Reeves v. City of Dallas

195 S.W.2d 575, 1946 Tex. App. LEXIS 931
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 10, 1946
DocketNo. 13671.
StatusPublished
Cited by67 cases

This text of 195 S.W.2d 575 (Reeves v. City of Dallas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reeves v. City of Dallas, 195 S.W.2d 575, 1946 Tex. App. LEXIS 931 (Tex. Ct. App. 1946).

Opinion

BOND, Chief Justice.

On motion for rehearing appellants call our attention to matters which escaped notice and ask for additional findings, which we deem warrants the withdrawal of our former opinion to correct and relate factual and procedural matters pertinent to this appeal; and, for further consideration of the record, we set aside our former opinion and substitute the following, affirming the judgment of the court below as of this date.

The City of Dallas, under its right of eminent domain, condemned, for the purpose of enlarging and extending the limits of the municipally-owned Love Field Airport, 2.285 acres of land as a whole. Two different estates were involved in the condemnation, and the interest of each estate was apportioned by the condemnation commissioners. D. R. Reeves and wife were the owners of the land and improvements; Flight 21, Ltd., was the owner of a leasehold, conducting a restaurant and dance hall on a portion of the land.

The involved 2.285 acres of land, approximately 100,000 square feet, is located at the northeast corner of the intersection of Lovers Lane and Lemmon Avenue (extended streets of the City of Dallas), about 175 feet facing on Lemmon and about 308 feet on Lovers Lane. The land was unimproved, except that portion in the southwest corner which was leased and occupied by the appellant Flight 21. At the time of condemnation, it was outside the limits of the City of Dallas and within an area for the most part vacant acreage. On *577 the west and across Lemmon Avenue was the field of the municipal airport; on the north and south, about 400 feet away, was the airport administration building, post office, telephone exchange, and one or two other buildings and residences; on the east, some 500 or 600 feet away, was a thickly settled residential section of the City, known as Bluff View Estates. The property is about five miles from Dallas County Courthouse and the main retail business arteries of the City. Flight 21 was the only commercial business within the area. It is in evidence that Mr. Reeves’s property was admirably suited for the business conducted by the lessee, under the then existing environment — war activities, airplane assembly plants (Lockheed’s), Army and Navy training camps, and Ferrying Command groups. About one mile south, facing Lemmon Avenue, was another industrial or commercial area known as the Weichsel property, and between the two areas was a large section devoted to negro residences and retail businesses.

In 1941 Mr. Reeves entered into a lease contract with Maurice Caranas, acting for Flight 21, Ltd., for a portion of the property — 105 feet fronting on Lemmon Avenue and 308 feet on Lovers Lane — for a term of 9 years and 6 months. In the contract the lessee agreed to pay $95 per month for the first 12 months; $100 per month for the next 42 months; and for the last 60 months $100 per month plus a percentage of gross profits; and at the termination of the lease period, it would pay $200 per month for holdover possession until vacated. The contract further provides that the lessee shall, at his own expense, erect on the leased premises a new frame restaurant building with second-story deck for dancing, which improvements shall become the property of the lessor, and that, during the life of the contract, the lessee shall keep the improvements in repair, keep it insured for benefit of the lessor, and pay all taxes. In all of the particulars mentioned, the lessee complied with the terms of the contract; erected the restaurant building with deck at an expense of approximately $10,000.

On December 9, 1944, the City of Dallas condemned the whole of the land with the improvements and leasehold. The owners of the land and improvements said the owner of the leasehold were parties defendant. An order was entered for possession of the whole of the land and premises, subject to the lessee’s being permitted to continue its occupancy until after the Christmas holidays, that is, until January 15, 1945, when Flight 21, Ltd., was thus compelled to close its business and remove from the premises its personal effects.

We think the primary and controlling issues involved in the suit are: (1) The reasonable market value of the land and improvements as a whole, encumbered with the lease contract; and (2) the reasonable market value of the leasehold apportioned to the owner thereof. On trial to a jury, only two questions were submitted and answered, viz.:

“Special Issue No. 1. What do you find from a preponderance of the evidence was the reasonable market value, in Dallas County, Texas, on December 9, 1944, of the land and improvements involved herein subject to the leasehold interest of the defendant Flight 21 and excluding the market value of the leasehold interest of the defendant Flight 21 ? Answer in dollars, if any, and cents, if any.” The jury answered “$15,000.”

“Special Issue No. 2. What do you find from a preponderance of the evidence was the reasonable market value, on December 9, 1944, in Dallas County, Texas, of the leasehold interest of the defendant Flight 21, in the land described in the lease with defendant D. R. Reeves? Answer in dollars, if any, and cents, if any.” The jury answered “$16,000.”

In connection with the two aforesaid issues, the trial court instructed the jury:

As to Special Issue No. 1: “You are instructed that by ‘reasonable market value’ as used in this issue is meant the price the property would bring when offered for sale by one who desires to sell but is not obliged to sell and is bought by one who desires to buy but is under no necessity of buying.”

As to Special Issue No. 2: “You are instructed that by ‘the leasehold interest of the defendant Flight 21’ is meant the right to the use and occupancy of the land de *578 scribed in the lease with the defendant Reeves for the balance of the lease term upon the payment of the rental and the performance of the other terms of the lease. You are instructed further that by ‘reasonable market value of the leasehold interest’ is meant the price the leasehold interest would bring when offered for sale by one who desires to sell but is not obliged to sell and is bought by one who desires to buy but is under no necessity of buying.”

On the findings of the jury, the trial court entered judgment for defendants for the amount found to be due each of them, which, in effect, was a finding of $31,000 for the property condemned as a whole, including the value of the leasehold estate; apportioned to the respective owners in accordance with the findings. All parties appealed.

In the course of trial, the two con-demnees, Reeves and Flight 21, filed separate defenses, separate only as to the value of their respective property rights and the consequential damages resulting from the condemnation. In developing their respective defenses, evidence, unrestricted, was offered as to the value of the two estates as a whole, and as to the value of their separate entities; hence, to a great extent, only by a process of mathematical calculation was the value of each separate estate ascertainable in conformity with the issues submitted.

The City of Dallas assigns error to the form of the questions, contending that they had a tendency to confuse the jury to award double damages to the parties at interest ; also assigns error on the findings of the jury as being excessive.

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Bluebook (online)
195 S.W.2d 575, 1946 Tex. App. LEXIS 931, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reeves-v-city-of-dallas-texapp-1946.