Sloss-Sheffield S. & I. Co. v. McLaughlin

62 So. 96, 182 Ala. 266, 1913 Ala. LEXIS 431
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedApril 17, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 62 So. 96 (Sloss-Sheffield S. & I. Co. v. McLaughlin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sloss-Sheffield S. & I. Co. v. McLaughlin, 62 So. 96, 182 Ala. 266, 1913 Ala. LEXIS 431 (Ala. 1913).

Opinion

de GRAFFENRIED, J.

(1) The original bill was filed for the purpose of enjoining the obstruction of public highways and to abate a nuisance. The complainant, in her original bill, alleged that the obstruction of the highways and the maintenance of the nuisance constituted a material injury to certain of her real estate, which was situated on or near said highways, and which real estate was materially depreciated in value on account of the maintenance of such nui[268]*268sauce. The alleged injury to her real estate on. account of the obstruction of the highways and the maintenance of the nuisance constituted the basis of her claim, in her original bill, for equitable relief, and was the allegation which gave equity to' her bill. ■ This is the effect of the decision of this court on the former appeal. — Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron Co. v. McLaughlin, 173 Ala. 76, 55 South. 522.

The following allegations of the original bill of complaint give a clear and succinct statement of the grounds — the only grounds — upon which the complainant, in her original bill, sought the interposition of a court of equity': “Complainant alleges that by reason of the obstruction of said portions of paid avenues, and by reason of the more circuitous route therefrom necessary to be taken to approach her property, the value of her property is greatly impaired and injured, and she suffers thereby a special and particular damage, beyond that suffered by the public in general, by the obstruction of said portions of said avenues; and the complainant alleges that the respondent is maintaining a public nuisance in said portions of said avenues, and is excluding therefrom and from the use thereof all other persons than its own agents or employees. Complainant alleges that said obstruction is being maintained by said company with full knowledge and notice of the fact that said avenues were theretofore dedicated to the public as and for public streets and highways, and that the said obstruction and the exclusion of all persons therefrom, who have a right by reason of said dedication, will be continued and maintained by said respondent, unless restrained by this honorable court; and that the respondent will not abate or remove said nuisance, unless compelled thereunto by this honorable court. Complainant alleges that the respondent is using said por[269]*269tions of said highways, as hereinabove alleged, for its own exclusive benefit and convenience, in disregard of the rights of the public, and in disregard of the rights of complainant as the owner of property in the vicinity of said obstruction.”

This court, in the above-cited case, held that the original bill contained equity and was not subject to demurrer.

It appears that the respondent, the Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron Company, owns all of the land in the city of Birmingham which is bounded as follows: On the east by Thirty-Second street, on the south by First avenue, and on the north and west by the right of way of the South & North Alabama Railroad. This piece of land is triangular in shape, and through it, running east and west, are Second and Third avenues. The complainant’s lands lie immediately east of the above lands, having as their western boundary said Thirty-Second street, and their southern boundary said First avenue. Second and Third avenues also run through complainant’s property. Upon complainant’s lands are a large number of residences.

It seems that the respondent has on its land, or other lands near it, a furnace, and it has for many years been using the above-described lands, which belong to it, as a place upon which to dump its slag. This slag has been and is being dumped, not only on the respondent’s own land, but in the streets and avenues running through that land, and the slag so deposited is in one continuons heap or pile from First avenue, the southern boundary of the land, to the South & North railroad right of way, its northern boundary. Complainant’s lands and houses are immediately across the street (Thirty-Second street) west of said slag pile. In throwing fresh slag upon the slag pile, dust and steam are created, [270]*270which are blown across the street onto complainant’s premises, thus creating annoyance and discomfort to her tenants, and the slag pile not only inconveniences the tenants of complainant in the use of the street and avenue in which the slag has been dumped, but also obstructs the view from complainant’s property down those streets.

The complainant has amended her bill by alleging the above facts, and by praying, not only that the respondent be required to remove from the said public highways all substances which it may have deposited therein, which was, in substance, the relief she sought in her original bill, but also that respondent “may be enjoined from placing upon said property, shaded black in Exhibit A, any dust or other substance which may be blown upon said Thirty-Second street, or complainant’s property bounded thereby, and be offensive to persons thereon, and from placing any substance thereon from which any fumes, vapors, or odors or heat may emanate which will be offensive to persons on said street or said property, and from placing any substance within the public highways traversing said property, shaded black, which may obstruct the sight or view of the business district of Birmingham of persons on said Thirty-Second street or complainant’s said property,” etc.

It appears from the original bill and the bill as amended that Second and Third avenue (two of the avenues which, according to complainant, are obstructed by the slag pile) are crossed by the right of way of the South & North Railroad. At the point under discussion these avenues run east and west, and the railroad right of way runs across them in a northerly and southerly direction. In the original bill it is alleged that these avenues run across the right of way, and that [271]*271the spaces occupied by them in crossing said right of way had been dedicated to the public. In the bill as amended this allegation has been omitted, and, taking the allegations of the bill as amended most strongly against the pleader, it may be conceded that these avenues extend up to each side of the right of way, but that no crossing over the railroad right of way at either avenue has been dedicated to the public. In other words, that a man going down Second avenue would, when he reached the railroad right of way, in order to get directly into the same avenue on the other side of the right of way, have to walk or drive across a part of the right of way of the railroad company not dedicated to the public.

In her original hill the complainant averred a special injury to her property, because the slag in Second and Third avenues obstructed those avenues and prevented free access into the city of Birmingham, which is across the right of way from her property.

The argument of the appellant is that, as no right is shown, by the allegations of the amended bill, in the public to cross the railroad right of way on Second and Third avenues, the essential averment which gave equity to the original bill is stricken from the bill as amended.

We do not think that this argument is well founded. That which gave equity to complainant’s original bill was the allegation that in maintaining a slag pile in and across certain named streets and avenues situated near and contiguous to complainant’s real estate free access

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Related

Garrett v. First Nat. Bank of Montgomery
172 So. 611 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1937)
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140 So. 573 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1932)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
62 So. 96, 182 Ala. 266, 1913 Ala. LEXIS 431, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sloss-sheffield-s-i-co-v-mclaughlin-ala-1913.