City of Huntington v. Griffith
City of Huntington v. Griffith
070rehearing
In her petition for a rehearing, the appellee earnestly insists that the evidence disclosed the establishment, prior to September 7, 1877, of a grade for the street in question, both by the action of the former town, adopted impliedly by chartering as a city under the statute, and as proven by the recitals of the ordinance of September 7, 1877. As held in the original opinion, the acceptance of a city charter does not impliedly work an adoption, by the city, of street grades established by the former town, in the sense that, under the statute creating a liability, the city may not establish a grade. City of Wabash v. Alber, 88 Ind. 428.
The recitals in the ordinance of September 7, 1877, not only do not establish, or purport to establish, a grade, but they are far short of the evidence required to show that the city had taken, by corporate action, the steps necessary to establish such alleged prior grade. Mattingly v. City of Plymouth, 100 Ind. 545.
If, prior to September 7, 1877, as the trial court found, the city had established a grade for the street in question, that fact should have been proven by showing the authoritative acts and proceedings of the common council in adopting the former town'grade, or in designating a new grade. Again it is insisted that the evidence is not in the record, first, because the bill of exceptions contains the original long hand manuscript of the evidence which, it is further claiméd, was not filed; and, second, because the only certificate that the bill contains all of the evidence is that of the stenographer. As to the first objection, we will say that the record discloses that the bill of exceptions was filed within the time allowed, and the clerk certifies, not that the record contains the original, but that it contains copies of all pro
The petition for a rehearing is overruled.
Opinion of the Court
The circuit court enjoined the appellant from establishing a grade, and improving, according to such proposed grade, a street in said city.
The petition alleged that the town, now city, of Huntington had, by surveys, grade records, and ordinances, established a general grade for said town, and a special grade for the street in question; that in the year 1873, said town was incorporated as a city, and thereafter, to-wit, on the 7th day of September, 1877, the common council of said city adopted an ordinance to grade and gravel part of North Jefferson street, and boulder the gutters on each side of part of said street; that in said ordinance the city civil engineer was directed to set the proper grade stakes, and advertise for the execution of said work; that in pursuance of said ordinance, by order of the common council, the city civil engineer did set the proper grade stakes in pursuance to the established grade of said city, and where the said lots abut on said Jefferson street, and the street was then and there improved as provided for in said ordinance, which improvement when completed was accepted by said city; that still later, and in March, 1894, the appellant, by ordinance, survey, etc., sought to establish a grade for said street, the effect of which would be to reduce the existing grade in front of the appellee’s lot five or six feet, to the injury of said lot, and to her damage, all without the assessment, payment, or tender to appellee of any damages on account of such proposed grade.
The petition is indefinite in its allegations of the former establishment of a grade for said street, and renders it
The allegation that, pursuant to an ordinance, the stakes were set according to the established grade of
The ruling of the circuit court upon the motion for a new trial is next presented. The court’s third finding was as follows:
“That on the 7th day of September, 1877, the common council of defendant adopted an ordinance to grade and gravel part of Jefferson street, including that part
That part of the finding in italics is attacked as not supported by the evidence. We have carefully read the evidence, and have been unable to find in it a support for the finding that prior to the proceeding of September 1877 the city established a grade for the street in question. Notwithstanding the appellant’s challenge, the appellee has failed to point out any evidence supporting that finding. There was evidence tending to support the allegation that the town had established a grade for said street, but there was no evidence tending to support the possible theory that the grade so established was affirmatively adopted by the city prior to the proceeding of September, 1877, and it must be remembered that the finding is of an affirmative establishment of a grade by direction to the engineer, and by such grade being established and recorded, and “reported to
The direction to the engineer, in the ordinance of September, 1811, to set the stakes to the established grade of said city, or that the ‘ street be reduced to the established grade of the city,” might suggest the possible inference of a previously established grade, but it does not authorize a finding as an independent fact that the council had directed the establishment of a grade; that the engineer had designed the grade, had recorded the same, and had reported the fact to the council, and which report had been accepted, approved and adopted by said common council.” There is evidence also tending to support the theory that in and by the proceeding of 1811 a grade was established; this, however, is not the establishment of the grade as found by the court to have been made prior to said date.” This evidence is not complete since it is partly oral, and while stating abstractly the action of the council, it is no where shown what were the contents of any lost paper or record. It is true that the record presents a profile of the grade for the improvement of 1811, but it is not shown when it was filed, or that the council ever considered it, or took any action with reference to it.
The record is not satisfactory in its presentation of the evidence, as it commingles oral and documentary evidence without regard to the order of time, and in some instances by interrogatories addressed to, and answered by, the witnesses from prints upon plates or diagrams not disclosed by the record. If the able and careful judge who presided during the trial was not deceived by the evidence, the record certainly is incomplete, and does not present to us all of the evidence upon which he acted. By the authorities we have cited, it must appear that the change must be of a grade established by the
■ This is sufficient, though the manuscript may purport to have been copied from shorthand by a stenographer. Elliott App. Proced., section 821, and authorities there cited.
The judgment of the circuit court is reversed with instructions to sustain appellant’s motion for a new trial.
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