Reed v. Village of Hibbing

184 N.W. 842, 150 Minn. 130, 1921 Minn. LEXIS 745
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedOctober 21, 1921
DocketNo. 22,336
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 184 N.W. 842 (Reed v. Village of Hibbing) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reed v. Village of Hibbing, 184 N.W. 842, 150 Minn. 130, 1921 Minn. LEXIS 745 (Mich. 1921).

Opinion

Holt, J.

The action is to enjoin defendants from carrying out an alleged unlawful conspiracy to destroy, by mining, a part of the village of Hibbing under which is a valuable iron ore deposit. The injunction was denied and from the order denying a new trial plaintiffs appeal.

The 73 plaintiffs are residents and taxpayers in the village. The village and its officers, the Oliver Iron Mining Company, the owner of the ore, and the Mesaba Railway Company, which owns and operates an electric railway into the village, are the defendants. The village was organized in 1893 with 326 inhabitants, but has now a population of over 15,000, and has greatly extended its limits, particularly to the south where the village of Alice has been taken in. Under part, at least, of the original village area was valuable iron ore. A 40-acre tract of the townsite of Hibbing, being the S.W.14 of the N.W.^ of section 6, and hereinafter referred to as the townsite, is the territory that has occasioned this lawsuit. On this forty has grown up the business center of the village. An expensive village hall has been built thereon. To the north, east, and west thereof open pit mining has been carried on and progressed to the very edge of the townsite. The pits are excavated to a depth of more than 200 feet. The electric railway enters the village from the north upon a steel bridge spanning an open pit, and passes south on Third avenue through the center of the forty and south through the center of Pillsbury and southern additions. It connects several mining towns on the iron range, Gilbert being its eastern and Hibbing its western terminus.

The owners of this forty dedicated the streets to the public, but in selling lots reserved the minerals and the right to enter upon the surface to explore for and to mine and remove the ore. The defendant mining company has succeeded to the reservations. It has acquired the fee to 90 per cent of the surface, and aims to acquire the balance. Its purpose for a long time has been to so arrange matters that it may be able to mine the ore in that forty. To that end the buildings it owns will bo torn down or removed to two platted additions, known as Central and Park, located about 1% miles south of its ore land, where it is hoped the future business center of the village will be established. It is freely [133]*133admitted by the mining company that it intends to mine the ore referred to as soon as it can be done lawfully; that it cannot be so mined until the streets upon this forty are vacated, and hence it will seek their vacation when the time is ripe; that it has opened negotiations for the purchase of the village hall; that it has sought to facilitate the change of route of the electric railway so that it will not traverse any part of the forty, and that it acquired Central and Park additions with a view of moving the buildings from the townsite thereon, and erecting hotels, residences and business blocks for sale or rent to those who might desire to locate there in preference to further north.

We have been favored with exhaustive briefs of over 700 pages, citing an abundance of authorities, and discussing the numerous questions of .law and fact which the well known diligence and ingenuity of the learned counsel have injected into the case. But those matters only will be considered which in our judgment are determinative of the question whether an injunction should issue upon the facts found, or upon those facts, if any, that ought to have been found from the evidence.

Plaintiff’s right to relief must rest either upon a threatened invasion of their private property interests or their interests as taxpayers and residents of the village. We assume, for the purposes of this decision, that as taxpayers and residents they may maintain an action in protection-of public rights, that is, the rights of the village and its inhabitants.

As to any threatened invasion of their private interests, it is enough to state that none of plaintiffs resides upon or does business within the townsite. They are all located on the Pillsbury or Southern additions to the south. The street running east and west between the townsite,the forty in question, and the two additions last mentioned to the south thereof where plaintiffs either reside, do business or own property, is not shown to be threatened with vacation, therefore they cannot be left with cul-de-sac streets. The inconvenience in reaching territory north of Nibbing is an inconvenience common to the public of which plaintiffs cannot complain. Thorpe v. City of Ada, 137 Minn. 86, 162 N. W. 886, Of course any mining operation to the north of the dividing street mentioned must be so carried on that the street will be safe for'.travel. So long as that condition remains plaintiffs’ interests south of the street [134]*134are not endangered. At any rate, raining in the north part of the forty can undoubtedly be carried on to a great extent without any direct interference with persons and property in the additions mentioned. In this aspect of the case we agree with the court below that the action is premature.

No court will stop a great mining enterprise, unless it is made to appear that an invasion of private or public right is imminent. Nor do we think there is much substance to the claim that mining could be carried on nowhere in the townsite without constituting a nuisance to plaintiffs. Flying fragments, noise and vibrations from blasting, and smoke and rattle from steam shovels and ore trains, may be so controlled as not to interfere materially with the peace and comfort of residents to the south of the forty. It is reasonable to require those, who take up a business or residence in a municipality dependent for its very existence upon the industry there carried on, to somewhat endure the disturbances and discomforts that unavoidably attend the proper and careful operation of the industry. It cannot now be said upon this record that no mining operations can be carried on in the townsite within the rules enunciated in Brede v. Minnesota Crushed Stone Co. 143 Minn. 374, 173 N. W. 805, 6 A.L.R. 1093, and 146 Minn. 406, 178 N. W. 830, 179 N. W. 638.

It is contended that, in order to remove all its ore in the townsite, the cross street mentioned and a large part of the adjacent additions to the south must eventually be destroyed or appropriated for a slope. Therefore, since plaintiffs have come into a court of equity, the court should retain jurisdiction and ascertain and award the damages which plaintiffs will ultimately suffer for the injury to their property. The short answer to the contention is that, as matters now stand, it is not to be assumed that defendants will so mine that the lateral support of either the street mentioned or of plaintiffs’ real estate to the south thereof will be impaired or destroyed. When that is attempted the time is ripe for injunctive relief. There is no way in which this action may be converted into a condemnation proceeding. The mining company has not the right of eminent domain, ñor can it be forced to take the property nnder that right. We conclude that plaintiffs have not shown them[135]*135selves entitled to an injunction or other relief for the protection of any private right of person or property.

The complaint charges a conspiracy between defendants to move the village so as to locate its business center in Central and Park additions upon ground where there is no underlying ore.

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

Related

Abboud v. Lakeview, Inc.
466 N.W.2d 442 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1991)
Binder v. Village of Golden Valley
110 N.W.2d 306 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1961)
Fish v. Hanna Coal and Ore Corp.
164 F. Supp. 870 (D. Minnesota, 1958)
Ketterer v. Independent School District No. 1
79 N.W.2d 428 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1956)
Thomas v. Ramberg
60 N.W.2d 18 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1953)
Otter Tail Power Co. v. Village of Wheaton
49 N.W.2d 804 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1951)
In Re Petition of Krebs to Vacate Street
6 N.W.2d 803 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1942)
Schultz v. Krosch
284 N.W. 782 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1939)
In Re Petition of Schaller
259 N.W. 529 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1935)
Locascio v. Northern Pacific Railway Co.
240 N.W. 661 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1932)
Heller v. Schroeder
234 N.W. 461 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1931)
Erspamer v. Oliver Iron Mining Co.
229 N.W. 583 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1930)
Vacation of Part of Town of Hibbing
204 N.W. 534 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1925)
In re Hull
163 Minn. 439 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1925)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
184 N.W. 842, 150 Minn. 130, 1921 Minn. LEXIS 745, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reed-v-village-of-hibbing-minn-1921.