Gray v. Thone
Gray v. Thone
Opinion of the Court
The cause of action alleged in Count 1 of the petition is based upon the removal by the defendants of a barberry bush from plaintiff’s premises, on August 16, 1919, Defendants were duly appointed acting assistants to the state entomologist of Iowa. Defendant Joseph discovered the barberry bush in question, growing on the premises of plaintiff.' Upon such discovery, Joseph served notice on the plaintiff to eradicate the bush, which notice is provided for by Chapter 8 of the Acts of the Thirty-eighth General Assembly. Plaintiff not complying with the said notice, and refusing to remove the bush, defendants removed the bush in question, proceeding under Chapter 8 of the Acts of the Thirty-eighth General Assembly. Whereupon, this action Avas commenced for damages. The action is based upon two principal grounds: (1) That the statute authorizing the removal of a barberry bush is unconstitutional; and (2) that the barberry bush destroyed was not the harmful variety of bai’berry bush denounced in the statute, but was, in fact, the harmless Japanese barberry, coming within the exception mentioned in the statute. The trial court, in various rulings made in the progress of the trial, held that the statute in question was not unconstitutional; and that the removal of the
I. The causes of action alleged in Counts 2 and 3 were based on claimed assaults upon plaintiff and her husband. Defendants, in various ways, through all stages of the case, attacked said counts, on the ground that the claims for damages growing out of the alleged assault were a personal action, which could only be brought in the county where one of the defendants resided. It appeared without dispute that defendant Thone was a resident of Polk County, Iowa, and that defendant Joseph ivas a resident of Story County, Iowa, where the action was commenced. Neither of defendants was ever a resident of Carroll County. At the close of the evidence, the court sustained a motion by the defendants to strike Counts 2 and 3 of the petition, holding that such causes of action were based on personal injuries alone, and that the district court of Carroll County had no jurisdiction thereof; that such personal actions were improperly joined with the cause of action declared in Count 1, and could only be maintained in the county of the residence of one of the defendants.
II. Plaintiff makes several assignments of error, all of which may be considered under three divisions:
(1) The claim of plaintiff that the statute under which defendants claim to have acted in the destruction of the barberry bush in question is unconstitutional.
(2) That the court erred in allowing defendants to testify to the relation of the harmful barberry to the disease known as “the black stem rust in wheat.”
(3) That the court erred in striking Counts 2 and 3 from the petition.
“After ixotificatioix by the state exxtomologist it shall be unlawful for axxy person * * * to * * * permit to exist on his or its premises axxy plaxxt of the harmful barberry or any other plant that acts as axx alternate host or carrier of a dangerous insect pest or plaxxt disease. The term, harxnful barberry, shall be interpreted to consist of any species of Berberis or Mahonia susceptible to ixxfection by Puceinia gramixxis, commonly called Black Stem Rust of grain, but xxot iixeludixxg Japanese barberry (B. Thunbergii). It shall be the duty of the state entomologist and his assistants to exxforee the provisions of this section, aixd he is hereby empowered to eradicate any such ixxsect pest, plant disease or carrier of insect or plant disease. If the owner shall refuse or neglect to eradicate such pest or carrier, withixx ten days after receiving a writtexx notice, the state entomologist shall eradicate or cause the same to be eradicated.”
On examinatioxx of the authorities, we reach the conclusioxx that the act is not vulnerable to the attacks xxxade upoxx it. Some of the cases holding, ixx effect, that the proceedixxg under the act ixx question is a warranted exercise of police power are Balch v. Glenn, 85 Kan. 735 (Ann. Cas. 1913 A 406); County of Los Angeles v. Spencer, 77 Am. St. 217; Newark & S. O. Horse Car R. Co. v. Hunt, 50 N. J. L. 308; State v. Main, 69 Conn. 123 (36 L. R. A. 623). Complete axxswer to appellaxxt’s challenge to our statute is fouxid in the case of Balch v. Glenn, supra. The Kansas statute is too long to quote. The salient features are: The statute creates axx exxtomologieal commissioxx. The purposes' of the act are the suppressioxx and extermixxatioxx of San José scale and other injurious ixxsect pests and plant diseases. The entomologists, their assistants, and employees are authorized by the statute to enter upon the premises of any private individual aixd inspect, destroy, treat, or experiment upon insects or plant
“The courts have universally recognized the distinction between the two powers [eminent domain and police power]. Under the exercise of the one, private property cannot be taken either for public or private use without compensation; in the exercise of the other, the use of property may be limited or controlled, or the property itself destroyed, without any compensation therefor being made to the owner. It is no objection to the validity of laws passed in the proper and lawful exercise of the police power that provision is not made for compensation to the individual whose property may be affected thereby. Property taken or destroyed for the purpose of abating a nuisance or to prevent the spreading of a pestilence is not taken for public use. All private property is held subject to such reasonable restraints and burdens as in the opinion of the legislature will secure and maintain the general welfare and prosperity of the state. It is held subject to the obligation that it shall not be used so as to affect injuriously the rights of the community. It belongs to
The Balch ease is cited with approval in Wedemeyer v. Crouch, 68 Wash. 14 (122 Pac. 366).
There are cases too numerous to require citation upholding the validity of statutes authorizing the destruction of domestic animals having infectious or contagious diseases, as an exercise of the police power. In the instant case, the question as to whether or not the bush in controversy was, in fact, a harmful species of barberry, ánd one which acted as an alternate host or carrier of the dangerous insect pests or plant diseases, was fairly and carefully submitted to the jury by the instructions.'
We have examined the whole record carefully, and find no reversible error. The case is affirmed.&emdash;Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.