United States v. CERTAIN LANDS, ETC.
Decision Date | 08 June 1945 |
Docket Number | 841,777,771,875,827,987,1000,874,781,767,811,1010,835,877,817,997,797,1021.,1015,No. 765,805,791,995,985,1001,865,991,785,810,807,765 |
Citation | 61 F. Supp. 199 |
Parties | UNITED STATES v. CERTAIN LANDS IN ST. CHARLES COUNTY, MO., KNOWN AS WELDON SPRING AREA. |
Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Missouri |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
Harry C. Blanton, U. S. Atty., of Sikeston, Mo., and M. Walker Cooper, Sp. Asst. U. S. Atty., and Russell Vandivort, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of St. Louis, Mo. (J. Edward Williams, Acting Head, Lands Division, and Victor C. McCrea, Atty., Department of Justice, both of Washington, D. C., of counsel), for plaintiff.
William R. Gentry, Samuel M. Watson, William R. Gilbert, Harry Richards, William H. Allen, Igoe, Carroll, Keefe & Coburn, and Robert P. Elam, all of St. Louis, Mo., Webster Karrenbrock, B. H. Dyer, and Theodore C. Bruere, Jr., all of St. Charles, Mo., Redick O'Bryan, of St. Louis, Mo., and Caldwell, Downing, Noble & Garrity and Adams, Adams & Adams, all of Kansas City, Mo., for defendants.
All of these cases, except Numbers 807 and 874, now come before this Court on motions filed in each by the plaintiff, United States of America, for entry of judgment in the amount of the compensation fixed in certain option contracts, but without interest thereon, and certain counter-motions by defendants asking for judgment with interest on the principal amounts since the date of taking. Numbers 807 and 874 (Muschany and Andrews cases) are here on motions by the plaintiff to delete interest from judgments already entered, but the issues therein presented differ only slightly. This opinion is to be considered as filed in and ruling all of the above numbered separate proceedings.
The lengthy history of this condemnation litigation is already adequately documented in the Reports and needs no further recitation. The facts of the original proceedings appear in the contrary opinions of District Court Judges Davis and Collet, United States v. Certain Land Situate in St. Charles County, Mo., et al., D. C., 46 F.Supp. 921, and United States v. 94.68 Acres of Land in St. Charles County, Mo., et al., D.C., 45 F.Supp. 1016; in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals opinion in United States v. Muschany, 139 F.2d 661; and in the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in Muschany v. United States, 324 U.S. 49, 65 S.Ct. 442. In addition, the facts surrounding the present motions are ably stated in the opinion of Judge Hulen filed in Division No. 2 of this Court on the 4th day of May, 1945, 60 F.Supp. 741, covering identical motions in companion cases to those now before this division. The issues here presented differ in no respect from those decided by Judge Hulen and, with the above references to source materials where the facts may be found, the Court will state its views and holding on the issues presented, which, I deeply regret, are not in accord with those of my learned brother Hulen.
After careful consideration of the various submitted briefs of counsel, the real issues presented for decision appear to be four in number: First, the question is raised whether there is anything in the facts of these cases that makes them a particular type of condemnation proceeding to which that part of the Statute allowing interest to landowners does not apply; second, whether if in such a condemnation proceeding interest is ever allowable, these landowners have by any contract, election, waiver, stipulation or option done anything to waive, give up, or bar themselves from, a right that they might otherwise have; third, whether, if the landowners are entitled to interest, they are entitled to it from the date of the actual taking or only from the date of the filing of the declaration of taking; and, fourth, whether the original decrees entered only in the Andrews and Muschany cases (those appealed to the Supreme Court), which expressly provide for interest, are final and binding on the interest issue in those two cases and, also, binding as precedent or through special agreement of the Government in all the other cases. The Court will discuss the above issues seriatim.
There is no dispute between the parties that the general rule is (absent a contract or statute evincing a contrary intent) that interest does not run against the United States upon claims or contracts even though there has been an unreasonable delay or default in the payment of the principal upon the part of the Government. Tillson v. United States, 100 U.S. 43, 25 L.Ed. 543; United States v. North America Transportation & Trading Co., 253 U.S. 330, 40 S.Ct. 518, 64 L.Ed. 935; United States ex rel. Angarica de la Rua v. Bayard, 127 U.S. 251, 8 S.Ct. 1156, 32 L.Ed. 159; United States v. State of North Carolina, 136 U.S. 211, 10 S.Ct. 920, 34 L. Ed. 336; Smyth v. United States, 302 U.S. 329, 58 S.Ct. 248, 82 L.Ed. 294, 114 A.L.R. 807. Likewise, there is no dispute that in ordinary condemnation proceedings an exception is made which Congress has by statute approved and codified. 40 U.S.C.A. § 258a; Seaboard Air Line R. Co. v. United States, 261 U.S. 299, 43 S.Ct. 354, 67 L.Ed. 664; United States v. Rogers, 255 U.S. 163, 41 S.Ct. 281, 65 L.Ed. 566. The parts of said Statute material here are:
The difference of opinion between the parties first arises on the question of whether the particular facts here cause these proceedings to be a type of condemnation proceeding to which that part of the statute relating to interest is inapplicable.
The Court is of the opinion that under the policy of Congress, as expressed by the above statute, and under the facts, there is no valid reason why these landowners should not receive the benefit of the statutory exception. It is true that the negotiations between the Government and the landowners originally resulted in option contracts. It is also true that those contracts provided for condemnation proceedings under certain restricted circumstances. Those facts, however, do not change the circumstance that there are now before this Court condemnation proceedings brought under the general condemnation statute and in no respect different from any other like proceedings except in the method of ascertaining the value of the land. These are not friendly condemnation proceedings for the purpose of clearing title but, as the long history of litigation prior to these motions will readily prove, they are as completely antagonistic and adversary actions as this Court has ever seen. These proceedings for condemnation were certainly not brought within the terms of the option contracts, since those options provide only for friendly proceedings "if for any reason the title to the land is not approved by the Attorney General." It is certain that no other type of condemnation proceeding was within the contemplation of the parties when the option contracts were entered into. The history of these cases shows that the Government brought these actions as straight adversary condemnation proceedings, in complete disregard of the option contracts, and that the entrance of those contracts into the issues was by way of equitable defense on the part of the landowners. Those option contracts have played a part, therefore, in these proceedings to the extent of fixing the worth of the land, but it would be completely erroneous to say that they in any way make these a different type of condemnation proceeding, or that those options have been specifically enforced in their entirety.
Such being the facts, no reason appears on the face of the Statute why these landowners, different from any other landowners, should be divested of the right to interest on the deficiencies of their awards. The statute merely provides that "said compensation shall be ascertained and awarded in said proceeding and...
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