Haines v. St. Louis, D.M. & N.R. Co.
| Decision Date | 05 December 1884 |
| Citation | 21 N.W. 573,65 Iowa 216 |
| Parties | HAINES v. THE ST. LOUIS, DES MOINES & NORTHERN R'Y CO |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from Warren Circuit Court.
THIS is an ad quod damnum proceeding, instituted by defendant, for the condemnation of a right of way for its railroad across certain premises belonging to plaintiff. There was an appeal by plaintiff from the award of damages made by the commissioners appointed by the sheriff. The jury in the circuit court assessed plaintiff's damages at $ 2,200 and the court entered judgment on this assessment. Defendant appeals.
REVERSED.
Parsons & Runnells, for appellant.
William Phillips, for appellee.
OPINION
The tract of land across which defendant seeks by this proceeding to condemn a right of way is situated about two miles west of the city of Des Moines. A portion of it is within the incorporated town of Greenwood Park, (which is a subdivision of the city), and the balance is immediately south of said town. The tract consists of sixty or sixty-five acres. Before defendant constructed its road, two other railroads were constructed through the tract, running east and west through it. These roads are parallel with each other, and their rights of way join. Defendant's road runs in the same general direction with the others, and there is a strip of land about eight rods wide between the portion which it seeks to condemn and the right of way of the road lying next to it. About sixteen acres of the tract is south of the other two railroads. This land is what is called bottom land. It is in cultivation, and is farm land, and well adapted to gardening. Plaintiff's dwelling-house and other buildings are situated north of the two roads first constructed, and there is an orchard and vineyard and grove of walnut timber on this portion of the tract. Defendant's road is constructed through this tract. The right of way will occupy about five and one-half acres, and will include portions of the orchard and grove, and some of the trees were removed in the grading of the road. About ten acres of this tract is separated from the remainder by a public highway which runs through the premises. This ten acres is mostly timber or brush land, and is quite broken, and but a small portion of it has been cultivated; but it is inclosed with a fence, and has been used for pasture. The remainder of the tract north of the roads first constructed is also rolling land; but, with the exception of the portion occupied by the buildings and yards, and the orchard and grove, it is in cultivation. All of the land north of said railroads was capable, before defendant's road was constructed, of being subdivided and used for suburban residence property; and the evidence tends to show that there was a demand for that character of property, and that the tract was much more valuable because of its character in that respect, and of this demand, than it would be for agricultural or gardening purposes. The portion south of the railroads was not adapted to any use except farming and gardening, and it had no value except for those purposes.
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