United States v. First Nat. Bank

• Decision Date: 04 April 1918
• Docket Number: 2075-2077.
• Citation: 250 F. 299
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. FIRST NAT. BANK et al. SAME v. CARTER et al. SAME v. FORBES et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama

250 F. 299

UNITED STATES v. FIRST NAT. BANK et al. SAME v. CARTER et al. SAME v. FORBES et al.

Nos. 2075-2077.

United States District Court, M.D. Alabama, Northern Division.

April 4, 1918

Thos D. Samford, U.S. Atty., of Opelika, Ala., Lee J. Clayton Asst. U.S. Atty., of Eufaula, Ala., and H. J. Turney, Judge Advocate, of Cleveland, Ohio, for the United States.

Steiner Crum & Weil, of Montgomery, Ala., for defendant First Nat Bank.

Fred S. Ball, of Montgomery, Ala., for defendant Forbes.

C. P. McIntyre, of Montgomery, Ala., for defendant Carter.

Instructions by HENRY D. CLAYTON, District Judge, to commissioners appointed to assess damages sustained by the owners:

Gentlemen At the inception of the matters before you, I explained to you the nature of the proceedings under and by virtue of which you were appointed by the court as commissioners, and your duties in respect thereto. I again call your attention to the statutes governing in this case. The act of Congress approved July 2, 1917 (40 Stat. 241, c. 35 (U.S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1917, p. 363)), provides that the Secretary of War may cause proceedings to be instituted in the name of the United States, in any court having jurisdiction of such proceedings for the acquirement by condemnation of any land, temporary use thereof, or other interest therein, or right pertaining thereto, needed for the site, location, construction, or prosecution of works for fortifications, coast defenses, and military training camps, such proceedings to be prosecuted in accordance with the laws relating to suits for the condemnation of property of the states wherein the proceedings may be instituted. The Alabama statutes (Code of Alabama 1907, Secs. 3860-3887, both inclusive) provide the method of condemnation to be followed-- the application for condemnation, the appointment of commissioners to assess the damages, the taking of testimony, and the like.

You will remember that I also instructed you to receive all legal testimony which might be offered to you by the defendants, as well as by the government, touching the value of the lands sought to be condemned, and the damages or injuries which have been sustained by the defendants in consequence of the taking and occupation of the lands, and other property thereon, for the establishment by the United States of a cantonment or military camp built on these lands; and I am informed that you have received and heard at length testimony, both oral and documentary, in regard to the value of the property taken and occupied by the government from the defendants, and the injuries sustained by the owners, these defendants.

For convenience, and by consent of all the parties, the cases of each of the three several owners of the land have been submitted to you together, and, of course, the law governing the measure of damages, as well as the rules relating to the admission and hearing of testimony, are applicable in each case which you have under consideration. You will weigh and consider the evidence in each case separately, in the light of these instructions and the instructions which I shall give to you, and return a separate finding and report in each one of the three several cases.

On account of an urgent emergency, it became necessary for the government to take possession of the lands involved in these proceedings some months before the application for their condemnation was made to this court. It is hardly necessary to say that the government did no wrong in the occupation of these lands, for you, as intelligent and patriotic American citizens, know full well the causes which led up to the imperious necessity that impelled the government to take possession of, occupy, and use the lands involved in this condemnation. ^[1]

The sole question for you to determine, in each one of the cases, is the value of the lands and the property at the time of the actual taking and occupation by the United States, together with interest at the rate of 8 per centum per annum, the legal rate in Alabama, on said sums so ascertained by you, from the date of such actual taking and occupation. If you find that there were growing crops on any of the land taken, you will also determine, in such case, the values of such growing crops which were on the land at the time it was taken and occupied by the government. You may also consider in this connection the diminution in the value of any lands belonging to the owners in these proceedings which are contiguous to the lands sought to be condemned, provided there is any evidence of any diminution of the value of any contiguous lands belonging to the owners whose lands are here sought to be condemned.

The rules of law governing the condemnation of lands for public purposes in Alabama are the rules that obtain in the cases now before you, for the act of Congress, under which these proceedings have been instituted, provides that such shall be the rules. The rule, therefore, is that in these proceedings it is only just compensation which may be awarded to the owners of the lands sought to be condemned. This includes, besides the just value of the lands which have been taken, also the injury resulting to the remaining contiguous lands of the owners.

'Just compensation' means equitable compensation; that the owner shall be saved harmless as near as may be, and shall recover the damage which he has actually sustained. It does not mean that he shall be allowed to acquire and appropriate any more money from the government than that which is necessary for fair and adequate compensation for his loss or injury. ^[2]

As used in this statute, providing that commissioners shall be appointed to determine the compensation and the damages which an owner of real estate may sustain by reason of his property being taken for a public use, 'compensation' means an equivalent for the value of the land, and anything beyond that is more than compensation, and anything short of it is less. This equivalent is for the present value of the land at the time of the taking and occupation, and not for the future value of the land, since no human tribunal is able to determine judicially what the value of the land will be at some future time. ^[3] Fair, reasonable, adequate, just compensation, for the loss or injury the owner may sustain, the...