State ex rel. Whitman County v. Superior Court

212 P. 268, 123 Wash. 182, 1923 Wash. LEXIS 752
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 19, 1923
DocketNo. 17231
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 212 P. 268 (State ex rel. Whitman County v. Superior Court) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington 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. Whitman County v. Superior Court, 212 P. 268, 123 Wash. 182, 1923 Wash. LEXIS 752 (Wash. 1923).

Opinion

Holcomb, J.

Whitman county, a municipal corporation, through proceedings instituted by a petition and bond filed with its board of county commissioners, sought to establish a change in a county highway- over certain lands in that county, the highway being known as the “Herman Sehreiber Road,” and the proceedings upon the petition in question being known as “A Change in the Herman Sehreiber Road.” Upon the filing of the petition and bond, the board of county commissioners ordered the route of the road, with the change the petition called for, to be surveyed by the county engineer. The survey was made. The engineer filed in the commissioners’ court the information required by Rem. Comp. Stat.,. .§ 6463, in full, and he recommended that the change petitioned for and as surveyed by him be made. The county commissioners, by their order, fixed July 18, 1921, at 1 o’clock p.m. at their court room as the time and place of hearing, and caused notice of the hearing to be given.

At the time the hearing was set, it was continued by order of the. board to September 7, 1921, at 9:30 o’clock a.m. On that day the coiqmissioners proceeded with the hearing and entered an order awarding damages to the non-consenting property owners, and an order establishing changes in the road, as such changes were surveyed and recommended by the report of the county engineer, which included a change over and across the land of John O’Neil, and the others interested therein, and in the order the commissioners directed the county attorney to institute proceedings pursuant to the provisions of tbe statute. Subsequently and before any condemnation proceedings [184]*184were begun, on October 3, 1921, it appearing to tbe commissioners that tbe tenants upon the land of John O’Neil had not been ¡made any award in the former order and award of damages, they made a further award to these tenants. Thereafter on October 7, 1921, the clerk of the board of county commissioners, acting for the county, made tenders of the awards of damages, as determined and fixed by the board, to each of the persons who were subsequently made respondents in an action by the county to condemn the land, including tenders to the guardian of the minors, and. the minors themselves in person, except as to the award to Mamie Neal, who was at that time a nonresident of the county. The awards having been refused upon such tenders, the clerk of the board of commissioners cashed the warrants drawn for the awards made and paid the money into the registry of the superior court of Whitman county, including the award to Mamie Neal, to whom tender had not been made.

The petition and amended petition, prepared by the county attorney and filed in the superior court of Whitman county to condemn a right of way, made John O’Neil and the others who had not consented to the taking of their lands and accepted the compensation and damages awarded, and others, as the parties, designated respondents, to the action. They were all served with the notice of the petition as required by the statute.

At the time of the hearing in the superior court as fixed by the notice, all • the respondents, so called, appeared specially by motion, objecting to the jurisdiction of the court, which motion was overruled. The respondents then made answer, seeking to maintain their special-appearance, denied certain paragraphs of the amended petition, and denied the validity and [185]*185legality of all the allegations of the proceedings as alleged in the amended petition, whereby they sought to raise questions of jurisdiction before the superior court only.

The county then made proof of the proceedings in the commissioners’ court by producing thé records of the commissioners, and also made parol proof of their allegations in their petition as to tenders and other matters. Respondents, in the superior court, moved to dismiss the action, which was denied, and they then made proof under their answer, but over the objection of the county, from the commissioners’ records and by certified copies of certain instruments from the auditor’s record, and by parol proof, to show that certain landowners, and certain mortgagees holding incum-brances upon the land through which the change in the Herman Schreiber Road as petitioned for and surveyed, none of whom had filed waivers, and none of whom had any interest in the land sought to be condemned in the proceedings before the court, had not been served, so far as the record of the commissioners showed, with notice of the hearing before the board.

The trial court later made an order finding that the county commissioners of Whitman county did not have jurisdiction of the proceedings concerning the road sought to be changed and established, nor of certain persons interested therein, and that the superior court had not acquired jurisdiction in the action pending, and adjudged that, because of the lack of jurisdiction of the county commissioners, the superior court had not acquired and did not have jurisdiction of the action, and dismissed the condemnation proceedings, refusing to grant any relief prayed for in the amended petition. The county excepted to these conclusions, [186]*186and the order of the court, and brought the proceedings here by writ of review.

Respondents in this court object to the jurisdiction of this court to entertain this proceeding, for the reasons that the amount involved is less than $200, that petitioner has an adequate remedy at law, and that there is no authority shown herein for the proceeding, in that there is no allegation that the county commissioners have directed or authorized the application herein.

These objections must be overruled. This is not a proceeding “for the recovery of money or personal property where the original amount in controversy or the value of the property does not exceed the sum of $200,” but is an action to condemn real property. Moreover, this court has entertained jurisdiction in just this kind of proceeding by review where it was shown that the relators, the landowners, had been adjudged damages of only $65. State ex rel. Schroeder v. Superior Court, 29 Wash. 1, 69 Pac. 366. And we have entertained such proceedings in subsequent cases; State ex rel. Davies v. Superior Court, 102 Wash. 395, 173 Pac. 189, and State ex rel. Cation v. Superior Court, 110 Wash. 506, 188 Pac. 546. Nor is there any merit in the other grounds of objection by respondents. No appeal is provided for in such cases as this, and we have uniformly entertained jurisdiction by way of review in such matters.

As to the contention that the county attorney was not shown to have been authorized to apply for the writ, it will be presumed that the county attorney had the necessary authority before proceeding.

While respondents showed that certain mortgage incumbrances existed against certain lands over which the changes in the Herman Schreiber road was sur[187]*187veyed, yet the record and the engineer’s plat of the road and his testimony showed that the lands covered by these mortgages were not affected by any change in the road, except in the instances where waivers were obtained.

There is also objection by respondents in that one Marion Freeman and wife, whose lands were shown to be affected by the survey as made by the engineer, are not shown by the record of the commissioners’ proceedings to have been served with the notice of hearing before the commissioners.

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Bluebook (online)
212 P. 268, 123 Wash. 182, 1923 Wash. LEXIS 752, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-whitman-county-v-superior-court-wash-1923.