State ex rel. Department of Highways v. Schnitt

117 So. 2d 595, 238 La. 1069, 1960 La. LEXIS 903
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJanuary 11, 1960
DocketNo. 44919
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 117 So. 2d 595 (State ex rel. Department of Highways v. Schnitt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Department of Highways v. Schnitt, 117 So. 2d 595, 238 La. 1069, 1960 La. LEXIS 903 (La. 1960).

Opinion

HAMITER, Justice.

On September 8, 1959 plaintiff (relator in this court) instituted the instant proceeding under the authority of Act 107 of 1954 (LRS 48:441 et seq.) to expropriate for highway purposes a parcel of land, together with the buildings and improvements thereon, located in the Parish of Caddo. Named defendants were the owners, Abraham Schnitt and Harry L. Lasker, and also A. (Jack Nakis) Armenakis who allegedly holds a lease on the property, the term of which extends to July 15, 1962.

According to the allegations of the petition it was necessary that plaintiff acquire the property in full ownership, including all of the rights of the lessee, and that “ * * the ' just compensation to which the said defendants are entitled, being the compensation for the above described property, in full ownership, including all of the rights of the lessee therein, subject to the mineral reservation set forth in paragraph nine (9) hereof, together with the buildings and improvements situated wholly or partly thereon, has been estimated to be the sum of Forty-nine Thousand Thirteen and No/100 Dollars ($49,013.00), as shown by the written estimate of the appraisers marked ‘Exhibit P-5,’ annexed hereto and made a part hereof.”

The statute under which the suit was brought provides for the mentioned estimating of the value of the property sought to be expropriated and further that: “Upon the deposit of the amount of the estimate in the registry of the court, for the use and benefit of the persons entitled thereto, the clerk shall issue a receipt showing the amount deposited, the date it was deposited, the style and number of the cause, and the description of the property and property rights as contained in the petition. Upon such deposit, title to the property and property rights specified in the petition shall vest in the department and the right to just and adequate compensation therefor shall vest in the persons entitled thereto. ‡ * ⅜⅞ }*

The prayer of the petition was, in part, that: “ * * * an order issue herein directing petitioner to deposit the sum of Forty-nine Thousand Thirteen and No/100 Dollars ($49,013.00) in the registry of this Court, for payment to the person or persons entitled thereto, and declaring that the full ownership of the tract or parcel of land described hereinabove, including all of the rights of the lessee therein, subject to the mineral reservation set forth in paragraph nine (9) hereof, together with all the buildings and improvements situated wholly or partly thereon, has been taken for highway purposes as of the time such deposit is made.”

In accordance with the prayer, and in keeping with the provisions of the applicable statute, the court ordered plaintiff to deposit the sum proposed to be paid. It further ordered that the property in full ownership, including the rights of the lessee, be expropriated and taken for highway purposes as of the time of the deposit; [597]*597and that all defendants vacate the premises and surrender possession to plaintiff not later than thirty days after being served with notice of the suit.

Conformably with such order plaintiff made the deposit.

Thereafter, on receiving notice of the suit, the lessee moved for and obtained a rule directing the owner defendants and the plaintiff to show cause why he should not be permitted to withdraw $10,783 from the amount deposited in the registry of the court, the said sum allegedly representing the value attributable to his leasehold rights in the property expropriated. (He reserved his right to proceed in the future to collect such additional loss and damages as he may have sustained.) In an answer plaintiff opposed lessee’s motion and rule, it urging that any attempt to distribute the funds without agreement of all parties, or until a final judgment determining the total compensation due to the respective defendants, would be unwise and inequitable.

The defendant owners, through an answer and by exceptions of no right and no cause of action, likewise opposed lessee’s motion and rule. Additionally, they caused to be issued a rule ordering plaintiff and the defendant lessee to show cause why they (the owners) should not be authorized to withdraw the full amount of the deposit inasmuch as it purportedly represented the value of the property which they, admittedly, owned.

Both rules and the exceptions were heard contradictorily with all parties, and thereafter (on October 28, 1959) the district court rendered a judgment in favor of the owners. It recalled the rule sued out by the lessee, and it ordered that such owners withdraw all of the funds deposited (their rule was made absolute).

The lessee did not appeal from that decree, nor has he applied to this court for •supervisory writs. Rather, on October 30, 1959 he successfully sought a temporary restraining order preventing the plaintiff from proceeding with the expropriation. At the same time he obtained a rule directing plaintiff to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not issue enjoining and prohibiting it from interfering with his possession of the premises.

On November 5, 1959 plaintiff filed in this court an application for remedial writs. However, no mention was made therein of the temporary restraining order issued against it. The only relief sought was that “ * * * the said Judge of the First Judicial District Court and the defendants, Abraham Schnitt, Harry L. Lasker, and A. (Jack Nakis) Armenakis, be ordered to show cause in this Court * * * why the decision and ruling of the said District Judge of October 28, 1959, granting the landowners * * * the right to withdraw the total deposit of $49,013, made for the benefit of all the defendants by plaintiff herein, should not be recalled, annulled and set aside and, accordingly, why it should not be decreed that all the defendants may withdraw jointly the total deposit of $49,-013, without an apportionment by the Court of their respective shares of that deposit, until there has been a judicial determination of the total value of their combined rights in the expropriated property ⅝ ⅝

Five days later (on November 10, 1959) plaintff filed here a “Supplemental and Amended Petition for Writs * * annexed to which was the lessee’s petition for, together with the decree granting, the temporary restraining order. Relator prayed therein that the district judge and the defendants be ordered to show cause “ * * * why the restraining order issued October 30, 1959 * * * and why any injunction which may be granted in connection therewith should not be recalled, annulled and set aside.”

On November 12, 1959, in view of the showing made by plaintiff in its supplemental petition respecting the restraining order, we issued remedial writs and a rule to show cause directed to the district judge and the defendants.

[598]*598Meanwhile, on November 10, 1959 lessee’s rule for the preliminary injunction was tried in the district court. And at the conclusion of the trial judgment was rendered in favor of the lessee ordering the issuance of a preliminary writ of injunction against the plaintiff. The judgment was signed, and the injunction order issued, on November 12, 1959—the same day that our writs to the district court were granted.

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Bluebook (online)
117 So. 2d 595, 238 La. 1069, 1960 La. LEXIS 903, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-department-of-highways-v-schnitt-la-1960.