State, Department of Highways v. Hurt

478 S.W.2d 775, 63 Tenn. App. 689, 1971 Tenn. App. LEXIS 209
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedOctober 29, 1971
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 478 S.W.2d 775 (State, Department of Highways v. Hurt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State, Department of Highways v. Hurt, 478 S.W.2d 775, 63 Tenn. App. 689, 1971 Tenn. App. LEXIS 209 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

OPINION

TODD, Judge.

This is an eminent domain proceeding wherein Golf Enterprises, Inc., lessee of a part of the property taken, has appealed from the award of damages. The owners, J. Morgan Hurt and Ruth Wilson Hurt, have not appealed.

Initially, it is necessary to consider the appellee’s motion to dismiss the appeal because the property owners (lessors) are indispensable parties to the appeal and are not before this Court in this appeal.

Appellees insist that the interests of lessor and lessee are so inseparable that the appeal of one cannot be heard without the joinder of the other. No authorities are cited to directly support this proposition; appellees rely upon the rule that the sum of evaluations of leasehold and reversion estates cannot exceed the total value of the fee, and the sum of the separate allocations of damages to lessor and lessee cannot exceed the single allocation which would be made for an identical taking from a single defendant who owned all interest in the land. Moulton v. George, 208 Tenn. 586, 348 S.W.2d 129 (1961).

In Chattanooga and Tennessee River Power Co. v. Lawson, 139 Tenn. 354, 201 S.W. 165 (1917), the suit of a tenant for damages resulting from construction of a dam was dismissed on several grounds, among which was a former proceeding in eminent domain wherein the landlord had been compensated for the taking of part of his land for the dam. Although the tenant was not a party to the former proceeding, the compensation paid therein to the owner was held to be a bar to the subsequent suit of the tenant.

In Mason v. City of Nashville, 155 Tenn. 256, 291 S.W. 1074 (1927), the city condemned a part of a two-story building by resolution of the city council and appraisal of commissioners. By the initiative of the city, the commissioners considered the claims of both the owner and the tenant, Mason, who held a lease on the second floor of the building. The commission fixed compensation due the owner, who accépted same and did not appeal. The commission denied compensation to the tenant, Mason, who appealed to the Circuit Court where he was likewise denied compensation. The Supreme Court reversed and remanded to the Circuit Court for hearing as to the amount of compensation due Mason. This case is comparable with the present case because the tenant was permitted to pursue the process of appeal from the city commission through the Circuit Court and Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court, all without joinder of the landlord.

Thus, in cases such as Chattanooga and Tennessee River Power Co. v. Lawson, where only the landlord is made a defendant, it appears that all damages for the taking may be assessed and paid to the landlord who might thereby become accountable to his tenant if the tenancy were impaired. Where, as in Mason and the present case, both landlord and tenant are made parties to the condemnation suit, each defendant is permitted to appeal from an unsatisfactory award without joinder of the other, with the sole limitation that the sum of the recoveries allowed to landlord and tenant may not exceed the fair compensation due for the taking.

In Moulton, Commissioner, v. George, supra, the condemnor appealed, thereby bringing both landlord and tenant to the appellate court. The remand did require a retrial as to both landlord and [778]*778tenant, but this was made possible by the appeal of the condemnor and the resultant reservation of final judgment as to both landlord and tenant. In the present case, the condemnor has permitted the award to the lessor to become final and has paid it, thus precluding any reconsideration of the amount due the lessor. So long as the lessee does not complain that the lessor was erroneously awarded a part of the compensation which was rightfully due the tenant, then the tenant has no cause or grounds to appeal from the award made to the landlord. The tenant makes no such insistence in this appeal, hence he had no duty to bring the landlord’s rights to this Court on appeal; and his failure to do so cannot defeat this right to a review of the award to him (the tenant). See 27 Am.Jur.2d, Eminent Domain, § 448, p. 364; Stubbings v. Village of Evanston, 136 Ill. 37, 26 N.E. 577 (1891). Any relief to the tenant as a result of this appeal must be through the means of increasing the total compensation due for the taking and not by reallocation or re-apportionment of the total compensation heretofore assessed by the jury.

The motion to dismiss is respectfully overruled.

Another matter requiring preliminary discussion is a Consent Order entered in this Court pending appeal, which Order reads as follows:

“In this cause, upon suggestion of the parties that the requested instructions to the jury of appellant, Golf Enterprises, Inc., which were attached to and made a part of motion for new trial, was omitted from the transcript prepared by the Clerk and the agreement that it may be supplied, as evidenced by signature of counsel for the parties, it is
ORDERED that the request for instructions submitted by appellant, Golf Enterprises, Inc., attached to and made a part of the motion for new trial, may be filed herein.”

Where the bill of exceptions does not affirmatively show that a special request was seasonably submitted and refused by the Trial Court, the issue of failure to so charge may not be raised on appeal. Hayes v. Gill, 216 Tenn. 39, 390 S.W.2d 213 (1965), Chicago Guaranty Fund Life Soc. v. Ford, 104 Tenn. 533, 58 S.W. 239 (1900); McCleary v. Morgan, 60 Tenn.App. 578, 449 S.W.2d 440 (1969).

An effort to amend a bill of exceptions by stipulation is improper. Campbell v. Francis, 53 Tenn.App. 80, 378 S.W.2d 790 (1964).

The Consent Order, quoted supra, does not in fact undertake to supply a necessary part of the bill of exceptions, but merely attempts to establish that the special requests were atttached to and made a part of the motion for new trial. This is insufficient to present the question for review. Nashville St. R R v. O’Bryan, 104 Tenn. 28, 55 S.W. 300 (1900), Taylor v. Robertson, 12 Tenn.App. 320 (1930), Nashville Ry. & Light Co. v. Owen, 11 Tenn.App. 19 (1929).

The reason for the foregoing rule is the necessity of a showing of a timely submission of the request and a refusal thereof. Evidence of such would not appear from a motion for a new trial.

Thus, regrettably, the matter presented by said Consent Order cannot be considered.

The issues presented by this appeal require a somewhat detailed recitation of the background of the controversy.

The condemnation was made necessary by the improvement of Old Hickory Boulevard where it crosses the Cumberland River near Old Hickory, Tennessee. At this point, the highway runs generally east and west and the river runs generally southward. The project included reconstruction of the approach to the bridge, thereby necessitating widening the right-of-way to accommodate a “fill” on which said approach was built. Also required was space for a widened en[779]*779trance into the highway from the affected property.

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486 S.W.2d 922 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1972)

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Bluebook (online)
478 S.W.2d 775, 63 Tenn. App. 689, 1971 Tenn. App. LEXIS 209, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-department-of-highways-v-hurt-tennctapp-1971.