Tyson Creek Railroad v. Empire Mill Co.

174 P. 1004, 31 Idaho 580, 1918 Ida. LEXIS 82
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 3, 1918
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 174 P. 1004 (Tyson Creek Railroad v. Empire Mill Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tyson Creek Railroad v. Empire Mill Co., 174 P. 1004, 31 Idaho 580, 1918 Ida. LEXIS 82 (Idaho 1918).

Opinion

RICE, J.

The Tyson Creek Railroad Company instituted this proceeding against the Empire Mill Company, a corporation, and William Connolly, for the purpose of condemning certain portions of their property for right of way for a railroad, and to determine the value of the land sought to be taken, as well as damages and benefits to that portion of the property not taken. The two cases were consolidated and tried as one to a jury. The jury by its verdict found the value of each tract of land sought to be taken for the right of way, and also damages accruing to that portion of the land of each of the defendants not sought to be condemned, as well as the. amount which the land not sought to be condemned will be specially and directly benefited by the construction of the proposed railroad.

The first assignment of error is that the court erred in sustaining the objection of respondent to the introduction in evidence of Appellant’s Exhibit “ T.” It appears that this exhibit was a permit issued by the state engineer to appropriate and divert waters for mining purposes upon the lands in question. It appears further that the permit was not issued to any party to the action,' but was issued to Lawrence Connolly upon an application therefor filed with the state engineer on April 5, 1916. The summons in the Empire Mill Company’s case was issued February 15, 1915, and the summons in the Connolly case was issued June 14, 1915.

Sec. 5221, Rev. Codes, provides as follows:

“For the purpose of assessing compensation and damages, the right thereto shall be deemed to have accrued at the date of the summons, and its actual value, at that date, shall be the measure of compensation for all property to be actually taken, and the basis of damages to property not actually taken, but injuriously affected, in all cases where such damages are allowed, as provided in the last section. No improvements put upon the property, subsequent to the date of the service of summons, shall be included in the assessment of compensation or damages.”

The issuance of this permit by the state engineer could not have had any bearing upon any feature of this case, and it was not error to exclude the exhibit.

[584]*584The action of the court in overruling motion of appellant to strike out the following testimony of witness Burbridge is assigned as error:

“A. Assuming that this hole would be the same as the others which we did examine and could reach the bottom of and then if this gold had all been found in the six inches of gravel next to the bedrock as shown in the other pits, and Pit No. 3 is fourteen feet deep, then these values that we arrived at by computing this amount 'of gold by the number of pans usually estimated to the yard, we should have a value of about two cents per cubic yard.”

The witness was an expert and outlined in his answer the results of his own observations by which he arrived at his conclusions. In this connection appellants cite Alameda Mining Co. v. Success Mining Co., 29 Ida. 618, 161 Pac. 862, but the discussion in that ease was directed to the weight of the evidence and not to its admissibility.

The following instruction is assigned as error:

“You are further instructed that the presence of placer gold upon this land of itself would not warrant you in allowing damages therefor, but such gold must exist in such quantities and be in such condition as to be capably and feasibly mined so that it could and would increase the market value of that property at the time of the commencement of this action; but regardless of whether there is gold in this property, the whole question is to be finally determined by you upon the one question as to the market value of this land at the time of the commencement of this action.”

It is claimed that this instruction is faulty in that it does not discriminate between the market value of the tract actually sought to be appropriated and the damages to the remainder of the land not taken. In other portions of the charge the court instructed the jury that in arriving at its determination of value it should consider the market value of the land in the condition in which it was at the time of the issuance of summons. The court also instructed the jury that the railroad company could only acquire an easement in the land sought to be condemned for its right of way, and [585]*585that the ownership of the fee would remain in appellants; also that any mineral deposits contained in the right of way condemned by respondent would remain the property of appellants, and that they would have the right to mine the same if they could do so without interfering with the right of the respondent to operate its railroad on and along the right of way. The court further instructed the jury that in reaching a conclusion as to how much the several tracts of land not condemned would be depreciated in value by reason of the condemnation, it was to consider, among other elements enumerated, the inability or inconvenience to the appellants, or either of them, to use said land for placer mining purposes.

When all the instructions are considered together they appear not to be obnoxious to the objection stated. Even though the instruction complained of, taken alone, might be erroneous and misleading, where the charge as a whole states the law correctly, no reversible error is committed. (Kelly v. Lemhi Irrigation & Orchard Co., 30 Ida. 778, 168 Pac. 1076; Cnkovch v. Success Mining Co., 30 Ida. 623, 166 Pac. 567. See, also, the case of Southern Pac. Ry. Co. v. San Francisco Savings Union, 146 Cal. 290, 106 Am. St. 36, 2 Ann. Cas. 962, 79 Pac. 961, 70 L. R. A. 221.)

The portion of the charge to the effect that appellants have the right to mine the ground condemned if they can do so without interfering with respondent’s right to operate its railroad on and along the. right of way is too narrow. There are many other uses to which a railroad company may put its right of way besides operating its railroad thereon, and the court should have instructed the jury that in their mining operations upon the land taken appellants would have no right to interfere with any of these uses.

In this connection appellants also complain of the instruction of the court given in the following language:

“In arriving at such value you should consider the market value of the land in the condition in which it then was, and you should not consider any increased value by reason of any alleged discoveries of mineral or exploration of land for placer mining purposes after the date of the issuance of [586]*586the summons. The only purpose for which evidence of the mineral deposits under the surface of the ground was admitted was that you might consider the same in determining whether the market value of the land was affected thereby. If the market value of such land was not affected by the presence of such mineral deposits at the date of the issuance of the summons, then the evidence of mineral deposits could not be considered by you in fixing the damages to the land.”

Our attention is called to the case of City of Los Angeles v. Pomeroy, 124 Cal. 597, 57 Pac. 585. In his opinion in that case, Chief Justice Beatty said:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
174 P. 1004, 31 Idaho 580, 1918 Ida. LEXIS 82, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tyson-creek-railroad-v-empire-mill-co-idaho-1918.