Reller v. City of Lincoln

119 N.W.2d 59, 174 Neb. 638, 1963 Neb. LEXIS 245
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 11, 1963
Docket35204
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 119 N.W.2d 59 (Reller v. City of Lincoln) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reller v. City of Lincoln, 119 N.W.2d 59, 174 Neb. 638, 1963 Neb. LEXIS 245 (Neb. 1963).

Opinion

Brower, J.

This is a condemnation action brought by the City of Lincoln, appellant herein, against the appellees Merril R. Reller and Virginia Reller, husband and wife, to condemn an easement across the premises of the appellees to construct a line of sewer known as the Havelock Interceptor Sewer.

Hereafter the City of Lincoln will be referred to as defendant city, and the Rellers as plaintiffs, as they were designated in the district court.

The condemnation action was originally begun in the county court of Lancaster County where it resulted in an award by the appraisers in favor of the plaintiffs of $1,000. The plaintiffs thereupon appealed to the district court for Lancaster County, Nebraska, where a trial to *639 a jury resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiffs for $6,500 damages.

A motion for new trial made by the defendant having been overruled, it has brought the case to this court on appeal. '

The defendant alleges as error that the court abused its discretion and committed errors of law at the trial which were duly excepted to. The only errors which are assigned with any particularity are that the court erred in refusing to give instructions Nos. 2, 10, and 11, tendered by the defendant.

The errors urged with respect to the instructions will be hereinafter discussed. The defendant does not mention anything which can be inferred as an abuse of discretion by the trial court. In its brief it argues certain rulings in regard to the admission of evidence but because no reference to any particular ruling was made in the assignment of errors in this court or the motion for new trial filed in the district court, such errors, if any, will not be considered by us. “In order that assignments of error as to the admission or rejection of evidence may be considered, the holdings of this court require that appropriate reference be made to the specific evidence against which objection is urged.” Wieck v. Blessin, 165 Neb. 282, 85 N. W. 2d 628.

The three tendered instructions have reference to the zoning regulations of the city of Lincoln applicable to plaintiffs’ premises and affecting the marketability and the value thereof.

The plaintiffs’ premises through which the easement was taken consists in all of 135 acres of contiguous lands with a somewhat irregular boundary located in Section 7, Township 10 North, Range 7 East of the 6th P. M. The centerline of the easement for the interceptor sewer enters the southern boundary of the westerly portion of the plaintiffs’ land and runs through it on a straight line diagonally on a course of about 38° north of east, turn *640 ing towards straight east a short distance before reaching the eastern boundary thereof.

The easement taken was a permanent easement 15 feet wide in which to place and maintain the sewer, and a temporary easement on a strip of land lying within 60 feet northwesterly and 40 feet southeasterly from the centerline of the permanent easement to be used and occupied during construction of the sanitary interceptor sewer, but not later than April 30, 1962.

There is a trailer park or camp on the plaintiffs’ premises. It is a rather extensive development with several buildings in connection therewith, paved streets, and light, sewer, and water connections which the plaintiff Merril R. Reller testified cost $125,000. The major portion of the damages claimed by the plaintiffs was to this trailer court which the interceptor sewer crossed at the northwest corner and for some distance was not far therefrom. Plaintiff Merril R. Reller testified that great piles of earth were allowed to remain on the strip taken for temporary use which had not yet expired at the time of trial. Some of the trailer lots were covered with dirt. The drainage was blocked and parts of the trailer court were flooded. A well was destroyed which could not be relocated close to the sewer. A private sewer serving the trailer court and a commercial area had been interfered with. The whole of the trailer court had been damaged 10 percent. Most of this evidence was admitted without objection.

Most of the 135 acres on the plaintiff’s premises aside from the trailer court and a small area along the Corn-husker Highway, being U. S. Highways Nos. 6 and 77, which formed the south boundary of the east 80 rods thereof, was farmland at the time of the taking. Plaintiffs claimed damages because the interceptor sewer cut through the farmland diagonally and Merril R. Reller testified that homes or other buildings could not be built or streets paved on top thereof. He said this land had greater value because of its availability for sub *641 dividing. He testified as to neighboring residential and commercial areas and that the land was suitable for subdivision.

The defendant city introduced testimony of values but a considerable portion of its evidence turned on matters connected with the zoning ordinances of the City of Lincoln as affecting the plaintiffs’ land and its availability for subdivision, as testified to by Reller. Also it questioned the right of plaintiffs to maintain the trailer court in its present location under the theory that it affected the right to recover damages.

The provisions of the municipal code of the City of Lincoln containing the zoning ordinance as it existed at the time of the taking was placed in evidence by the defendant city, with the plat showing the boundaries of the various districts zoned at that time. The plaintiffs’ premises all lying outside of the corporate limits of the City of Lincoln but within 3 miles thereof were zoned thereby under section 15-902, R. R. S. 1943.

Plaintiffs’ premises were in two zoning districts. The portion within 200 feet of the Cornhusker Highway is zoned as “H-I” which is a highway business district concerning which there appears no dispute. It is a comparatively small portion of plaintiffs’ property. All the remaining premises is zoned in district “AA” rural and public use district. The uses in district “AA” were restricted to farming, truck gardening, and .nurseries; public grounds; buildings such as churches, schools, hospitals, etc.; and single family dwellings having an area of not less than 1 acre and with certain yard restrictions.

The trailer court is in district “AA” but such a use is not permitted therein by the provisions of the zoning ordinance in effect at the time of the taking. The section of the zoning ordinance which adopts- the map showing the several zoning districts was enacted September 10, 1956, by the city. The section establishing the uses of premises in the “AA” district was adopted *642 February 20, 1956. Both sections purport to amend preexisting sections which are not shown in evidence.

The evidence shows plaintiffs purchased their premises before these ordinances were in effect and there is testimony that they began construction of the trailer court beforehand also. It also appears that the trailer court was being improved or extended thereafter and that plaintiffs were seeking to extend it at the time of the taking.

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Bluebook (online)
119 N.W.2d 59, 174 Neb. 638, 1963 Neb. LEXIS 245, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reller-v-city-of-lincoln-neb-1963.