State ex rel. McKay v. Kauer

156 Ohio St. (N.S.) 347
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 12, 1951
DocketNo. 32673
StatusPublished

This text of 156 Ohio St. (N.S.) 347 (State ex rel. McKay v. Kauer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. McKay v. Kauer, 156 Ohio St. (N.S.) 347 (Ohio 1951).

Opinions

Hart, J.

The principal question presented may be stated as follows:

Where the grade of a street constituting a portion of a state highway has been established and the owner of property abutting thereon has improved his property in reliance upon and in conformity to such grade, and thereafter a highway improvement is made upon such street by the Director of Highways of the state in accordance with legally approved plans and specifications whereby the width of the street or highway is narrowed and the grade of the remainder substantially lowered from the former grade to such extent that there is no physical access to or from the property to the street, does the owner of such property suffer a “taking” of his property and, if so, is he entitled to compensation by way of damages from the state, even though no- part of the physical property is taken or disturbed?

In some jurisdictions it is held that interference with access to the premises of an abutting owner by a public improvement in the street or highway does not, so long as no part of the physical property area is involved, constitute a “taking” or appropriation of the property for a public use requiring compensation to the owner therefor. Transportation Co. v. City of Chicago, 99 U. S., 635, 25 L. Ed., 336. This rule seems to be a relic of the ancient doctrine that the king can do no wrong, but it has never obtained in Ohio.

Since an early day, it has been the law of this state that an owner of real property has an easement in the public street on which his property abuts, as an appurtenance thereto; and that if a substantial change of grade in the street upon which the property abuts renders the buildings thereon less convenient of access there is an appropriation pro tanto of the property right in the easement for which compensation may be required.

[352]*352Section 19, Article I of the Constitution of Ohio,, provides as follows:

"Private property shall ever be held inviolate but subservient to the public welfare: When taken in time of war or other public exigency, imperatively requiring its immediate seizure or for the purpose of making or repairing roads, which shall be open to the public, without charge, a compensation shall be made to the owner, in money: * * * and such compensation shall be assessed by a jury, without deduction for benefits to any property of the owner.”

An early case on this subject which has since been consistently followed by the courts is that of Crawford v. Village of Delaware, 7 Ohio St., 459, wherein this court held:

"If erections are made on a lot in accordance with an established grade, and the grade is afterward altered, and a substantial injury is thereby done to-.the-owner-of a lot, he-is entitled to compensation.”

To the same effect, see Rhodes v. City of Cleveland, 10 Ohio, 159, 36 Am. Dec., 82; McCombs v. City of Akron, 15 Ohio, 474; Little Miami Rd. Co. v. Naylor, 2 Ohio St., 236; Cincinnati & Spring Grove Ave. St. Ry. Co. v. Village of Cumminsville, 14 Ohio St., 523; Jackson v. Jackson, 16 Ohio St., 163; City of Cincinnati v. Penny, 21 Ohio St., 499, 8 Am. Rep., 73; City of Youngstown v. Moore, 30 Ohio St., 133; City of Akron v. Chamberlain Co., 34 Ohio St., 328, 32 Am. Rep., 367; Railway Co. v. Lawrence, 38 Ohio St., 41, 43 Am. Rep., 419; Cohen v. City of Cleveland, 43 Ohio St., 190, 193, 1 N. E., 589; City of Cincinnati v. Whetstone, 47 Ohio St., 196, 24 N. E., 409; Smith v. Commissioners, 50 Ohio St., 628, 35 N. E., 796, 40 Am. St. Rep., 699; Lotze v. City of Cincinnati, 61 Ohio St., 272, 55 N. E., 828; Schimmelmann v. Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Ry. Co., 83 Ohio St., 356, 94 N. E., 840, 36 L. R. A. (N. S.), 1164; Smith v. Erie Rd. Co., 134 Ohio St., 135, 16 N. E. (2d), 310.

[353]*353In the case last cited this court held:

“Under Section 19, Article I, of the Constitution, which requires compensation to be made for private property taken for public use, any taking, whether it be physical or merely deprives the owner of an intangible interest appurtenant to the premises, entitles the owner to compensation.”

Judge Williams, writing the opinion in that case, said:

“In some of the early cases in this country, the courts, adhering to the conception of property as the thing owned, construed the taking alluded to in state constitutions to be a ‘taking altogether,’ an appropriation and dispossession of the owner, which deprived him of the corpus of the property, and compensation was limited accordingly. The broader view, which now obtains generally, conceives property to be the interest of the owner in the thing owned, and the ownership to afford the owner the rights of use, exclusion and disposition. Under this broad construction there need not be a physical taking of the property or even dispossession; any substantial interference with the elemental rights growing out of ownership of private property is considered a taking.”

The majority of American jurisdictions have now adopted that rule. See A. L. R. annotation to Fry v. O’Leary, 141 Wash., 465, 252 P., 111, 49 A. L. R., 1249.

The respondent claims further that there was no change in the relationship of relator’s property to West Federal street to which relator had access both before and after the improvement; that although relator had access from Market street to Spring Common before the improvement, he still has access to Market street although it became a cul-de-sac; and that since he still has access to these streets he has suffered no legal damage from the change of grade on Spring Common. In this respect, the respondent re[354]*354lies on the cases of New York, Chicago & St. Louis Bd. Co. v. Bucsi, 128 Ohio St., 134, 190 N. E., 562, 93 A. L. R., 632, and City of Bellevue, ex rel. Vickery, City Solicitor, v. Stedman, 138 Ohio St., 281, 34 N. E. (2d), 769.

It is to be noted, however, that in those cases the properties did not abut on the streets at points where the improvements were made but were some distance away from the improvements which closed the streets upon which the properties abutted, thereby creating cul-de-sacs, but did not otherwise interfere with reasonable access to the streets upon which the properties abutted and to other streets unaffected by the improvements. Those cases are clearly distinguishable from the instant case and other cases of like character in that respect.

The respondent claims further that the relator did not suffer damages by the change of grade of the street in question since access to the street had already been foreclosed to him through the force of a city ordinance of the city of Youngstown prohibiting the parking of vehicles on either side of the street upon which the property abuts.

The respondent in making this claim clearly misapprehends the force and effect of the ordinance in question. The abutting owner’s right to access to his property from a street or highway cannot be destroyed or unreasonably affected by the provisions of a parking ordinance. Such interference would likewise be a '‘taking” of property without compensation. The case of

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Searcy v. Noll Welty Lumber Co.
243 S.W. 318 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1922)
Murphy v. . Leggett
58 N.E. 42 (New York Court of Appeals, 1900)
City of Bellevue Ex Rel. Vickery v. Stedman
34 N.E.2d 769 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1941)
New York, Chicago & St. Louis Rd. v. Bucsi
190 N.E. 562 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1934)
State Ex Rel. Juhlman v. Conners
171 N.E. 589 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1930)
State Ex Rel. Stanley v. Cook
66 N.E.2d 207 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1946)
Smith v. Erie Rd. Co.
16 N.E.2d 310 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1938)
Fry v. O'Leary
252 P. 111 (Washington Supreme Court, 1927)
Village of Wonewoc v. Taubert
233 N.W. 755 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1930)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
156 Ohio St. (N.S.) 347, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-mckay-v-kauer-ohio-1951.