State ex rel. State Highway Commission v. Curtis

283 S.W.2d 458, 365 Mo. 447, 1955 Mo. LEXIS 595
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedNovember 14, 1955
DocketNo. 44817
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 283 S.W.2d 458 (State ex rel. State Highway Commission v. Curtis) 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
State ex rel. State Highway Commission v. Curtis, 283 S.W.2d 458, 365 Mo. 447, 1955 Mo. LEXIS 595 (Mo. 1955).

Opinion

DALTON, Judge.

This is an original action in prohibition. Relator seeks to prohibit respondent, Judge of the 19th Judicial Circuit, from entering an order in the' circuit court of Laclede County remanding to the circuit court of Pulaski County five separate exceptions which had been filed to the award of Commissioners in a condemnation case instituted in the circuit court of Pulaski County. These exceptions, involving the amount of damages to be paid to the respective ex-ceptors for the taking of their respective separate tracts of real estate in the condemnation proceeding, were transferred from the circuit court of Pulaski County to the circuit court of Laclede County on change of venue from Pulaski County, after certain other exceptions that had been filed in the same condemnation case had been transferred on change of venue from Pulaski County to other counties.

The alleged grounds upon which respondent proposes to act in remanding the exceptions are that the ciixuit court of Pulaski County had no jurisdiction to transfer the said exceptions to the circuit court of La-clede County for trial; that the circuit court of Laclede County acquired no jurisdiction of said exceptions, because other exceptions filed in the same condemnation case had been transferred to other counties; that the original condemnation action was still a single case; and that the circuit court of Pulaski County had no jurisdiction to transfer a part of the case to Maries County, a part to Phelps County and a part to Laclede County.

We are first confronted by respondent’s contention that, in his answer and return to our preliminary rule in prohibition, he denied certain allegations contained in the petition for the writ; that his answer and return contained certain allegations as to which the relator made no reply; that certain specific issues of fact are undetermined; that there has been no request for the appointment of a commissioner to take testimony and make findings of fact; and that no stipulation has been filed disposing of these disputed fact issues. While we fully agree that certain detailed facts are undetermined, we think it is clear from respondent’s answer and his return, as well as from the admissions contained in his brief in this court, that the essential facts upon which this cause turns are not in dispute, but are definitely admitted. In stating the facts we shall frequently refer to respondent’s pleadings and brief and to the admissions therein.

It is admitted that on May 14, 1948, relator filed a condemnation suit in the circuit court of Pulaski County, which suit was styled, State of Missouri ex rel. State Highway Commission of Missouri, plaintiff, vs. Allen T. Burcham, et al., defendants, file No. 2559. The purpose of the action was to acquire eight different separately described parcels of real estate owned by eight different groups of individuals. Respondent in his answer and return points out that this is the condemnation case which was considered by this court in State ex rel. State Highway Commission v. Curtis, 359 Mo. 402, 222 S.W.2d 64, a mandamus action, wherein respondent was required to accept jurisdiction of all issues tendered in relator’s condemnation petition then pending before him. Pulaski County was then a part of respondent’s judicial circuit. Section 478.137 RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S.

Thereafter, commissioners were duly appointed in said cause to ascertain and report the just compensation, if any, to which the several groups of defendants were respectively entitled. The commissioners viewed the several tracts and filed one Report of Commissioners, apparently, in full conformity with the provisions of Section 523.040 and 523.050 RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S., showing certain sums as the just compensation to which the eight separate groups of defendants were respectively entitled for their respective tracts of real estate. The several defendants were served with a copy of the commissioners’ report and duly notified of [461]*461the filing and date thereof and, within ten days from the receipt of such notice, all of the defendants filed written exceptions to the award of the commissioners. The relator filed exceptions to the award made as to seven of the tracts.

Relator, as plaintiff in the condemnation suit, after the several exceptions to the commissioners’ report had been filed, filed certain applications for change of venue from the circuit court of Pulaski County on the ground that the inhabitants of Pulaski County were prejudiced against plaintiff (applicant) and, also, for the reason that the defendants, the opposite parties therein, had an undue influence over the inhabitants of Pulaski County. The petitions for change of venue were sustained and certain orders, as hereinafter stated, were made.

It is admitted that, after all of the exceptions to the award of the commissioners had been filed with the clerk of the circuit court of said county, the said clerk, without any order of the court having been made directing him so to do, and without any of the parties having so requested, made out seven separate docket sheets covering the exceptions filed, and numbered those docket sheets, respectively, 25S9A-2S59G, inclusive. (Apparently, one of the exceptions had been disposed of.)

Respondent, in his answer and return states: “Number 2559A was apparently intended to include the issue of just compensation as to the land owned by Allen T. Burchan; 2559B, the land of Wilbur B. Johnson and Etta Johnson; 25S9C the land owned by William C. Anderson and wife, 2S59D the land owned by Orville and Josie Laughlin; 2559E the land owned by Roy Laughlin and Jeretta Laughlin, 25S9F the land owned by Orville Laughlin and Josie Laughlin and James Laughlin and Gladys Laughlin; and 2S59G the lands owned by Charles H. Elliott and Helen Elliott.” In his brief in this court, respondent says that, “on April 6, 1953, on the docket sheet bearing No. 2559A, the court entered an order granting a change of venue to Maries County, Missouri, upon application of the plaintiff, the State Highway Commission. On April 23, 1953, or 17 days later, the circuit court of Pulaski County, Missouri, entered an order on each of the docket sheets numbered from 2559B to 2559F, inclusive, purporting to grant a change of venue to the circuit court of Laclede County, Missouri. In other words, on April 6, 1953, the circuit court of Pulaski County, Missouri, attempted to send the Burcham exceptions to the circuit court of Maries County. On April 6, 1953, the circuit court of Pulaski County, attempted to send the Elliott exceptions to the circuit court of Phelps County. As to exceptions in '2559B to 2559F, inclusive, the order for change of venue was actually not made by the circuit court of Pulaski County, Missouri, until April 23, 1953, long after two prongs of the lawsuit had been sent to other counties, one of them having been sent to Phelps County. No order for a severance or for a separate trial nor any order for the clerk to make out separate docket sheets was ever made in the circuit court of Pulaski County, Missouri.” (Italics - ours.)

As indicated, the exceptions involving five of the tracts of real estate in question were attempted to be transferred on change of venue from the circuit court of Pulaski County to the circuit court of Laclede County. Respondent admits that the circuit court of Pulaski County “made five entries in said, condemnation suit purporting to award a change of venue to relator to the circuit court of Laclede County,” to wit, in Nos. 2559B, 2559C, 2559D, 2559E, and 2559F.

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Bluebook (online)
283 S.W.2d 458, 365 Mo. 447, 1955 Mo. LEXIS 595, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-state-highway-commission-v-curtis-mo-1955.