Everett W. Cox Co. v. State Highway Comm'n

• Decision Date: 19 May 1926
• Docket Number: No. 227.,227.
• Citation: 133 A. 419
• Parties: EVERETT W. COX CO. v. STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION et al.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

133 A. 419

EVERETT W. COX CO.

v. STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION et al.

No. 227.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

May 19, 1926.

Certiorari by the Everett W. Cox Company, Prosecutor, directed to the Clerk of the County of Hudson to review an order appointing commissioners for condemnation, by the State Highway Commission, of lands located in Jersey City belonging to the Everett W. Cox Company. Order appointing commissioners affirmed.

Argued January term, 1926, before TRENCHARD and KATZENBACH, JJ.

Mark Townsend, Jr., and George B. Sleigh, both of Jersey City (Harry Lane, of Jersey City, of counsel), for prosecutor.

Mark A. Sullivan, of Jersey City, for respondent State Highway Commission.

Thomas J. Brogan, Corporation Counsel, of Jersey City, for respondent Jersey City.

PER CURIAM. This case is before this court on a writ of certiorari directed to the clerk of the county of Hudson. The writ was allowed to review an order appointing commissioners for the condemnation of lands located in the city of Jersey City belonging to the Everett W. Cox Company. The condemning party is the state highway commission.

The prosecutor is in possession of a parcel of land bounded by Collard street, Hopkins avenue, Bevan street, and Underwood terrace. It is the owner of a portion of the tract, and has a long-term lease on the remainder. The prosecutor is making improvements upon the land in question involving an expenditure of $175,000. The state highway commission instituted the proceedings for the purpose of acquiring a strip of this land 39 feet in width for a distance of 266.16 feet along Underwood place, which is the street on the southerly side of said property.

The condemnation proceeding is taken in connection with the building of the approaches to the vehicular tunnel. The commission claims that the land will be a part of the state highway's route No. 1. Accompanying the statement of the case is a map which shows with great detail the plans of the state highway commission. The approaches to the tunnel are to be surface, depressed, and overhead. The overhead approach is nearest to the tunnel entrance, and will extend from Jersey avenue to Paterson avenue. There will be depressed approaches and surface approaches, which at certain places will be connected by ramps. The route was settled by a resolution passed by the state highway commission. The resolution designating the route at the point where the prosecutor's property abuts Underwood place reads as follows:

"From the easterly side of Oakland avenue to the westerly side of Bevan street the right of way will be seventy (70) feet, width of which thirty-four (34) feet, will be on the southerly side of the center line of location and thirty-six (36) feet will be on the northerly side. From Bevan street to Collard street the right of way will continue as above, namely, seventy (70) feet in width, but there will be required in addition on the northerly side through the block between Bevan and Collard streets an additional width of forty (40) feet from a street at approximately the present level of Underwood place."

Two grounds for setting aside the order are urged by the prosecutor. The first is that the state highway commission has no power to take the land of the prosecutor by condemnation, as the property to be taken is not to be used as a part of the state highway route No. 1, but is to be used as a street of the city of Jersey City. Abutting the...