Suiter v. Board of Supervisors
Suiter v. Board of Supervisors
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff, appellant herein, is the owner of a tract of land upon which he has -for many years cultivated and maintained an orchard, through which the board of supervisors of Scott County has located and established a primary road known as the Davenport-Le Claire-Princeton road. Appellees, of course, concede that the consent of appellant was necessary to the location of the highway through his orchard, and contend that such consent was obtained. The county engineer reported in favor of the location of the highway at the place in controversy. This report, as we interpret the record, was filed January 16, 1922, following which appraisers were appointed to assess the damages, and the required notice was given to the property owners. Before the expiration of the time-fixed by law for filing objections and claims for damages, appellant presented a claim, asking damages in the sum of $2,520. Later, an
Charles Suiter, when interviewed later by the board, said that $1,000 was not enough,‘but that they would accept $2,000.
While the engineer’s report had not been filed, the board of supervisors, after the protest, or petition (for -it was that in fact), signed by appellant and others had been filed in the office of the county auditor, and before the attempted withdrawal of his signature, purchased right of way for the highway, and let grading and tiling-contracts amounting to more than $20,000.
Appellees, in addition to pleading consent, set up the above transactions and conduct of appellant as estopping him from denying that he consented to the location and establishment of the highway through his orchard. We do not deem it necessary to quote the evidence in greater detail. Appellant must, in view of the matters stated above, be held to have given consent that the highway be established where it was proposed to locate it. Consent need not be in writing, but it may be inferred from the owner’s acts and conduct. Stronsky v. Hickman, 116 Iowa 651; Dennis v. Independent Sch. Dist., 166 Iowa 744.
The only reference to the orchard by appellant in his conversation with the members of the board of supervisors in December at the government dam was that the road would take a row of fruit trees. He offered no objection to the location of
The whole conduct of appellant up to the time he filed objections in the auditor’s office was consistent with the contention of appellees that he induced the members of the board to believe that he was willing that the road should be opened through his orchard, if it did not amount to express consent. If the testimony of one of appellees’ witnesses, that appellant said he wanted the road established where located by the survey, is to be believed, it was the equivalent of express consent. It is not an unreasonable inference to be drawn from the record that the objection filed by appellant and the attempted withdrawal of his signature from the protest or petition presented to the board were designed rather to aid him in securing a more substantial sum as damages than as a genuine attempt to prevent the road from passing through his orchard. The record as a whole satisfies us that appellant gave the required consent, and that, the board having incurred expense in evident reliance thereon, he is precluded from making further objections thereto. The judgment of the court below is — Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.