City of St. Louis v. Nelson

• Decision Date: 28 June 1902
• Citation: 169 Mo. 461,69 S.W. 466
• Parties: CITY OF ST. LOUIS v. NELSON et al.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

69 S.W. 466

169 Mo. 461

CITY OF ST. LOUIS v. NELSON et al.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

June 28, 1902.

MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS — PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS — DAMAGES — BENEFITS — FINAL JUDGMENT.

1. Under Rev. St. 1899, §§ 6109-6114, prescribing the procedure in assessing the damages and benefits arising from public improvements made by a city and of apportioning the costs thereof, the proceeding as to any one improvement is an entirety, and final judgment cannot be entered therein as to any one person or piece of property until the totals of the damages and of the benefits have been ascertained by the final determination thereof as to each tract.

Appeal from St. Louis circuit court; H. D. Wood, Judge.

Proceeding by the city of St. Louis for the assessment of damages and benefits arising from the change of grade of certain streets. From a judgment confirming the award of the commissioners as to Lewis C. Nelson and others and resubmitting the matter as to others, the city appeals. Reversed.

Chas. W. Bates and Alex Nicholson, for appellant. Leverett Bell, Kehr & Tittman, and J. M. Holmes, for respondents.

BRACE, P. J.

This is an appeal by the city from a judgment of the St. Louis city circuit court in a proceeding under sections 6109-6114, Rev. St. 1899 (sections 1815-1820, Rev. St. 1889), for the assessment of damages and benefits arising from the change of grade of Twenty-First, Adams, Papin, Poplar, Randolph, and Singleton streets, in the city of St. Louis. The judgment, omitting caption, is as follows: "Now, at this day, this cause coming on to be heard on the exceptions of the city of St. Louis to the commissioners' report herein, and the court, advised of and concerning the same, doth order and adjudge and decree that the said exceptions of the plaintiff to the several awards of damages in said commissioners' report to and in favor of the following named defendants, to wit, John Farrell, William Kelly, Louise Voltmer, Kate Supples, Patrick K. Supples, Frederick W. Reinhardt, Regina Walsh, and Margaret Walsh, be, and the same are hereby, sustained, and a new appraisement of the damages claimed by said above-mentioned parties by reason of the said improvement is hereby ordered, and Delos R. Haynes, Fred C. Bonsack, and Henry H. Denison are hereby appointed commissioners to make such appraisement. And the court doth further order, adjudge, and decree that the said exception of plaintiff to the several awards of damages in said commissioners' report to and in favor of the following named defendants, to wit, John C. Parter, Ætna Iron Works (Lessee), Ætna Iron Works, Consolidated Steel & Wire Co., St. Louis Brewing Association, Missouri Malleable Iron Company, John Fitzpatrick, William Edenborn, Sarah A. Edenborn, Mary E. Walsh, Thomas J. Walsh, and Margaret M. Kennedy, James Reedy, and Anchor Warehouse Co., be, and the same are, disallowed and overruled, and the said report of the commissioners as to the last-named defendants severally described and articulated in said commissioners' report be, and the same is, in all things approved and confirmed; and, the cause being submitted for final decree as to the last-named defendants; and it appearing to the court that all of said last-named defendants have been duly served with process, and that none of said defendants have heretofore, within the time allowed by law, filed any answer to the petition herein, nor any exceptions to the report of said commissioners: It is considered and adjudged by the court that the averments of said petition against said defendants are taken as by them respectively confessed, and the court doth now find, that the consent of the owners of the property to be affected by the change of grade of Twenty-First street, Adams street, Poplar street, Randolph street, Singleton street, and Papin street under Ordinance No. 15,119, and to define the limits within which private property has been or will be benefited by changing the grade of Twenty-First street, Adams street, Poplar street, Randolph street, Singleton street, and Papin street under Ordinance 16,465, cannot be obtained by the city of St. Louis, and the said city has failed and been unable to agree with such owners for the proper compensation for the damages sustained or likely to be sustained by said defendants by reason thereof; and the court doth now find that the actual damages sustained by John C. Parter, owner, Ætna Iron Works, lessee (the said John C. Parter having heretofore filed a remittitur in the sum of $100), of a lot of ground situated in city block No. 2,282, and described in said commissioners' report, to be the sum of three thousand seventy-eight and 20/100 dollars; and the actual damages sustained by Ætna Iron Works, owner of a lot of ground in city block No. 2,282, and described in No. 2 of said commissioners' report, to be the sum of fifteen thousand six hundred and sixty 20/100 dollars, and the actual damages of Consolidated Steel & Wire Mill Co., owner of a lot in block 2,283, described in No. 3 commissioners' report, to be $1,000, and the actual damages of St. Louis Brewing Association, owner of a lot in block 2,282, described in No. 4 of the commissioners' report, to be $529, and the actual damages of St. Louis Brewing Association, owner of a lot in block 2,275, described in No. 5 of commissioners' report, to be $12,023.25, and the actual damages of Missouri Malleable Iron Co. (B. Rotl Tool & Forge & Machine Co., lessee), owner of lot in block 2,275, described in No. 6 of commissioners' report, to be $8,580.00, and the actual damages of James Fitzpatrick, owner of a lot in block 2,296, described in No. 7 of commissioners' report, to be $1,408.00, and the actual damages of William Edenborn, owner of a lot in block No. 2,296, described in No. 10 of commissioners' report, to be $1,052, and the actual damages of Sarah A. Edenborn, owner of a lot in block No. 2,296, described in No. 11 of commissioners' report, to be $2,400.00, and the actual damages of Mary E. Walsh, Thos. J. Walsh, and Margaret M. Kennedy, owners of lot in block No. 1,702, described in No. 14 of commissioners' report, to be $400.00, and the actual damages of John Reedy, owner of lot in block 1,702, described in No. 15 of commissioners' report, to be $200.00, and the...