Tennessee Min. & Mfg. Co. v. Anderson County

121 S.W.2d 543, 173 Tenn. 497, 9 Beeler 497, 1938 Tenn. LEXIS 34
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 25, 1938
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 121 S.W.2d 543 (Tennessee Min. & Mfg. Co. v. Anderson County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tennessee Min. & Mfg. Co. v. Anderson County, 121 S.W.2d 543, 173 Tenn. 497, 9 Beeler 497, 1938 Tenn. LEXIS 34 (Tenn. 1938).

Opinion

Mr. Justice McKinney

delivered the opinion of the Court.

By the bill complainant asks that the defendants, Anderson County and C. W. Cantrell, Superintendent of *499 Roads in said county, be enjoined for condemning a strip of ground through its property for road purposes.

It is conceded that defendants were acting under the authority of Chapter 446 of the Private Acts of 1933 (applicable to Anderson County), which complainant insists is unconstitutional, for the reason that under section 2 thereof no provision, is made for the payment of the increase in the award that the landowner might obtain upon appeal to the circuit court. The chancellor sustained this contention, and made the temporary injunction perpetual. Defendants have appealed to this court, and assign the action of the chancellor in holding said Act unconstitutional for error.

Section 2 of the Act is as follows:

“Be it further enacted, That all application to open, change, or close or restore to the public any and all public roads shall be made by written petition to the Superintendent of Roads stating the section or sections, district or districts in which the road is located, giving complete description of the present road and desired changes and the landowners to be affected thereby.

“The Superintendent of Roads within ten days after the application has been filed with him shall notify the person first named on the petition, the owners of the land adjoining said changes, of the date on which he will be present, at the beginning point mentioned in the petition, to act on the application.

“If any landowner affected by the proposed changes be a non-resident then ten day written notice to his agent or attorney residing in the county, shall be a legal notice, and if such non-resident has no agent or attorney residing in the county, publication shall be made for four consecutive weeks in some newspaper published in said *500 county, giving notice of tlie time and place the said Superintendent of Eoads shall meet the interested parties to act upon said petition.

“The said Superintendent of Eoads may when he deems necessary open, close or restore to the public any and all roads of the county, or when necessary open new roads and condemn land for rights of way, gravel pits, chert pits, rock quarries and borrow pits to procure material for road construction and repair, provided he has given the proper notices as above set out.

“The Superintendent of Eoads shall attend at the appointed time and place and after all the interested parties have been notified, shall act upon the petition or motion as the case may be and report his actions to the Judge or Chairman of the County Court, and with his report file the written petition and notice to the landowners and a full report of his actions, on the same, stating the new location of the road so opened, closed or changed and amount of damages allowed by him to parties damaged and this he may do in case of emergency without petitions and on his own motion provided he gives the notices and files full report as required in case of petition. The Judge or Chairman of the County Court shall have the petition and report entered on record in the office of the County Court Clerk and at its next quarterly session the County Court shall appropriate a sufficient amount of county funds to pay such damages as shall have been awarded by a disinterested committee of three appointed by the County Judge or Chairman to view the premises and appraise the damages, and the Superintendent of roads shall issue his warrant for such damages. Any interested party may appeal to the next term of the Circuit Court, provided he shall perfect his *501 appeal within ten days from the final action of the County Court entered or record. When any property is condemned for road purposes it may be taken at once.”

It will be observed that the Act only provides compensation for paying the award of the committee of three appointed by the county judge, and makes no provision for compensating the landowner where the case is appealed to the circuit court.

In Town of Madisonville v. Cagle, 159 Tenn., 600, 21 S. W. (2d), 385, the town sought to condemn a strip of Cagle’s land in order to enlarge its waterworks system. This court, in sustaining such right, said [page 603]:

“The charter, chapter 66, Priv. Acts 1915, authorizes the town to provide a system of waterworks, and the amendatory act (chapter 488, Priv. Acts 1929) confers upon the town the power of eminent domain that it may acquire property inside or outside the corporate limits for use of its waterworks system. Both acts are silent as to the procedure or the means of compensating for property acquired. But the want of an express provision for compensation in such special statute is not necessarily fatal, if a general law is in existence which provides for the procedure through which compensation may be determined and which provides a means for enforcing its payment. The special statute will be construed in pari materia with the general law. City of Nashville v. Dad’s Auto Accessories, 154 Tenn., [194], 201, 285 S. W., 52.

“It cannot be assumed that the Legislature intended to authorize the taking without compensation, but, on the contrary, that it was intended that the power conferred, without reference to the mode of procedure or means of compensating landowners, would be pursued in conformity with the existing general statutes governing the *502 power of eminent domain. This rule of construction has been applied in construing similar statutes in the following cases. [City of] Memphis v. Hastings, 113 Tenn., 142, 86 S. W., 609, 69 L. R. A., 750; [State] Highway Department v. Mitchell’s Heirs, 142 Tenn., 58, 69, 216 S. W., 336; Williamson County v. Turnpike Co., 143 Tenn., 628, 228 S. W., 714; Stokes v. Dobbins, 158 Tenn., 350, 13 S. W. (2d), 321. See, also, 20 C. J., p., 649, section 126.

‘ ‘Proceeding, as the town must, for lack of definite procedure outlined in the charter acts under section 1844 and subsequent sections of Shannon’s Code, the procedure, the measure of compensation and the means of payment are governed by the general statutes. They supply an adequate remedy to the landowner. They afford an impartial tribunal for the assessment of damages and the compensation there awarded is a charge upon the public treasury of the town, upon its general funds and resources, and so the constitutional requirements are thereby met. Cooley’s Constitutional Limitations, p., 692.”

Counsel for complainant insists that the foregoing authority is not applicable in the instant cause since defendants are proceeding under a private act which undertakes to provide for all of the details of condemnation, so that the act must be treated as being self-sufficient, citing Wright v. Donaldson, 144 Tenn., 255, 230 S. W., 605, and Bragg v. Yeargin, 145 Tenn., 643, 238 S. W., 78.

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Bluebook (online)
121 S.W.2d 543, 173 Tenn. 497, 9 Beeler 497, 1938 Tenn. LEXIS 34, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tennessee-min-mfg-co-v-anderson-county-tenn-1938.