Smith v. City of Sedalia

149 S.W. 597, 244 Mo. 107, 1912 Mo. LEXIS 310
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJune 20, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 149 S.W. 597 (Smith v. City of Sedalia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. City of Sedalia, 149 S.W. 597, 244 Mo. 107, 1912 Mo. LEXIS 310 (Mo. 1912).

Opinion

PERRISS, J.

The following statement of facts is taken from the opinion of the Kansas City Court of Appeals rendered in this cause at the April term, 1912:

“The cause of action alleged in the petition is the wrongful pollution of a natural watercourse which runs through plaintiff’s farm of four hundred acres, just north of Sedalia. The cause of the pollution is sewage from the city collected by defendant’s system of sewers and discharged into the stream from the mouth of the main sewer at a point about 200 yards from the south boundary of plaintiff’s farm. The length of the stream through the farm is about one mile, and the sewag*e is carried — so plaintiff contends in his petition and proof — over the entire course of the stream through the farm. The water is made unfit for the use of man or beast and the adjacent air is contaminated with noxious odors. The farm is highly improved, was devoted principally to stock raising, and, before the creation of the nuisance of which plaintiff complains, the stream afforded a bountiful supply of pure and wholesome water for the live stock pastured on the farm. At first the séwers of Sedalia were private, but in 1887 they became public, and the city extended the system from time to time. The mouth of the main sewer, built under an ordinance passed in 1887, was 4140' feet south of plaintiff’s land. In 1891 the sewer was extended 2640 feet northward, and in 1893 another extension of the city brought its terminus to a point only 600- feet from the south line of the farm. No extensions or changes have been made [117]*117in the main sewer since that year. The present snit was instituted in the circuit court of Pettis county in March, 1902. The petition is in two counts. In the first, plaintiff seeks to recover damages inflicted by the nuisance during the preceding five years, and the damages claimed are those resulting from the injury to the rental value of the farm during that period. The second count pleads a cause in equity, and o the prayer is that defendant ‘be enjoined from depositing sewerage from its said sewer system into the bed of Cedar Creek or elsewhere, from which the same may be carried into or upon the premises of plaintiff, and upon final hearing of the cause will adjudge the acts of the defendant wrongful in creating a nuisance and order the same abated,’ etc.
‘ ‘ The suit was taken to Moniteau county on change of venue. The cause pleaded in the first count was tried to a jury in 1905, resulting in a verdict and judgment for plaintiff for $2000. At the same term the court tried the issues tendered in the second count and decided them in favor of defendant. Plaintiff appealed from the judgment rendered on the second count, and defendant appealed from the judgment on the first count.
“In April, 1895', plaintiff commenced a suit in the circuit court of Pettis county against defendant on account of the same nuisance. He claimed damages resulting from the depreciation of the value of the 'farm and its rental value. A trial in Pettis county resulted in a verdict for defendant, but plaintiff’s motion for a new trial was sustained, and defendant appealed to the Supreme Court, where the judgment granting a new trial was affirmed. [Smith v. Sedalia, 152 Mo. 283.] Afterward, on motion of plaintiff, the venue of the action was changed to Johnson county, and on a trial there before a jury defendant again prevailed, but, as before, the court sustained plaintiff’s motion for a new trial, and defendant appealed to the [118]*118Supreme Court. The judgment granting a new trial was affirmed at the April term, 1904. [Smith v. Sedalia, 182 Mo. 1.] Since then that action has been suffered to sleep in the circuit court of Johnson county, where it is still pending, and the activities of the parties have been centered on the present action. Defendant contends in its answer and briefs that the pendency of the first suit is a bar to the prosecution of the second.”

The appeals were allowed in the first instance to this court, but later the cause was transferred to the Kansas City Court of Appeals. [228 Mo. 505.] Upon a hearing in that court, the judgment was reversed and the cause remanded with directions to enter judgment for defendant on both counts. On rehearing, the judgment rendered on the original hearing was reentered. The court held the pending suit filed in 1895 a bar to this suit. One of the judges, however, deeming the decision in conflict with the decisions of this court in Smith v. Sedalia, 152 Mo. 283, and Smith v. Sedalia, 182 Mo. 1, the cause was certified to this court for final determination.

In addition to the above statement of facts, it may be proper to say that in the first suit filed by plaintiff in 1895, above referred to, he not only claimed damages as stated, but also, in the same count, prayed for an injunction to restrain the city from further maintaining and operating said sewer. The case, however, was tried as if it were simply a suit at law for damages, and was so construed by this court on the appeal reported in 152 Mo. 283.

The allegations concerning the injury caused by the sewer are substantially the same in both cases, with this exception, that in the present case there is no allegation of depreciation in the value of the farm, but the allegation is confined to the use and rental value. In the first suit damages were claimed for the [119]*119period of time from plaintiff’s purchase up to the date of filing the- suit.

I. The first and important question is whether the former suit is a bar to this one. The answer to this depends upon whether the injury complained of in that case was permanent in character. If it was, then as this is for the continuation of the same injury, the two cases present the same cause of action, and the pendency of the first suit is a bar to this, under sections 1800 and 1804, Revised Statutes 1909, which provide that another suit pending in this State for the same cause may be pleaded in bar of a second suit.

The main sewer which discharges into Cedar Creek was completed in 1893 up to within six hundred feet of plaintiff’s land, and its effect upon the stream became manifest at that time. It was designed to serve a large sewer system. This main sewer has remained without further change. It was evidently intended to be permanent. At the time of the trial it was the outlet to a sewer system which served the larger portion of the city of Sedalia, and which cost about $100,600-. No practical way has been demonstrated for disposing of this sewage other than by the use of this watercourse, which is the natural drain for that portion of the city. Plaintiff attempted, unsuccessfully we think, to show that a septic tank would satisfactorily dispose of the sewage. It is true that since the completion of this main sewer, in 1893, additional district sewers have been incorporated into the general system, and doubtless others may be added hereafter. It is also true that as the population grows the main sewer will discharge an increased volume of contents into the creek. * This increase in use, however, is incidental to all sewers, but does not affect the question of the permanent character of the injury. If condemnation proceedings had been instituted in 1895 to acquire the use of this stream, the damages would [120]*120have been fixed for all time, notwithstanding the impossibility of ascertaining at that time the extent of future use that might be made of the sewer.

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Bluebook (online)
149 S.W. 597, 244 Mo. 107, 1912 Mo. LEXIS 310, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-city-of-sedalia-mo-1912.