Lake Erie & W. Ry. Co. v. Griffin

• Decision Date: 23 September 1886
• Citation: 8 N.E. 451,107 Ind. 464
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court
• Parties: Lake Erie & W. Ry. Co. v. Griffin and others.

107 Ind. 464

8 N.E. 451

Lake Erie & W. Ry. Co.

v.Griffin and others.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

September 23, 1886.

Appeal from Carroll circuit court.

Chase & Chase, for appellant. G. O. & A. O. Behm, John R. Coffroth, and S. A. Huff, for appellees.

Howk, C. J.

This case is now here for the second time. The opinion and decision of this court on the former appeal are reported under the title of Lake Erie, etc., Ry. Co. v. Griffin, 92 Ind. 487. On the former appeal, we held that the second paragraph of appellees' complaint stated an equitable cause of action against the appellant, and we reversed the judgment theretofore rendered herein, because the court had erred, in our opinion, in submitting the cause to a jury for trial. In our former opinion we gave a full summary of the facts stated in the second paragraph of appellees' complaint, to which we refer without repeating it here, as we do not find that any change was made in any of the pleadings after the cause was remanded. The cause was tried by the court, and the court made a special finding of the facts, and thereon stated its conclusions of law. Over the exceptions of both parties to its conclusions of law, and over appellant's motions for a venire de novo, and for a new trial, the court rendered a decree in favor of appellees, and against the appellant, in accordance with such conclusions of law.

The first error complained of here on behalf of the appellant is the overruling of its exceptions to the court's conclusions of law upon its special finding of facts.

The facts found by the court were, in substance, as follows:

The Lake Erie & Western Railway Company, and the La Fayette, Muncie & Bloomington Railroad Company, defendants hereto, are respectively railroad corporations of the state of Indiana, organized under and pursuant to the laws of such state. The plaintiffs herein were, on the twenty-fourth day of October, 1875, and for many years prior thereto, the owners in fee-simple of 37 feet off of the west end of lot No. 1, in O. L. Clark's addition to the city of La Fayette, which west end of such lot abuts on an alley 12 feet wide. At and prior to the time aforesaid, the La Fayette, Muncie & Bloomington Railroad Company owned and operated a line of railroad along and contiguous to the above-described real estate, and, on the day last-named, appropriated such real estate for the use of its track, and necessary side tracks, water stations, and depot; and on said day it filed its act of appropriation in the clerk's office of Tippecanoe county, and appraisers were appointed by the Tippecanoe circuit court, who, on December 14, 1875, made and filed, in such clerk's office, their report, awarding the plaintiffs the sum of $2,400 as their damages by reason of such act of appropriation. The plaintiffs excepted to such report, and appealed therefrom to the Tippecanoe circuit court, and the venue of the cause was changed to the Carroll circuit court, where a trial was had, and a judgment was rendered, on May 16, 1877, in favor of the plaintiffs, for $5,008.66 damages, and $80.60 costs, which judgment remained unpaid.

Prior to the filing of such act of appropriation, the La Fayette, Muncie & Bloomington Railroad Company had executed two mortgages upon its railroad property,-one for $666,000, and the other for $1,750,000. These mortgages covered all the railroad property of such company, of every kind and description, and the first one covered all its property, in the city of La Fayette, contiguous to plaintiffs' lot. The one for $666,000 extended from the Illinois state line to the Toledo, Wabash & Western Railroad, in La Fayette, covering what was called the “Western Division;” and the other mortgage covered the property from La Fayette to Muncie, being what was called the “Eastern Division.”

On the first day of February 1879, decrees foreclosing both of such mortgages were rendered, by the United States circuit court for the district of Indiana, against the La Fayette, Muncie & Bloomington Railroad Company, under which a commissioner appointed for that purpose sold all the franchises, rights, property, and effects of such company to certain persons, as a bondholders' committee, for $1,413,000, leaving a large balance of such decrees unpaid. A deed was made to such purchasers on April 28, 1879, and they formed a new corporation, called the Muncie & State-line Company, with a capital of $600,000, to whom they conveyed such railroad, with its rights and franchises, on the twenty-ninth of April, 1879. Afterwards, on July 24, 1879, the Muncie & State-line Railroad Company consolidated with the La Fayette, Bloomington & Mississippi Railroad Company, under the name of the La Fayette, Bloomington & Muncie Railroad Company, which last-named company owned and operated a line of railroad from Bloomington, Illinois, to Muncie, Indiana, a distance of 200 miles. On the ninteenth of December, 1879, the last-named company consolidated with the Lake Erie & Western Railway Company, of Ohio and Indiana, owning and operating a line of railroad from said Muncie to Fremont, Ohio, and since extended to Sandusky, Ohio; which last-mentioned consolidated company assumed the corporate name of the Lake Erie & Western Railway Company, and is the appellant in this cause.

