Stedman v. State Highway Commission

1935 OK 1028, 50 P.2d 657, 174 Okla. 308, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 1456
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 22, 1935
DocketNo. 24905.
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 1935 OK 1028 (Stedman v. State Highway Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stedman v. State Highway Commission, 1935 OK 1028, 50 P.2d 657, 174 Okla. 308, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 1456 (Okla. 1935).

Opinion

RILEY, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of the State Highway Commission in an action by plaintiff in error to recover consequential damages alleged to have resulted from the taking of a portion of plaintiff’s land for highway purposes and the construction of a bridge and roadway thereon.

Plaintiff’s land is described as the S. E. ],4 of tbe N. E. % of section 19, township 1 S., range 2 E., in Murray county.

The Washita river crosses U. S. Highway No. 77, State Highway No. 4, a short distance south and west of the southwest corner of plaintiff’s land. The highway runs north and a little east from the river and cuts off a small portion of plaintiff’s land at the northwest corner. During the year 1929, a bridge was constructed across the river and the roadway was graded and graveled. In constructing- the grade for the road, a relief opening- of some 300 feel was made in the grade for the purpose of caring for overflow waters in flood times.

In the spring of 1930, the State Highway Commission decided to pave the highway and for some reason decided that it was necessary to have a strip off of plaintiff’s land some 90 feet wide at the north end running to a point some 300 feet south, containing about .69- of an 'acre. Being unable to secure same by purchase, the state, by the Attorney General, about March 10, 1930, commenced an action in the district court of Murray county to condemn the same. Commissioners were appointed to view the property and consider and appraise the injury to the owner caused by the appropriation sought. They filed their report on April 12, 1030, assessing the damages at: Value of land taken $2-8; damage to remainder of tract, $30. Total, $58.

The condemnation money was paid to the court clerk May 10, 1930, and by tbe clerk to Frank Stedman and Marie Stedman on October 16, 1930.

On October 27, 1931, this action was commenced.

Plaintiff alleged the construction and maintenance of the bridge, culverts, drainways, and abutments; that as a consequence of the construction and maintenance plaintiff’s premises had been damaged by the diversion of the overflow waters from said river in such a way as to wash away part of plaintiff’s land and work great holes in the surface remaining, thereby diminishing the value of his premises to the extent of $2,-500.

*310 The plaintiff prayed for the appointment of commissioners to inspect the premises and appraise the injury so caused.

Notice of the application for appointment of appraisers was given, and on November 6, 1931, an order was made appointing- three commissioners, and on November 12, the Commissioners made their report assessing the damage at $1,800.

The State Highway Commission filed its exceptions to the report of the commissioners. The grounds of objection set up were that the petition for appointment of appraisers is insufficient at law and does not allege that any part of plaintiff’s property was taken for public use, nor that it is necessary to appropriate any portion of plaintiff’s property for public use; that plaintiff was seeking only damages claimed to have resulted from the construction of a public highwajr upon lands belonging to the state; that the action is in form an attempted condemnation proceeding, but in fact, an action for damages prohibited by the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; that the action is one against, the state to which the state had not consented, and that the matters involved had theretofore been adjudicated in the proceedings theretofore brought by the state to condemn the strip of plaintiff’s land for highway purposes, and that no exceptions to the report of the commissioners In that action were ever filed and no appeal taken there>from, whereby said report had become final as to all compensation and damages resulting from the construction anti maintenance of said state highway, bridge, and culverts. Copies of the petition and report of appraisers in the former action were attached.

Plaintiff responded to the objection and moved the court to confirm the award upon the grounds that the action was a proceeding under the powers o_f eminent domain as providted by the Constitution and laws of the state, and that the defendant had taken such possession of plaintiff’s property as to constitute a taking for public use.

The objections of defendant were overruled, and defendant was given time to file its answer, and its request for a jury trial was granted.

Defendant then answered by general denial, plea of res adjudicata, and alleged in substance that the -action was to all intents and purposes an ordinary action fo-r damages prohibited by the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and that the state had not consented to being sued.

As the issues were joined, the cause was tried to -a jury, resulting in a verdict and judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals.

The plaintiff presents four propositions^ the first three of which we pass for the moment. The fourth proposition is that the court erred in giving instructions 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8.

By the instructions 1 and 2, the court completely ignored the theory upon which plaintiff predicated his action. That, is, that said action was a proceeding in condemnation and not one for damages based upon negligence in the construction and maintenance of the highway, bridge, drains, and culvert.

Instruction No. 1 is:

“Xou are instructed that the basis of the right of the plaintiff to recover damages for the injuries sustained to his land must be upon a showing by a fair preponderance of the evidence that the plaintiff sustained the injury as a direct and proximate result of the wrongful and negligent construction on the part of the defendants of the bridge, drains and culverts as described and set out in plaintiff’s petition.”
Instruction No. 2 defined negligence.
Instruction No. 8 is:
“Negligence Is never presumed, and must be proved by the evidence, the same as any other fact; and the mere facts that the plaintiff’s lands were damaged does not raise any presumption that it was caused by the defendant’s negligence.”

Instruction No. 6 submitted to the jury the question of res adjudicata as a question of fact.

Under instruction No. 3, the jury might have found for plaintiff under his theory, if no consideration be given to instructions I and 2, but could not do so if 1 and 2 be considered, for there was no allegation or proof of negligence in the construction and maintenance of the highway, bridge, drains, and culverts.

It will thus be seen that the trial court considered and treated the action of plaintiff as a proceeding in condemnation under the eminent domain provisions of the Constitution and laws of the state in the joining of the issues and in passing upon the objections raised to the report of the appraisers appointed in this action, and even down to the trial. But in instructing the *311 jury the court adopted an entirely different theory.

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Bluebook (online)
1935 OK 1028, 50 P.2d 657, 174 Okla. 308, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 1456, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stedman-v-state-highway-commission-okla-1935.