Crane v. Hahlo 20 25, 1922

• Decision Date: 27 February 1922
• Docket Number: No. 107,107
• Citation: 42 S.Ct. 214,66 L.Ed. 514,258 U.S. 142
• Parties: CRANE v. HAHLO et al. Argued Jan. 20-25, 1922
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

258 U.S. 142

42 S.Ct. 214

66 L.Ed. 514

CRANE

v HAHLO et al.

No. 107.

Argued Jan. 20-25, 1922.

Decided Feb. 27, 1922.

Mr. John M. Harrington, of New York City, for plaintiff in error.

Mr. Charles J. Nehrbas, of New York City, for defendants in error.

Mr. Justice CLARKE delivered the opinion of the Court.

Pursuant to authority of an act of the Legislature of the state, the city of New York, in 1890, began the construction of an elevated viaduct in 155th street, which was completed in 1893. Before and during the construction of the viaduct George W. Sauer, the intestate of the plaintiff in error, was the owner of property fronting upon the part of the street improved and in due time instituted suit to recover damages, which he claimed he had suffered. After many vicissitudes, sufficiently indicated in Sauer v. City of New York, 206 U. S. 536, 27 Sup. Ct. 686, 51 L. Ed. 1176, and People ex rel. Crane v. Ormond, 221 N. Y. 283, 116 N. E. 993, the litigation resulted in a decision by the Court of Appeals of New York in 1917, that the construction of the viaduct effected a change of grade in the street, that the administratrix of Sauer's estate was entitled to recover such damages as had been caused to the property, and that the board of assessors of the city of New York had jurisdiction to make award of such damages. 221 N. Y. 283, 116 N. E. 993, supra.

With the right to damages thus established, the plaintiff in error in due time filed her claim with the board of assessors and was awarded a substantial sum as compensation. While her claim for damages was pending with the board of assessors the 'Greater New York Charter' was amended in many respects affecting the powers and duties of the board of assessors and of the board of revision of assessments. Laws of New York 1918, c. 619. The comptroller, corporation counsel, and president of the department of taxes and assessments of the city had constituted the board of revision of assessments since 1901, and as such were given power to review any award of damages made by the board of assessors, and the only essential change made by the amendment of 1918 consisted in the provision that:

'The confirmation of any such award by the board of revision of assessments shall be final and conclusive upon all parties and persons whomsoever, with respect to the amount of damage sustained.'

The plaintiff in error, not being satisfied with the amount of the award in her favor by the board of assessors, filed objections thereto, which were overruled, and thereupon, pursuant to law, the proposed award with the objections was presented to the board of revision of assessments and was by it confirmed.

The plaintiff in error, continuing dissatisfied, thereupon appealed to the Supreme Court of New York for, and procured, a writ of certiorari to review the determination of the award by the board of assessors and the confirmation of it by the board of revision of assessments. The ground of this application was that the quoted provision of the act of the New York Legislature of 1918, making the confirmation of the award by the board of revision of assessments final and conclusive 'with respect to the amount of damages sustained,' was repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and void, and that the right to such review by certiorari theretofore existing was not affected by it.

A motion by the city to dismiss the writ on the ground that plaintiff in error's right to it was cut off by the amendment to the statute was denied by the Supreme Court and by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, but this decision was reversed by the Court of Appeals in the judgment which is now under review.

It is conceded that at the time the viaduct was erected and until the act of 1918, under the practice of New York, the plaintiff in error had the right to a general review in the Supreme Court, a court of general jurisdiction, of the proceedings before the board of assessors until 1901 and of the board of revision of assessments until the amendment in 1918. The holding of the Court of Appeals in this case is that the provision of the act making the confirmation of the award by the Board of Revision of Assessments final and conclusive would not prevent 'the consideration on certiorari of questions of jurisdiction, fraud and willful misconduct on the part of the officials composing the board,' but that it was conclusive against the right to a general review of questions relating to the subject of damages such as the plaintiff in error was presenting to it. In the Matter of Southern Boulevard Railroad Co., etc., 143 N. Y. 253, 259, 38 N. E. 276, is cited as a precedent for this holding.

Thus the contention of the plaintiff in error, pursued through all the state courts and now presented to this court, is that the modification by the act of 1918 of the remedy available to her intestate when the viaduct was constructed and his right to damages became complete offends: (1) Against the contract impairment clause (article 1, § 10); (2) against the equal protection clause; and (3) against the due process of law clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution.

As to the first of these contentions:

While, under the holdings in Crane v. Ormond, 221 N. Y. 283, 116 N. E. 993, and Ettor v. City of Tacoma, 228 U. S. 148, 33 Sup. Ct. 428, 57 L. Ed. 773, the decedent of the plaintiff in error had a vested property right to compensation after the completion of the viaduct, very clearly this was not a contract right in a constitutional sense.

It has long been settled by decisions of this court that the word 'contracts' in section 10 of article 1 of the Constitution is used in its usual or popular sense as signifying an agreement of two or more minds, upon sufficient consideration, to do or not to do certain acts. 'Mutual assent [express or implied] to its terms is of its very essence.' State of Louisiana ex rel. Folsom v. Mayor and Administrators of New Orleans, 109 U. S. 285, 288, 3 Sup. Ct. 211, 27 L. Ed. 936; Freeland v. Williams, 131 U. S. 405, 414, 9 Sup. Ct. 763, 33 L. Ed. 193; Essex Public Road Board v. Skinkle, 140 U. S. 334, 340, 11 Sup. Ct. 790, 35 L. Ed. 446; Morley v. Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co., 146 U. S. 162, 169, 13 Sup. Ct. 54, 36 L. Ed. 925; Garrison v. New York, 21 Wall. 196, 203, 22 L. Ed. 612.

The Court of Appeals held that at common law the intestate of the plaintiff in error did not have any right of action for the damage done to his property (Sauer v. City of New York, 180 N. Y. 27, 72 N. E. 579, 70 L. R. A. 717), and this court affirmed that judgment in 206 U. S. 536, 27 Sup. Ct. 686, 51 L. Ed. 1176, supra. In the later case, 221 N. Y. 283, 116 N....