The defendant, the La Fayette, Muncie & Bloomington Railroad Company, after such condemnation of appellees' real estate, entered upon and occupied the same until the succession of appellant, the Lake Erie & Western Railway Company, to the rights, property, and franchises of such first-named company, through the sale, organization, and consolidation hereinbefore mentioned; and this occupancy and possession were such, at the commencement of this suit, as to exclude the appellees from the use and enjoyment of the same. The exact date when such occupancy and possession by defendants began, cannot be determined from the evidence. The La Fayette, Muncie & Bloomington Railroad Company was, at the time of the rendition of such judgment against it, in favor of the appellees, insolvent, and had been since, and still was, insolvent.

On the twenty-fifth day of January, 1881, the appellees executed a mortgage to John R. Coffroth on the property condemned as aforesaid, to secure several promissory notes executed by them to Coffroth, amounting, in the aggregate, to the sum of $600; which mortgage was duly recorded in the recorder's office of Tippecanoe county, and became a valid lien upon the appellees' interests in such real estate. Such mortgage was due and unpaid. One of the plaintiffs, John Griffin, had died since the commencement of this suit, intestate, and his co-plaintiffs took, by inheritance, all his interest in such real estate, and in the judgment rendered in the condemnation proceedings.

Upon the foregoing facts the court stated the following conclusions of law:

“The Lake Erie & Western Railway Company has elected to adopt the original appropriation of the plaintiffs' said land, and, having adopted such appropriation, it is bound to make compensation to the plaintiffs for the same. (2) The said judgment in the Carroll circuit court for $5,008.66, and $80.60 costs, shall be taken as the value of the land so appropriated. (3) As the plaintiffs have, since said condemnation proceedings, executed the said mortgage upon said land, whereby they have not been in a condition to give the defendants, or either of them, an unincumbered title to such land, and could not, after the execution of such mortgage, legally demand the payment of said judgment, they should be denied interest upon the said sum of $5,089.26. (4) The defendant, the Lake Erie & Western Railway Company, should pay the clerk of the Carroll circuit court, for the use of the plaintiffs, within 60 days from this date, the sum of $5,089.26, and out of such sum the clerk of this court shall pay and satisfy said mortgage, and the residue pay to the plaintiffs, or their attorneys. I further find that the defendants should pay and satisfy the costs of this suit.

[Signed] M. Winfield, Judge pro tem.”

In discussing the alleged error of the trial court in overruling appellant's exceptions to the court's conclusions of law, its counsel say: “The conclusions of law (1) that the appellant is bound to make compensation to the appellees for their land; (2) that the judgment in their favor, against the L., M. & B. R. Co., the predecessor of the appellant, rendered May 16, 1877, shall be taken as the value of the land; and (3) that the appellants should pay the principal of such judgment, to-wit, $5,089.26, within sixty days,-are erroneous.”

It is claimed by appellant's counsel that “the finding of facts contain nothing showing that the appellant has ever used or occupied the appellees' land.” This claim of counsel, we think, is not supported by, but is in direct conflict with, the special finding of facts. The court found specially, as we have seen, that the La Fayette, Muncie & Bloomington Railroad Company, after its appropriation of appellees' real estate, entered upon and occupied the same until the succession of appellant to its rights, property, and franchises, and that said occupancy and possession were such, at the commencement of this suit, as to exclude the appellees from the use and enjoyment of such real estate. It was further found that appellant succeeded to the rights, property, and franchises of said La Fayette, Muncie & Bloomington Railroad Company, on the twenty-fourth day of July, 1879, and thereafter owned and operated the line of railroad, along and contiguous to appellees' real estate, until the commencement of this suit, on the nineteenth day of May, 1882; and that, on the day last named, the occupancy and...