Stuhl v. Great Northern Railway Co.

161 N.W. 501, 136 Minn. 158, 1917 Minn. LEXIS 526
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedFebruary 23, 1917
DocketNos. 19,969—(120)
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 161 N.W. 501 (Stuhl v. Great Northern Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stuhl v. Great Northern Railway Co., 161 N.W. 501, 136 Minn. 158, 1917 Minn. LEXIS 526 (Mich. 1917).

Opinion

Hallam, J.

In 1909 plaintiff purchased a five-acre tract of land just outside of the platted portion of the village of Albany, and erected a dwelling house thereon which he and his-family have since occupied as a home. South of his dwelling is a public highway, and immediately south of the highway are defendant’s right of way and tracks.

In 1910 defendant constructed on its right of way, 79 feet from plaintiff’s dwelling house, a stockyard with pens and sheds for holding and loading stock. Shipments of stock are usually made twice a week during certain seasons and stock is brought and kept until shipments are made. This causes the noise and foul odors usually incident to stockyards. Albany is situated in a farming and stock raising community. Stockyards, in or adjacent to the village station, are necessary. The present location is not the only feasible one, though it is the most convenient [160]*160for shippers and for defendant. The trial court found that plaintiff had suffered damage to his real estate and in the use and occupation of it up to the time of the commencement of this action in 1911 in the sum of $200.

Defendant contends that the court having found that the stockyards at Albany are properly located and carefully maintained and operated, it must follow that no nuisance either public or private can result from such location and operation. Yet it must be clear that stockyards though prudently managed may, if located near a residence, constitute a private nuisance and this the court in effect found this stockyard to be. This suggests the real question in the case which is, can a property owner recover damages for an injury to his property caused by the construction and maintenance by the railroad company of a structure or facility which is necessary to the operation of the road, and which is located in a place where it will do as little damage as possible and at the same time serve its public purpose and is conducted or maintained without negligence? We think in some cases he may and that this is such a case.

We must of course not overlook the fact that this defendant is operating a public utility, that this stockyard is one of its facilities used to that end, and that the property on which it stands is accordingly devoted to a public use, and the question is what is the liability of defendant as to damages resulting to private parties from property so devoted.

1. Prior to 1896, art. 1, § 13, of the Constitution of this state read: “Private property shall not be taken for public use, without just compensation therefor first paid or secured.” In 1896 this section was amended so as to add, after the word taken, the words “destroyed or damaged.”

binder the former provision it was held that the right to damage given by the Constitution was confined to the particular tract of land the whole or part of which was taken. Peck v. Superior Short Line Ry. Co. 36 Minn. 343, 31 N. W. 217; Cameron v. Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co. 42 Minn. 75, 43 N. W. 785. Some other authorities are to the effect that under similar constitutional provisions there must be trespass upon or actual appropriation of the corpus of the property to give a right to damages. 1 Lewis, Eminent Domain, § 66; 3 Dillon, Mun. Corp. § 1017; Chicago v. Taylor, 125 U. S. 161, 8 Sup. Ct. 820, 31 L. ed. [161]*161638; McCullough v. Village of Campbellsport, 123 Wis. 334, 101 N. W. 709; Rigney v. City of Chicago, 102 Ill. 64. Yet, even under similar provisions, the owner of property in the neighborhood of, but not abutting upon, land taken for public use, has sometimes been held to have a claim for damages arising out of the operation of the road as in Richards v. Washington Terminal Co. 233 U. S. 546, 34 Sup. Ct. 654, 58 L. ed. 1088, L.R.A. 1915A, 887, where damage arose from gases and smoke emitted from locomotives while in a tunnel, and by means of a fanning system forced out at the mouth of the tunnel in such manner as to render the property less habitable and to depreciate it in value. It was said that the act of Congress authorizing the tunnel did not authorize the imposition of so direct and peculiar and substantial a burden upon plaintiff’s property without compensation to him, that if the damage was not reasonably preventable the property should be condemned, and if reasonably preventable the statute furnished no excuse.

Under the amended provision of our Constitution it is clear that the right to damages is not dependent on physical injury to the corpus of the property affected. It is sufficient if there is a physical disturbance of a valuable right in the property. It is not necessary that there be a trespass on the owner’s real estate. It is sufficient that the construction and operation of the public utility is the cause of some special pecuniary damage, and though the damage is consequential the owner may recover. Chicago v. Taylor, 125 U. S. 161, 8 Sup. Ct. 820, 31 L. ed. 638; Chicago & W. I. R. Co. v. Ayres, 106 Ill. 511, 518; Dickerman v. City of Duluth, 88 Minn. 288, 92 N. W. 1119; Austin v. Village of Tonka Bay, 130 Minn. 359, 153 N. W. 738.

2. This does not mean that the amendment gives a right of recovery for acts which under general rules of law do not constitute actionable wrong. The purpose of the change is not to change the substantive law of damages or to enlarge the definition of that term. It was rather the purpose to make the law of damages uniform, so that a property owner may recover against persons or corporations having power of eminent domain, under the same circumstances that would have authorized recovery against one not armed with that power. Austin v. Augusta Terminal Ry. Co. 108 Ga. 671, 34 S. E. 852, 47 L.R.A. 755; Baker v. Boston Ele. Ry. Co. 183 Mass. 178, 66 N. E. 711; Rigney v. City of [162]*162Chicago, 102 Ill. 64, 80; Tidewater Ry. Co. v. Shartzer, 107 Va. 562, 59 S. E. 407, 17 L.R.A. (N.S.) 1053. See also Baltimore & Potomac R. Co. v. Fifth Baptist Church, 108 U. S. 317, 2 Sup. Ct. 719, 27 L. ed. 739.

3. The reasonableness or necessity of the location of the structure or facility is not the test of liability any more than it would be if the necessities of railroad construction resulted in cutting off access to plaintiffs property. The presence or absence of negligence is important, for negligent use may make a structure a nuisance which would not be a nuisance otherwise. But negligence is not the sole test of liability. There may be liability without negligence. In the absence of negligence the test is whether the structure is a nuisance, for which action will lie at common law, not a public nuisance, for such are for the public authorities to deal with, but a private nuisance, for which damages may be recovered by an individual under general rules of law. Statutory authority does not give immunity in such a case. “What is authorized to be done by law cannot be a public nuisance yet it may be a private nuisance as to individuals who are specially injured thereby.” Romer v. St. Paul City Ry. Co. 75 Minn. 211, 77 N W. 825, 74 Am. St. 455; Louisville & Nashville Terminal Co. v. Lellyett, 114 Tenn. 368, 85 S. W. 811, 1 L.R.A. (N.S.) 49.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
161 N.W. 501, 136 Minn. 158, 1917 Minn. LEXIS 526, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stuhl-v-great-northern-railway-co-minn-1917.