United States v. Streets, Alleys & Public Ways

396 F. Supp. 509, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13082
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedMarch 31, 1975
DocketNo. N72C 52
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 396 F. Supp. 509 (United States v. Streets, Alleys & Public Ways) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Streets, Alleys & Public Ways, 396 F. Supp. 509, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13082 (E.D. Mo. 1975).

Opinion

OPINION

NANGLE, District Judge.

On November 28, 1972, this action was commenced by the United States of America to acquire under power of eminent domain certain described streets, alleys, and public ways in the Village of Stoutsville, Monroe County, Missouri. Those joined as defendants having an interest in the subject property to be vacated are the Trustees of the Village of Stoutsville, the Trustees of the Stouts-ville Public Cemetery, and the Supervisor of the Monroe County Highway Department. The subject property was taken in conjunction with the construction of the Clarence Cannon Dam and Reservoir in Northeastern Missouri. On May 29, 1974, the complaint was amended to vacate additional right-of-way necessary to the plaintiff’s plan of providing substitute facilities for the benefit of the Village of Stoutsville.

In consideration for the subject vacation, the United States of America proposes to construct those substitute roadway facilities which are necessary to the defendants. By their answer defendants seek substantial damages as just compensation. The issue raised is whether defendants are entitled to compensatory damages or to presently necessary substitute facilities as just compensation for the taking of the subject property. On October 17, 1973, the Court ordered the action submitted for ruling on the briefs of the parties.

The Court will take as admitted those uncontroverted facts stated in the pleadings and in the parties’ briefs.

The United States of America has acquired land which will be flooded by the Clarence Cannon Dam and Reservoir, including a part of the Village of Stouts-ville. However, the defendants have refused to vacate the streets, alleys, and public ways located in the areas being acquired for the dam and reservoir project.

[510]*510Stoutsville did not own a fee interest in the streets, alleys, and public ways situated within the city limits. The original dedication provided only a public easement. Stoutsville’s only interest was to maintain the property for public use. The majority of the residents and all of the businesses have moved out of the town as a result of the dam project. There is presently no necessity or duty upon the town to replace all of the public ways taken in this action.

An examination of diagram Exhibit B-l, attached to the amended complaint, shows that, aside from intra-city access unaffected by the subject acquisition, Stoutsville requires access to State Highway 24 north of Stoutsville, access to the cemetery situated to the south, access to County Roads 603 and 464 to the south, and access to State Highway 107.

As substitute roadway facilities, the United States of America will provide access to those tracts of land which will not be acquired and which remain to be acquired within the area to be inundated. The plans for these access provisions are set out in Appendices A (Exhibit C attached to the United States of America’s Memorandum in Support of Motion for Order for Delivery of Possession filed November 28, 1972), B and C (Exhibits Al and Bl, respectively, attached to the amended complaint) to this opinion. The United States of America plans to assume the cost of all improvements and new construction of the access roads. Facilities owned by public utility service companies will be relocated by contracts with the United States of America at a later date with a minimum of interruption to the service. The United States of America does not contemplate depositing any funds into the registry of the Court.

The defendants assert that the Village of Stoutsville is entitled to monetary compensation for this taking of twenty blocks (1.6 miles) of gravel streets sixty-six feet wide, and thirty-three hundred feet of alleys. The amount of such damages is claimed to be the cost of reconstructing roadway facilities equivalent to those acquired in this action.

The general rule in this Circuit for determining the just compensation due to a governmental entity for federal acquisition by power of eminent domain of public roadways, when after the acquisition the remaining roadways are inadequate to the present needs of the governmental entity, is the cost of supplying such substitute as is presently needed. United States v. Des Moines County, Iowa, 148 F.2d 448, 449 (8th Cir. 1945), cert, den., 326 U.S. 743, 66 S. Ct. 56, 90 L.Ed. 444 (1945); 4A Nichols on Eminent Domain, pp. 15-13-15-14, § 15.2 (3rd ed.).

Defendants argue that Stoutsville lost most of its population (and thereby its present need for reconstruction of all of the roadways taken) as a result of the dam and reservoir project, and that the city plans to redevelop (and thereby develop a need for more roadways in the future). The city argues, therefore, that the United States of America should not be allowed to avoid paying compensation for property taken because it was the cause of the reduction of the city’s present need for roadway facilities.

The defendants’ argument understates a cardinal premise, i. e. the city as a governmental entity is not organized to make a profit in its operation, but to supply the public needs of its citizens. United States v. City of New York, 168 F.2d 387, 390 (2nd Cir. 1948). The Court in City of New York stated:

The true measure of compensation when a municipality’s streets are condemned is the cost of providing any necessary substitute. When no substitute facilities are necessary, it follows that no compensation is allowed. The rational is clear. If the municipality has not had to provide substitutes, then it has suffered no financial loss and hence is not entitled to substantial damages. Indeed, the taking relieves it of the burden of maintaining such roads. It is in the business not of making profits, but of supplying public needs; and neither original cost nor reproduction cost of a street [511]*511affords any real measure of the City’s burden in taking care of these needs when a relocation of facilities becomes necessary, (citations omitted) (emphasis added).

168 F.2d at 389-390. The United States of America is not required to fund the city for the expected public roadway needs of future citizens. Those citizens, both those who left and those who remain, who were individually injured by the government’s taking are entitled to just compensation. U.S.Const., Amend. V. It is not their right to just compensation that is herein being litigated, but that of the governmental entity that is obligated to serve the public needs of those citizens who remain. The defendants’ reliance upon Almota Farmers Elevator & Warehouse Co. v. United States, 409 U.S. 470, 93 S.Ct. 791, 35 L.Ed.2d 1 (1973), is to no avail. That ease involved the measure of damages due as just compensation for the taking of private property — not the public property of a governmental entity.

The United States of America has proffered its plan to provide the required substitute facilities at its own expense, thereby obviating the need to pay damages. United States v. Certain Lands, 246 F.2d 823, 824 (3rd Cir. 1957); Jefferson County, Tennessee v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 146 F.2d 564 (6th Cir.

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Related

United States v. Streets
531 F.2d 882 (Eighth Circuit, 1976)
United States v. Streets, Alleys & Public Ways
531 F.2d 882 (Eighth Circuit, 1976)

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Bluebook (online)
396 F. Supp. 509, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13082, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-streets-alleys-public-ways-moed-1975.