Regester v. Lincoln Oil Refining Co.

183 N.E. 693, 95 Ind. App. 425, 1933 Ind. App. LEXIS 176
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 4, 1933
DocketNo. 14,371.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 183 N.E. 693 (Regester v. Lincoln Oil Refining Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Regester v. Lincoln Oil Refining Co., 183 N.E. 693, 95 Ind. App. 425, 1933 Ind. App. LEXIS 176 (Ind. Ct. App. 1933).

Opinion

Kime, J.

— The appellant, who was plaintiff below, brought an action as a taxpayer and citizen against appellees herein to prevent the taking over and use of a public street in the city of Bloomington, Indiana, and a part of the park system of said city for private use, to prevent the creation of an alleged dangerous and hazardous condition in said street and to collect damages.

The facts pertinent here and as set forth in appellant’s complaint are substantially as follows: College Avenue, in the city of Bloomington, is a wide street with a raised grass plot in the center surrounded by a curb, a traveled concrete drive being on each sidé of said grass plot. Said College Avenue is one of the main public streets and highways entering the said city of Bloomington from the north, and through which the main part of the traffic leaves said city toward the north. Traffic on this street is extremely heavy and is continually on the increase. The Illinois Central Railroad has an overhead crossing on College Avenue in the form, of a large, modern concrete railroad trestle with a pier in the middle of the street, the railroad embankment on each side of the street being some twenty or twenty-five feet high. Just north of the railroad right of way that company owns two lots facing west .on College Avenue. It leased these lots to the Lincoln Oil Refining Company for the purpose of a public gas station. One Clovis Mitchell proceeded under contract to build this station. That before the beginning of this action plaintiff, as a citizen and taxpayer, demanded of the officers of the common council and the mayor that they stop or enjoin said Illinois Central Railroad Company and said Lincoln Oil Refining Company from tearing up and obstructing said street and creating the danger *428 ous situation in said highway, but said city of Bloomington, through its common cpuncil, refused to take any action thereon and refused the request and demand of plaintiff to use any means whatever to stop or enjoin said railroad and oil company from committing such acts. The oil company and the contractor proceeded to build the gas station on the railroad company’s lots fronting College Avenue and to take out the grass plot in the middle of the street in front of the station, level the same down and concrete it with the rest of the street and to build an entrance across the sidewalk into the oil station.

The plaintiff sought to enjoin the railroad company, the oil company, the contractor, Mitchell, the mayor, and the common council of the city of Bloomington from removing the curb and grass plot, and that a mandatory injunction issue compelling the defendants to restore the grass plot, curb, and said street to its original condition. Plaintiff also asked for five thousand dollars ($5,000.00) damages. It was charged against the officers of the city that they failed and refused to take action to prevent the injuries to the street after demand.

Appellant’s complaint was in one paragraph, to which appellee, Illinois Central Railroad Company, filed its separate demurrer for want of facts, and afterwards all the other defendants (appellees herein) filed their joint and several demurrers, assigning the same statutory reason. These demurrers were all sustained, and, appellant having refused to plead further, judgment was rendered against him on his complaint. The rulings indicated are assigned as error and are relied upon for reversal.

*429 *428 Appellant, in his brief, asserts there are only two principal questions for this court to decide, viz.: “Does the complaint show an actionable wrong against the *429 public, and if so, may the plaintiff maintain such an action?” and calls our attention to the well settled rule that a demurrer to a complaint for want of facts admits that, for the purposes of the demurrer, all of the material allegations of the complaint are deemed to be true, so far as they are well pleaded. It is true that the demurrer does not admit conclusions of law, Greathouse v. Board, etc. (1926), 198 Ind. 95, 151 N. E. 411, but it has also been held by this court, in construing the act of 1913, Acts 1913, p. 850, as amended by the Acts of 1915, p. 123, §360 Burns 1926, that conclusions of fact stated in any pleading must be considered and held to be the allegation of all the facts required to sustain such conclusion if necessary to the sufficiency of the pleading, and that the only remedy afforded the opposite party by the act, as against any such conclusion, and to ascertain the facts upon which the pleader bases it, is by motion to make more specific. Ohio Township v. Lipking (1930), 91 Ind. App. 277, 171 N. E. 224; S. W. Little Coal Co. v. O’Brien, Admx. (1916), 63 Ind. App. 504, 113 N. E. 465, 114 N. E. 96. It is appellees’ contention that such averments and conclusions as to their acts being “unlawful,” “without right,” and “creating a dangerous and hazardous place” add nothing to the complaint. Such expressions as “wrongfully, unlawfully, arbitrarily, void, illegal,” etc., are expressions of the opinion of the pleader as to the legality of the act so characterized, and cannot be considered in determining the sufficiency of the facts alleged in a complaint when a demurrer has been imposed for want of facts, Greathouse v . Board, supra, but we think that words such as “dangerous, hazardous, perilous and unsafe” are conclusions of fact and must be considered when such conclusions are necessary to the sufficiency of the pleadings that are affected thereby. The complaint alleges *430 and appellees, by their demurrer, specifically admit that the street in question has become of great importance and that traffic has heavily increased; that the defendant Illinois Central Railroad Company is the owner and controller of the lots in question, which the defendant oil company had leased and upon which they proposed to build the filling station; that the defendant oil company has taken possession of said property and is now tearing out and destroying one of the miniature parks or tree plots in the middle of said College Avenue and directly in front of said lots numbers 95 and 96; that said oil company is doing all this without right or authority and are taking possession of that part of said public highway for their own private use, and are taking and destroying part of the park system of the city of Bloomington, Indiana; that said construction work, when completed, will create a dangerous and hazardous situation for trafile along said street, all to the damage of plaintiff and all of the citizens and taxpayers of the city of Bloomington, Indiana. It is true the complaint contains some general statements by way of conclusion, but such general averments are controlled by the specific averments on which they rest. Under • the present liberal rules of pleading, it is our opinion that the complaint states a good cause of action, for the demurrer admits, not only the facts directly and specifically alleged in the complaint, but also all facts that can be implied from other allegations by reasonable and fair intendment. Domestic Block Coal Co. v. De Armey (1913), 179 Ind. 592, 100 N. E.

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Bluebook (online)
183 N.E. 693, 95 Ind. App. 425, 1933 Ind. App. LEXIS 176, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/regester-v-lincoln-oil-refining-co-indctapp-1933.