St. Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern Railroad v. St. Louis Union Stock Yards Co.

25 S.W. 399, 120 Mo. 541, 1894 Mo. LEXIS 143
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedFebruary 27, 1894
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 25 S.W. 399 (St. Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern Railroad v. St. Louis Union Stock Yards Co.) 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
St. Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern Railroad v. St. Louis Union Stock Yards Co., 25 S.W. 399, 120 Mo. 541, 1894 Mo. LEXIS 143 (Mo. 1894).

Opinion

Burgess, J.

This proceeding was instituted by plaintiff to condemn for its right of way a strip of land fifty feet in width by five hundred and fifty-five feet in length, lying parallel with and eleven feet east of the west wharf line, as established by ordinance 5403, of the city of St. Louis; said strip being a part of a tract of land owned by defendant, containing about twenty-seven acres. Twenty-two acres of this property is bounded on the north by Bremen avenue; on the east by the Mississippi river; on the south by the property of Knapp, Stout & Co., and on the west by Hail street. Five acres owned by defendant and used in connection with the twenty-two acres, lie west of Hall street fronting on Bremen avenue and extending south five hundred and fifty feet, making twenty-seven acres in all owned and used for stock yard purposes. The two tracts are separated by Hall street. The twenty-two acre tract is low bottom land, about eight or nine feet below the grade of Bremen avenue and Hall street. Near the west wharf line, it is protected by a levee of the same elevation as Bremen avenue, and extending therefrom so as to connect with a levee of corresponding elevation of Knapp, Stout & Co. East of the levee the land slopes to the river. West of the levee and covering most of the ground to Hall street, there were stock sheds and pens, a hotel, offices and other structures suitable to a business of that [547]*547■sort; from the top of the levee eastward towards the river, there was erected on piles a roofed structure, called a runway, driveway or cattle chute, through which stock was driven to and from the yard in shipping and receiving from the river. On Bremen avenuesnearthe river and east of the right of way was a slaughter house and grain elevator. On the south or line of Knapp, Stout & Co., also on piles, was a long wooden building, a salt warehouse, reaching to ordinary low water on the east and extending on the west beyond the ■east line of the right of way, sixty-five feet on the north ■side and forty-five feet on the south. Within the right of way was a rendering house. The land was well improved for the purposes for which it was used, there having been erected thereon all necessary structures and conveniences in modem use for such a business •enterprise.

The property had a private switch connecting with the Wabash Road running along its south side •from Hall street, which furnished facilities for loading and unloading cattle, and for connecting with all other roads coming into the city of St. Louis and with the two transfer railways, which connected with roads on ■the east side of the Mississippi river. This switch was used for the purposes of transporting cattle to and from the stock yards, and for the purpose of carrying grain to and from the grain elevator on the property. ’The defendant constructed its building with unloading •chutes to receive cattle from cars on this switch, and the chutes were capable of taking twenty-three cars at one time. This same switch could have been turned «o as to accommodate the eastern-part of the property with railroad facilities under the control of defendant, from the south side of its property to its north or Bremen avenue side. The Merchants’ Bridge comes «down onto the levee of Hall street about five hundred [548]*548feet above Bremen avenue. The St. Louis Transfer Railway Company’s tracks (otherwise called the Wiggins Perry Transfer) runs on Hall street, which separates the two parcels of land used by defendant for stock yard purposes. The St. Louis Merchants’ Bridge Terminal Railway Company connects with the Merchants’ Bridge where it reaches Hall street, between the two parts of defendant’s property, the Transfer Railway .Company’s tracks being in the middle of the street and the Merchants’ Bridge Terminal Railway tracks one on each outer side of them. These are both switching railway companies, and under their respective ordinances are required to give switch connections with establishments adjacent to their lines, when ordinances authorizing such connections are passed by the municipal assembly of St. Louis. There is a track running along the edge of defendant’s ground on the-west side of Hall street and used as a joint switch by the St. Louis Transfer Railway Company and the Merchants’ Bridge Terminal Railway Company for-unloading stock in that part of defendant yard.

Before the right of way was taken from defendant’s front it had quite a large river business, which was interfered with by reason of its river front being in a manner cut off from the remainder of the land. Defendant also had a driveway to the river running through the entire length of its yards; which, so far as it then existed, was entirely cut off by the roadbed. Plaintiff, however, laid iron girders thirty-five feet long over the runway' which extended from defendant’s main alley in its yards to the river, leaving a space of a few feet between the bottom of the girders and the roadway of defendant’s driveway to the river. The driveway under the girders was used by defendant after the construction of the roadbed. The roadbed [549]*549■cut off a pump of defendant’s b.y which water from the river was supplied for all its stock pens.

The evidence showed that by reason of a condemnation of the strip of land defendant was put to large expense in moving its buildings; damaged by being cut off from its river front, water supply, drainage; increased expense in conducting its business, etc., aside from the damages to the tract of land, and the strip taken for the roadbed.

As is usual in such cases, there was a wide difference in the opinion of witnesses as to the amount of damages sustained by defendant. As a fair illustration it may not be improper to state that the commissioners who were appointed to assess the damages fixed the amount at $49,280, while the jury fixed them at $14,500 with $622.50 interest; amounting in the aggregate to the sum of $15,123.50, for which amount judgment was rendered for defendant. The case is here on defendant’s appeal.

William Gr. Clark, a witness for defendant, was asked the following questions: “Q. Are those large tracts in demand Or are they few?” “Q. A.re the switching facilities of that property ample for all lumber yards, all stock yard purposes?” “Q. As to lumber yards, you are familiar with lumber yards, are you not?” “Q. What was the effect of the construction of the Merchants’ Bridge upon the value of the property in that part of the city?” Objections'were made to all those questions and sustained by the court.

The first question should, in our opinion, have been permitted to be answered as the answer might have been very material with respect to the value of the property. . If there was no demand for such property, it could have had no marketable value, while if there was a demand for it, it necessarily follows that it did have such a value.

[550]*550.Thete was no error in sustaining the objections to the other questions as the answers to them could not possibly have thrown any light upon the issues before-the jury.

The question to the witness, Buchanan, simply called for the expression of an opinion with regard to matters that the jury were as competent to judge of as the witness, and the objection thereto was properly sustained.

The objection to the question put to Capt. George W. Ford must have been sustained because of the fact that it called for the opinion of the witness as to the-, value of the property to the owner and not to its market value.

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Bluebook (online)
25 S.W. 399, 120 Mo. 541, 1894 Mo. LEXIS 143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-louis-keokuk-northwestern-railroad-v-st-louis-union-stock-yards-mo-1894.