State ex rel. City of St. Paul v. District Court of Ramsey County
| Decision Date | 12 May 1911 |
| Docket Number | 16,760 - (43) |
| Citation | 131 N.W. 327,114 Minn. 287 |
| Parties | STATE ex rel. CITY OF ST. PAUL v. DISTRICT COURT OF RAMSEY COUNTY and Another |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
From an order of the board of public works of the city of St. Paul confirming the condemnation of land belonging to Oakland Cemetery Association for an extension of Cook street in that city, the association appealed to the district court for Ramsey county. The appeal was heard by Kelly, J., who made findings and set aside the condemnation proceedings. Thereupon the city of St. Paul obtained from this court a writ of certiorari directed to the district court for Ramsey county and Hon. William Louis Kelly. Affirmed.
Street across cemetery.
The statute (R.L. 1905, § 2946) providing that no road or street can be laid out through the cemetery of a cemetery association, or through any part of the lands of such association, held to prevent extending a street across land of such an association acquired and held for future use for cemetery purposes.
Regulation of cemeteries -- city of St. Paul.
The common council of the city of St. Paul, under the charter of such city, has power to regulate the burial of the dead within the city limits, and this power includes the power to prevent the establishment of cemeteries and the enlargement of existing cemeteries.
City ordinance valid.
The ordinance of said city in question in this case held valid but construed as forbidding the use of land for the burial of the dead without the consent of the city, and not as preventing the acquisition and holding of land for cemetery purposes.
Findings sustained by evidence.
The findings of the trial court that the land acquired by respondent was acquired for cemetery purposes, and was necessary for and appropriated to such purposes, are sustained by the evidence.
Platted land.
It is not necessary for the appropriation of land to cemetery purposes that it should be platted.
J. C Michael, Louis R. Frankel, and O. H. O'Neill, for petitioner.
Lightner & Young, for respondents.
In 1908 the city of St. Paul, acting under its charter, initiated assessment and condemnation proceedings for the "opening, widening, and extending of Cook street, from Cortland street to a point one hundred twenty (120) feet west of the west line of Abell street, in said city." The property condemned was a strip of land forty-four feet wide extending east and west across a tract of land belonging to the Oakland Cemetery Association. The cemetery association appeared and opposed the opening, but the board of public works of St. Paul made an order opening the street. The cemetery association appealed to the district court of Ramsey county, and that court rendered judgment in its favor, dismissing the proceedings on the ground that the city had no jurisdictionn to open or extend Cook street across the tract in question. The case comes to this court for review on a writ of certiorari.
Oakland Cemetery Association was organized in 1853, and has ever since been a public cemetery association. Prior to 1904 the cemetery consisted of eighty acres, a rectangular tract twice as long as it was wide, running north and south. On the north of this tract, and adjoining the easterly half of the north line thereof, was a tract of five acres that had long been used as a cemetery, known as Zion Lutheran Cemetery. In 1904 respondent acquired this tract, and has since used it as a part of its cemetery. About the same time respondent acquired a five-acre tract directly north of and adjoining the last tract. Since then respondent has fenced and graded this tract, but has never actually used it for burials, though it is necessary to and it intends to do so. It is this last tract that the city proposes to extend Cook street across. The cemetery association has also acquired ten acres directly west of the five-acre tract above mentioned, thus making their entire property a rectangular tract of one hundred acres.
It is contended by the respondent that the city had no jurisdictionn to lay a street through its cemetery, or any part of its land, without the consent of its trustees. This contention is based upon R.L. 1905, § 2946, which is substantially the same as the statute law on the subject that has been in force since 1851. This section reads as follows:
It is clear that this contention must be upheld, unless we accept petitioner's view that an ordinance of St. Paul adopted in May, 1896, should be construed so as to make respondent's acquisition and holding as cemetery lands of the tract over which it is proposed to extend Cook street illegal. This ordinance, as far as material, is as follows:
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