Ramapo Mountains Water, Power & Service Co. v. Commissioners of the Palisades Interstate Park

177 A.D. 700, 164 N.Y.S. 430, 1917 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5755
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedApril 13, 1917
DocketAppeal No. 1; Appeal No. 2
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 177 A.D. 700 (Ramapo Mountains Water, Power & Service Co. v. Commissioners of the Palisades Interstate Park) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ramapo Mountains Water, Power & Service Co. v. Commissioners of the Palisades Interstate Park, 177 A.D. 700, 164 N.Y.S. 430, 1917 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5755 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1917).

Opinion

Blackmar, J.:

The determining question on both appeals is whether the complaint states facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.

The plaintiff, organized under the Transportation Corporations Law of the State of New York (Consol. Laws, chap. 63 [Laws of 1909, chap. 219], art. 8), made maps and plans for the purpose of acquiring a source of water supply in the towns of Ramapo and Haverstraw, in Rockland county, and on the 22d day of May, 1916, presented said maps and plans, with a [702]*702petition for their approval, to the Conservation Commission pursuant to chapter 647 of the Laws of 1911, being the Conservation Law (Consol. Laws, chap. 65, art. 9, as amd.). The defendants, a body corporate created by chapter 170 of the Laws of 1900 and acts amendatory thereof, for the purpose of establishing the Palisades Interstate Park, having learned from plaintiff’s maps and plans of the location of the lands which plaintiff proposed to acquire, did, during the pendency of the hearings on plaintiff’s petition before the Conservation Commission, and without previously making any maps showing the selection or ‘location of such lands as part of the Palisades Park, acquire by purchase certain lands lying within the area described on plaintiff’s maps, and entered into negotiations for the purchase of other such lands.

The plaintiff thereupon brought this action, seeking to enjoin the defendants from proceeding further to acquire any lands or water rights in said watershed and territory described in plaintiff’s maps, and has "secured an injunction pending the action to that effect.

It has been held that a railroad company which has filed a map of its route and is regularly proceeding to condemnation has a standing in a court of equity to enjoin another like company from interfering by securing a lease of a portion of the proposed route and laying its tracks thereon. (Rochester, H. & L. R. R. Co. v. N. Y., L. E. & W. R. R. Co., 44 Hun, 206; affd., 110 N. Y. 128.) It was said by Judge Gray in that case that “When, therefore, a corporation has made and filed a map and survey of the line of route it intends to adopt for the construction of its road, and has given the required notice to all persons affected by such construction, and no change of route is made, as the result of any proceeding instituted by any landowner or occupant, in our judgment, it has acquired the right to construct and operate a railroad upon such line; exclusive in that respect as to all other railroad corporations and free from the interference of any party. By its proceedings it has impressed upon the lands a lien in favor of its right to construct, which ripens into title through purchase or condemnation proceedings.” This rule also seems to have been applied in a case between a water company and a municipality strug[703]*703gling for the same source of water supply. (Pocantico Water Works Co. v. Bird, 130 N. Y. 249.)

The plaintiff’s claim, as I understand it, rests on the doctrine of these cases, and is that the making of its maps and plans and presenting them to the Conservation Commission, and then proceeding in an orderly way toward acquiring the lands, gave it such a right to proceed without interruption that it can prevent defendants’ acquiring such'land for park purposes. I say acquiring them for park purposes, for if they are not acquired for public use they are still subject to plaintiff’s right to condemn, and there is no need to resort to equity. This doctrine has been re-examined and limited in People v. Adirondack Railway Co. (39 App. Div. 34; revd., 160 N. Y. 225). The Appellate Division, by a divided court, resting its decision on that doctrine, held that maps and plans filed by the defendant gave it such a right in the land covered by them that the State could not acquire' it .by eminent domain for the Adirondack Park. But the Court of Appeals, in reversing, carefully stated and defined the right which a railroad company acquired by filing maps of the route, in the following words: The effect of the map when filed was to give warning to other railroads that a certain route had been pre-empted, by the defendant. It established no right against the owner, because the Constitution forbids it; it established none against the State, because its power is paramount, but as against all other railroad companies and as against all other creatures of the State, empowered to use the right of eminent domain, .it gave the exclusive right to occupy the particular strip of land for railroad purposes until the Legislature authorized it to be devoted to some other public use.” In People v. Adirondack Railway Co. (supra) it was held that the State could appropriate the land for a park notwithstanding that the railroad company had filed the map of the route and was regularly proceeding to acquire the land. Whatever else may be said, it is established that filing the map gave no rights as against the State. Now the Commissioners of the Palisades Interstate Park are a public corporation. (Economic P. & C. Co. v. City of Buffalo, 195 N. Y. 286.) The park is to be established in the interests of the people at large. The Com[704]*704missioners are appointed by the Governor and serve without compensation. (Laws of 1900, chap. 170, § 1.)

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Related

New York Water Service Corp. v. Palisades Interstate Park Commission
14 A.D.2d 794 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1961)
The Onteora
298 F. 553 (S.D. New York, 1923)
Ramapo Mountains Water, Power & Service Co. v. Seidler
186 A.D. 963 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1918)
Ramapo Mountains Water Power & Service Co. v. Seidler
102 Misc. 272 (New York Supreme Court, 1918)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
177 A.D. 700, 164 N.Y.S. 430, 1917 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5755, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ramapo-mountains-water-power-service-co-v-commissioners-of-the-nyappdiv-1917.