United States v. 52.67 Acres of Land

150 F. Supp. 347, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3703
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Illinois
DecidedApril 11, 1957
DocketCiv. A. No. 3560
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 150 F. Supp. 347 (United States v. 52.67 Acres of Land) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. 52.67 Acres of Land, 150 F. Supp. 347, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3703 (illinoised 1957).

Opinion

JUERGENS, District Judge.

[349]*349The United States, at the request of the Secretary of the Air Force, filed an action, civil in nature, for the taking of property under power of eminent domain and for the ascertainment of award of just compensation to the owners and parties in interest of the real estate described in the complaint.

The defendants filed their answer denying the material allegations of the complaint. They also filed their cross-complaint consisting of two counts. In Count I the defendants allege that the land sought to be taken has become best suited for the purpose for which it is now being used, namely, that of a Radar Station of the United States Air Force, and they ^ask that just damages be awarded to compensate them for the cost of building a serviceable road and drainage ditches including culverts over certain lands therein described and, secondly, that damages be awarded to them to compensate them for the damages they will sustain by the curtailing of farming operations on the two tracts which have been necessarily separated because of the taking by the government of the land described in the complaint.

In Count II the defendants pray just compensation on account of the taking of the improvements now existing on the land placed there by the United States and that were in existence on the land on the date that the United States did make their declaration of taking and give notice of condemnation of the land described.

The United States filed its motion to strike from the answer and cross-complaint of the defendant landowners “the following portions of said answer for the reasons stated.” The government has not set up any portions of the answer which it thought should be stricken but did set up certain portions of the cross-complaint which it moved to strike. Therefore, the Court is assuming that the motion to strike is directed solely against the counter-complaint. The United States has moved to strike from the counter-claim the first paragraph on Page 3 of the cross-complaint for the reason that said paragraph is immaterial in that it is an erroneous assumption as to what is the law and that it is a pleading of evidence.

The motion also asks that Paragraphs 2 and 4 of Count II of said cross-complaint be stricken for the reason that they are immaterial in that they raise erroneous issues of law and are a pleading of evidence.

The parties in their oral argument before the Court have indicated their desire for the Court to rule as to what evidence will be admissible on the question of the “highest and best use” for which the premises are adaptable in order to fix just compensation for the land taken.

To properly decide the issues raised by the government’s motion to strike, it is necessary to consider paragraph numbered 5 of the lease which was entered into between the parties to this condemnation suit on July 23, 1949, wherein the government leased for military purposes the real estate described in said lease for a term beginning August 1, 1949, through June 30, 1950, and from year to year thereafter without further notice except as set forth in said lease which is not material for the issues herein involved. It also provided that in no event should the lease extend beyond June 30, 1964. Paragraph numbered 5 of the lease provides as follows:

“The government shall have the right, during the existence of this lease, to attach fixtures, and erect structures or signs, in or upon the premises hereby leased, which fixtures and structures, or signs, so placed in, upon, or attached to said premises shall be and remain the property of the government and may be removed or otherwise disposed of by the government.”

The defendants, in their cross-complaint, ask compensation for the improvements so placed upon said land during the existence of the lease, which improvements were to be and remain the property of the government and which could be removed or otherwise disposed of by the government.

[350]*350In 6 A.L.R.2d 323, it is stated as follows:

“While there are differences of opinion as to the precise meaning of the term ‘fixture' it is generally used in reference to some originally personal chattel which has been actually •or constructively affixed either to the soil itself or to some structure legally a part of the soil. It implies something having possible existence apart from realty, but which may by annexation be assimilated into realty * * * and as chattel property brought in and upon and annexed to real property, but which, while retaining its separate identity, becomes realty, and may under such circumstances become personalty again.”

In 36 C.J.S., Fixtures, § 1, p. 889, the following appears:

“The term ‘fixture’ is applied to articles of the nature of personal property which have been affixed to land and which retain their sepa- • rate identity.”

In 83 C.J.S., Structure, p. 549, we ¡read:

“The word ‘structure’ usually refers to a permanent stationary erection, and ordinarily carries with it the idea of size, weight, and strength” and that it “may be below the surface of the ground as well as above it, and it may be a part of another larger structure, and in reference to it constitute but a part of a structure.”

The general common-law rule "that whatever is once affixed to the freehold becomes a part of it and cannot afterwards be removed by a tenant, was subject to exception in the case of building and other fixtures placed on the premises for the purpose of trade or manufacture and not intended to irrevocably become a part of the realty. In •determining whether an object remains personalty or becomes a part of the realty, the courts of the United States have almost universally accepted the so-called intention test.

The intention of the government as to the disposition of the fixtures, structures, and signs placed upon the leased premises has been clearly shown by the provisions of Paragraph 5 of the lease above set forth. There never was any intention on the part of the government, which intention was unquestionably known to the lessors, to relinquish its rights to the fixtures and structures it placed on the premises nor that the same should inure to the benefit of the lessors as one of the incidents of the lease or as any “fruit of the lease.”

Under the 5th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States the landowners are entitled to receive just compensation for land taken. Just compensation would be the highest and most profitable use for which the property is adaptable and needed or likely to be needed in the reasonably near future in the market place by the willing buyer and the willing seller, while the property is privately held. In order to reach a fair conclusion in this respect, the jury should be informed by competent witnesses whether the public generally are interested in purchasing property for the construction and operation of radar installations and whether there is a market for such radar installations. The Supreme Court in Olson v. United States, 292 U.S. 246, 54 S.Ct. 704, 78 L.Ed.

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150 F. Supp. 347, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3703, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-5267-acres-of-land-illinoised-1957.