Cummings v. Huse & Loomis Ice & Transportation Co.

• Decision Date: 30 March 1900
• Citation: 56 S.W. 282,156 Mo. 28
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court
• Parties: CUMMINGS et al. v. HUSE & LOOMIS ICE & TRANSPORTATION CO. et al.

56 S.W. 282

156 Mo. 28

CUMMINGS et al. v. HUSE & LOOMIS ICE & TRANSPORTATION CO. et al.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

March 30, 1900.

MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS — LEASE OF WHARVES—OBSTRUCTION—INJUNCTION.

1. A lease by the city for wharf space for an icehouse for 5 years was within the terms of St. Louis City Charter, art. 3, § 26, par. 4, providing that the mayor and assembly shall have power by ordinance to lease portions of the improved wharf for erection of sheds, wharf houses, etc., for not exceeding 50 years.

2. Plaintiff, who was not an abutting property owner, and had no easement in a wharf different from that of the general public, could not enjoin the city and its lessee from obstructing the wharf.

3. The fact that plaintiff derived title to lands from the same source the city obtained its title to a wharf did not give plaintiff any easement in the wharf different from that of the general public.

Appeal from St. Louis circuit court.

Bill by John R. Cummings and others against the Huse & Loomis Ice & Transportation Company and others. From a judgment in favor of defendants sustaining a demurrer, plaintiffs appeal. Affirmed.

M. McKeag and C. S. Cummings, for appellants. B. Schnurmacher and Chas. C. Allen, for respondents.

BRACE, P. J.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the St. Louis city circuit court, sustaining a demurrer to the plaintiff's petition. It appears from the petition: That the defendant the city of St. Louis by ordinance leased to the defendant the Huse & Loomis Ice & Transportation Company that portion of the unimproved wharf of the city in front of city block 223, bounded on the west by the west wharf line, on the east by the east wharf line, on the south by the north line of Smith street produced eastwardly across the wharf, and on the north by a line parallel to and 120 feet north of the north line of Smith street, for a term of five years, beginning on the 1st day of January, 1897, for the purpose of erecting and maintaining thereon buildings for manufacturing, storing, and handling ice, conditioned that "at the expiration of the term of the lease, * * * or whenever the board of public improvements may decide to improve any or all of said portion of the wharf, then the said Huse & Loomis Ice & Transportation Company shall within ninety days, on written notice of the harbor and wharf commissioner, remove at its own cost and expense all buildings and erections placed by it on said portion of the wharf and leave it free from obstructions." That the plaintiff John K. Cummings is the owner of real estate on the tract known as "Chambers, Christy, and Wright's Addition to the City of St. Louis," bounded on the south by Clinton street, and on the east by Eleventh street, the title to which he acquired by mesne conveyances from Chambers, Christy, and Wright, from whom also the city acquired title to the leased property for the purpose of a public wharf. That the plaintiffs Francis H. Krenning and Benjamin H. Krenning are partners, and owners of bonds of the face value of $18,000, the payment of which is secured by a deed of trust or mortgage on "a certain lot of ground, with improvements thereon, in city block No. 223, of said city of St. Louis, containing a front of 369.84 feet on the east side of Lewis street, by a depth eastwardly along the...