urges as ground for a reversal of the judgment:

“The court instructs you, gentlemen of the jury, that the rule of damages in condemnation proceedings is, that all damages, present and prospective, that are the natural or reasonable incident of the improvement made or the work to be constructed, should be ascertained; and you are instructed in the present case, so far as the ditch and right of way of the defendant, the Portneuf Irrigating Company, is concerned, you may in arriving at the damage, if any, to which said company is entitled, consider the value of that portion of said defendant’s ditch sought to be condemned, if any; subject to the right that the Portneuf Irrigating Company has to run its water, jointly with the plaintiff company, through said proposed canal.

“In other words, the court instructs you, gentlemen of the jury, that the measure of damages of the defendant, the Portneuf Irrigating Co., would be the amount in dollars and cents, if any, saved to the plaintiff corporation in the construction or enlargement of the proposed canal, by reason of the existence of the ditch of the defendant, the Portneuf Irrigating Co., Ltd., as constructed at the time of the issuance of summons of this action, bearing in mind said defendant’s continued future use of the proposed enlarged canal, in common with that of the plaintiff corporation.”

[488]*488The bill of exceptions shows that upon the trial counsel for the plaintiff propounded the following question to a witness: “Supposing that this improvement were constructed in the manner testified to by you that it will be, what would be the difference in value of defendant’s ditch and right of way before and after that improvement were constructed, assuming the values as of the date of January 29, 1909?” (The latter date being the date on which the summons was issued.) To this question counsel for the defendants objected. After the matter was argued, the court announced its ruling as follows: “I think I shall require the plaintiff company to pay for the benefit, if there is any benefit to them, by reason of the ditch being there or by reason of their taking and using it as it is now constructed. I think I will take that view of it. In other words, I think we will inquire into and learn what, if any, value the present ditch is to the company as it is now constructed. The objection may be sustained.” To this counsel for the plaintiff took exception. The evidence was thereafter introduced under the view of the law announced by the court in his ruling.

The provisions of the statute (sec. 5220, Rev. Codes) contemplate assessment of damages upon the basis of the market value of the property sought to be condemned, and as of the date of the issuance of the summons. (Sec. 5221.) That is apparently the general rule with reference to compensation. The rule is thus announced by the author of the text in Cyc. at page 757, vol. 15:

“Compensation must be reckoned from the standpoint of what the land owner loses by having his property taken, not by the benefit which the property may be to the other party to the proceedings; therefore the value of a particular piece of land to a person or corporation exercising the right of eminent domain, or the necessities of that particular person or corporation to acquire that piece of property for the particular purpose, cannot be considered as an element of damage to the land owner. Neither can an amount that has at some time been expended upon the property in question, which has ren[489]*489dered it specially suitable for the use for which it is being condemned, be claimed by the land owner.”

The rule for assessment of damages is stated by Lewis on Eminent Domain, vol. 2, 3d ed., sec. 706, as follows: “In estimating the value of property taken for public use, it is the market value of the property which is to be considered. The market value of property is the price which it will bring when it is offered for sale by one who desires but is not obliged to sell it, and is bought by one who is under no necessity of having it. In estimating its value all the capabilities of the property and all the uses to which it may be applied or for which it is adapted, are to be considered, and not merely the condition it is in at the time and the use to which it is then applied by the owner. It is not a question of the value of the property to the owner. Nor can the damages be enhanced by his unwillingness to sell or because of any sentiment which he has for the property. On the other hand, the damages cannot be measured by the value of the property to the party condemning it, nor by its need of the particular property.” It is often difficult to determine the market value of property, for the reason that there may be no general demand for the same, or it may be that the property is only valuable for a specified purpose as was the case here, and a value can only be estimated upon the basis of the fitness of the property for the specific use on account of its formation, its location, or other specific, natural or artificial adaptability to the use for which it is sought. In a case, therefore, where no general market value can be ascertained, these latter elements must be taken into consideration and are proper subjects of inquiry in arriving at the value of the property.

“Generally speaking,” said the supreme court of Iowa in Ranck v. Cedar Rapids, 134 Iowa, 563, 111 N. W. 1027, “the true rule seems to be to permit the proof of all the varied elements of value; that is, all the facts which the owner would properly and naturally press upon the attention of a buyer to whom he is negotiating a sale and all other facts which would naturally influence a person of ordinary prudence desiring to purchase. In this estimation, the owner is entitled to have [490]*490the jury informed of all the capabilities of the property, as to the business or use, if any, to which it has been devoted, and of any and every use to which it may reasonably be adapted or' applied. And this rule includes the adaptation and value of the property for any legitimate purpose or business, even though it has never been so used, and the owner has no present intention to devote it to such use. ’ ’

The trial court in this case appreciated the true rule for estimating damages, and so announced to the jury by instruction No. 12. That instruction is as follows:

“The jury are instructed that they are not to measure the value of the right sought to be condemned from the defendant, the Portneuf Irrigating Co., Ltd., by the necessity the plaintiff is under of obtaining that right, or the value it may have to the plaintiff alone, under the peculiar circumstances of this particular case. The reasonable market value of the property sought to be taken is the true measure of damages for the amount so taken.”

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Bluebook (online)
114 P. 19, 19 Idaho 483, 1911 Ida. LEXIS 28, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/portneuf-marsh-valley-irrigation-co-v-portneuf-irrigating-co-idaho-1911.