Fordyce v. Stone

• Decision Date: 04 February 1888
• Citation: 7 S.W. 129,50 Ark. 250
• Parties: FORDYCE v. STONE
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

7 S.W. 129

50 Ark. 250

FORDYCE v. STONE

Supreme Court of Arkansas

February 4, 1888

APPEAL from Ouachita Circuit Court, B. F. Askew, Circuit Judge.

Reversed and remanded.

B. W Johnson, for appellant.

1. The claim being for damages, in the nature of trespass, was barred at the end of three years from the date of entry or building across said land. Mansf. Dig., sec. 4478, clause 2; 35 Ark. 622; 16 Id., 129; 24 Id., 371.

H. G Bunn and M. M. Duffie, for appellee.

The statute of limitations, if it runs at all, could only run from the 29th of December, 1882, on which day the claim of Stone for damages was adjusted and decided between Stone and the citizens' committee of Camden, who was the agent of the R. R. Co., to procure the right of way. This adjustment was in writing, and the statute did not commence to run until this date, which was less than three years before suit.

OPINION

BATTLE, J.

W. T Stone, being the owner of land in Ouachita county, for the consideration of one dollar gave a right of way over it to the Texas and St. Louis Railway Company, only reserving his right to damages to improvements. On the 15th of October, 1885, he commenced this action in the Ouachita Circuit Court, and alleged in his complaint, that, in the spring of the year 1885, the Texas and St. Louis Railway Company located and constructed its railway over it, and thereby damaged him in the stun of three hundred dollars, and asked for judgment therefor. The defendant answered and pleaded, among other things, the three years statute of limitations in bar of his right of recovery. The evidence adduced in the trial sustained this allegation, showing that the railroad was located and constructed over his land in the spring of 1882.

Many questions are involved in this action, but it is only necessary to decide one of them, and that is the question raised by the plea of the statute of limitation. Is this action barred?

The statute of limitations begins to run against all actions for damages caused by nuisances of a permanent character from the time they are created. The reason of the rule is, the entire damage inflicted is of a permanent character, and goes to the entire destruction of the estate affected thereby, and is caused at the time the nuisance is created, is original, and may be at once fully compensated. A fair illustration of nuisances of this character is, the building of a railroad over the land of an...