State v. Bayview Associates

686 A.2d 364, 296 N.J. Super. 140, 1996 N.J. Super. LEXIS 483
CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedDecember 26, 1996
StatusPublished

This text of 686 A.2d 364 (State v. Bayview Associates) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Bayview Associates, 686 A.2d 364, 296 N.J. Super. 140, 1996 N.J. Super. LEXIS 483 (N.J. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

KIMMELMAN, J.A.D.

Defendant Bayview Associates (Bayview) appeals from a summary judgment entered in the Law Division which permitted plaintiff to file an amended complaint. The trial court ruled that plaintiff had properly exercised its right of eminent domain in connection with the widening of Route 169 in Bayonne, however the appointment of condemnation commissioners was withheld pending the resolution of this appeal.

The operative facts are as follows. Bayview owns a large wholesale distribution warehouse located at the intersection of Route 169 and Pulaski Street in Bayonne. The warehouse is a rail/truck terminal building, ten acres in size, on a twenty-one acre lot. The building was specially designed to receive freight by rail and to redistribute the freight by truck. On its primary level, the building has twenty-five truck doors and seven rail doors which are serviced by two separate rail spurs. One rail spur provides rail service to the five rail doors located along the northwesterly side of the building which are used in conjunction with fifteen truck doors along the northeast side. The other rail spur provides rail service to the remaining two rail doors situated along the southwesterly side of the building which are used in conjunction with ten truck doors along the southeast side. As of the date of the taking, Conrail was providing active and frequent rail service along both spur tracks.

[142]*142Plaintiffs plan to widen Route 169 requires moving certain Conrail tracks which will directly affect Bayview’s building. The railroad spur serving the two railway bay doors on the southwesterly side of the building, feeding the ten southeasterly truck doors, will no longer be connected to Conrail’s main line as a result of the subject condemnation of Conrail’s property. The other railroad spur which services the five railway bay doors on the northwesterly side of the building, feeding the fifteen northwesterly track doors, will still be connected with the Conrail main lines and will remain functional.

In sum, while none of the seven railway bay doors will be physically taken, the off-site condemnation of a portion of Conrail’s right of way will terminate active rail service to two of the seven railway bay doors. It is argued that, as a result, the building will lose approximately twenty-eight percent of its capacity to receive railroad freight.

The only land being taken from Bayview consists of a small triangular parcel of vacant land, less than one acre in size, which is to be used in connection with the Pulaski Street corner improvements. The taking of that small parcel does not affect the outcome of this appeal.

Prior to the filing of the condemnation, the parties were engaged in negotiations during which it was assumed that plaintiff would have the responsibility for curing the impairment in the use of the building caused by the elimination of the southwesterly siding and consequent inutility of two railway doors. It was contemplated that the building would require physical alteration to cure the effect the off-site condemnation would have upon the facility.

Plaintiff offered Bayview $10,600 for the small triangular parcel actually being condemned and damages of $113,600, the estimated cost of alterations to the building needed to change the location of the two railway bay doors which no longer could be used. ■ Bay-view estimated it would cost $492,799 for modifications to the building occasioned by the need to relocate the two railway bay [143]*143doors. When the parties could not agree on the damages figure, plaintiff, on May 22,1995, filed a complaint for condemnation, and also filed a declaration of taking. The sum of $124,200 was deposited as just compensation with the Clerk of the Court to cover (1) the value of the small triangular piece of property being taken; and (2) the cost to cure the impairment of the building together with the right to enter upon Bayview’s land for the purpose of relocating the railroad spur. The declaration of taking was recorded in the Office of the Begister of Hudson County.

Eighteen days later, on June 9, 1995, plaintiff filed an amendment to the complaint reducing the estimated just compensation to $10,600 by eliminating $113,600 of its original estimate of just compensation which was related to the projected cost to cure the impairment caused to the building by the Conrail taking. The amendment to the complaint was motivated by plaintiffs determination that, since there was no actual taking of Bayview’s land in connection with the curtailment of service to one of the railway sidings, it did not have to fund the cost to cure the damages resulting from the curtailment of such service.

Bayview moved to dismiss the amended complaint. The trial court rejected Bayview’s claim and upheld plaintiffs revision of its estimate of compensable damages ruling summarily that the beneficial use of Bayview’s property was not destroyed by the taking of adjoining Conrail property which resulted in the elimination of one of the two railway sidings serving the warehouse building.

On appeal, Bayview asserts that (1) its claim for compensation for damages to its building by reason of the elimination of service to a railroad spur as a result of the off-site taking of part of Conrail’s right of way should be submitted to condemnation commissioners, and (2) plaintiff cannot divest itself, without Bayview’s consent, of the right of way already taken in Bayview’s property by the filing and recording of the declaration of taking.

At issue is whether this case is controlled, as the trial judge concluded, by this court’s holding in Klein v. State of N.J., Dep’t of Transp., 264 N.J.Super. 285, 624 A.2d 618 (App.Div.1993), certif. [144]*144denied, 134 N.J. 481, 634 A.2d 528 (1993). Both parties have varying interpretations of Klein.

Klein was an inverse condemnation case brought by the owner of a building adjoining Route 169 in Bayonne. When the building was constructed in 1971, railroad siding tracks were installed and were utilized through a sidetrack agreement with the then Lehigh Valley Railroad (Lehigh). Lehigh terminated the sidetrack agreement in 1976 when Lehigh was taken over and replaced by Conrail. After the Conrail takeover, no siding track service was provided to the building and the owner sought none. Sometime thereafter, or perhaps even earlier, the exact date does not appear, the owner covered over the non-functioning siding tracks with crushed stone. In 1985, in connection with the same Route 169 widening project, as here involved, the State condemned a portion of Conrail’s right of way to which the siding track had been connected and offered the owner of the building $4500 for the taking of the right to operate and utilize the railroad spur. When the owner demanded $2,000,000 in compensation, the negotiations terminated.

An inverse condemnation action was then instituted by the owner. This court upheld the trial court’s dismissal of the inverse condemnation claim because it was undisputed that Conrail had years earlier abandoned its main feeder line which connected to the owner’s railroad spur and could not have, and did not, provide rail service to the building. Klein, supra, 264 N.J.Super. at 293-94, 624 A.2d 618.

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Related

Klein v. STATE, DEPT. OF TRANSP.
624 A.2d 618 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1993)
Washington Market Enterprises, Inc. v. City of Trenton
343 A.2d 408 (Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1975)

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Bluebook (online)
686 A.2d 364, 296 N.J. Super. 140, 1996 N.J. Super. LEXIS 483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bayview-associates-njsuperctappdiv-1996.