City of St. Louis v. Roe

• Decision Date: 22 November 1904
• Citation: 184 Mo. 324,83 S.W. 435
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court
• Parties: CITY OF ST. LOUIS v. ROE et al.<SMALL><SUP>*</SUP></SMALL>

83 S.W. 435

184 Mo. 324

CITY OF ST. LOUIS v. ROE et al.^*

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

November 22, 1904.

EMINENT DOMAIN — COMPENSATION — RIGHT TO JURY TRIAL.

1. Const. art. 12, § 4, which provides that the right of trial by jury shall be inviolate in trials for compensation, when, in the exercise of the right of eminent domain, "any incorporated company" shall be interested, gives to a railroad company the right to a jury to assess its damages for the taking of its lands by a city for a street.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; Leroy B. Valliant, Judge.

Proceedings by the city of St. Louis against John M. Roe and others for the condemnation of land for a street. From a judgment denying the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company, a defendant, the right to a jury in assessing the damages, it appeals. Reversed.

L. F. Parker and J. T. Woodruff, for appellant. Chas. W. Bates, for respondent.

GANTT, P. J.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the circuit court of St. Louis in a proceeding to establish and open Park avenue, in said city, between Grand avenue and Old Manchester Road. Commissioners were appointed and made their report, and, when the exceptions came on to be heard, the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company, one of the parties through whose real estate the proposed street would run, requested a jury to try the cause, and this request was denied by the circuit court, and the company duly excepted.

Prior to the adoption of the Constitution of 1875, the right of trial by jury was not secured either by the Constitution or laws of this state in proceedings for the condemnation of property in the exercise of eminent domain. It was so held in Louisiana, etc., Road Co. v. Pickett, 25 Mo. 535; and the right to demand a jury of 12 has never been recognized or conceded by this court since the adoption of our Constitution of 1875, except in those cases falling within the provisions of section 4 of article 12, which ordains that "the right of trial by jury shall be held inviolate in all trials of claims for compensation when in the exercise of said right of eminent domain, any incorporated company shall be interested, either for or against the exercise of said right." In Kansas City v. Smart, 128 Mo. 272, 30 S. W. 773, and Kansas City v. Vineyard, 128 Mo. 75, 30 S. W. 326, this court held that a municipal corporation was not an incorporated company, within the purview of this provision of our Constitution. In those cases ...