Jenkins v. Kansas Turnpike Authority
Jenkins v. Kansas Turnpike Authority
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This is a condemnation appeal.
The Kansas Turnpike Authority instituted an eminent domain proceeding by virtue of its authority under G. S. 1949, 26-102, et seq., as amended by G. S. 1955 Supp., 26-102.
The proceeding involved several contiguous tracts of land comprising a single parcel of some 85 acres owned by appellee Georgia B. Jenkins, subject to certain tenancies of Mike Gregar, Joe Gregar, Thomas Gooch and Kansas Industries, Inc., formerly Mineral Products Company.
Thomas Gooch was a tenant in a house located on the property. Mike Gregar and Joe Gregar had agreements with the landowner, Georgia B. Jenkins, and were doing small scale quarrying of rock on the property.
The Kansas Industries, Inc., had a royalty lease on the entire acreage for the mining and excavating of clay which it used for making an aggregate in the manufacture of light-weight building blocks in a plant located nearby.
Appraisers were appointed by the court who made their report of appraisement. Thereafter, and within the time provided by statute, the Kansas Turnpike Authority, Georgia B. Jenkins, Kansas Industries, Inc., Joe Gregar and Mike Gregar filed separate notices of appeal. Thomas Gooch did not appeal.
Thereafter, one Glen H. Price filed an application for leave to intervene and a petition of interplea in the Georgia B. Jenkins docketed action. He alleged he had a pasture lease on the land under condemnation but was not named as a party because his lease was not of record.
The appeals were docketed separately with numbers 93250-A, 93263-A and 93284-A. On the opening of court all parties announced themselves ready for trial and the Kansas Turnpike Authority then filed its motion to consolidate all of the appeals for the purpose of trial for the reason that all of the parties who appealed had a claimed estate or interest in and to the same parcel or tract of land, to wit: The 85 acres under condemnation.
The trial court overruled the motion to consolidate, allowed the petition to intervene and the petition of interplea of Glen H. Price and ordered the same be docketed as a separate action.
The Kansas Turnpike Authority now appeals from the trial court’s order overruling its motion to consolidate the appeals of Georgia R. Jenkins, the Kansas Turnpike Authority and Kansas Industries, Ino,
The court dismissed the appeals of Mike and Joe Gregar and the Kansas Turnpike Authority’s appeals as to them for the reason that a dispute no longer existed between them. The appeals were dismissed without prejudice. Upon motion of Mike and Joe Gregar the court also ordered the distribution of $3,808.80 to each out of the funds deposited by the Kansas Turnpike Authority.
The case was argued before this court in the May session. It was conceded by the parties to the appeal that the Moore v. Kansas Turnpike Authority, 181 Kan. 51, 310 P. 2d 199, decision on which a motion for rehearing was pending, would be determinative of the case.
Following Moore v. Kansas Turnpike Authority, 181 Kan. 840, 317 P. 2d 384, this day decided on rehearing: (1) The question before the district court on the motion of the Authority was not whether the separate appeals of the landowner, the tenants, and the Authority should be consolidated for trial, but whether they could be severed when appeal is taken; (2) G. S. 1955 Supp., 26-102 construed to mean that separate appeals of owners of separate interests in the same tract of land who appeal from an award of appraisers in an eminent domain proceeding cannot be severed, and that any one or all such appeals bring to the district court in its entirety the sole question of the sufficiency of the award to be tried as a single action; and (3) under the facts and circumstances of this case the court should now consolidate the separately docketed appeals for trial as a single action.
No question regarding the compromise and dismissal of the Mike and Joe Gregar appeals is raised by the parties here. In their counter abstract the appellees include the motions and orders of the court relating thereto, and make mention of them in their brief, but no cross appeal is taken. While not technically before us it must be stated that under the Moore decision, any appeal
The judgment of the district court of Wyandotte County is reversed and the case remanded with directions to consolidate the separately docketed appeals and proceed with trial of all appeals as a single action to determine the sufficiency of the award.
Concurring Opinion
(concurring specially): I am unable to concur wholly in the opinion of the court for the reason that reference is made therein to the interests of Mike and Joe Gregar. I think mention of these interests has no place in this appeal.
This court has stated on numerous occasions that on appeal it will consider only those matters raised by the parties and properly before it unless the matter be one of jurisdiction. Since this is an in rem proceeding in eminent domain brought by a body having the power to condemn land for a public purpose (G. S. 1955 Supp. 68-2006), the only thing to be considered is the taking of the land and what is to be paid therefor. This is the universal conception of the purpose of an eminent domain proceeding and has always been the law in Kansas. I cannot see that the addition of the Kansas Turnpike Authority to the group having the power of eminent domain should work any new magic on the established law.
Whether we like it or not, the power of eminent domain is a necessary element in the law for the benefit of the public because it furnishes remuneration to a landowner whose land is taken for public use. The compensation to be paid is based on the highest and best use to which the land can be put at the time of the taking. It is computed by adding together the total value of the land actually taken from a particular landowner and the diminution in value of
After an appeal is perfected to the district court, the parties owning an interest in land may be proper witnesses, along with experts, in showing the jury the reasonable market value. Whether those particular owners have settled with the condemner is of no concern in an appeal from the award of the appraisers in an eminent domain proceeding. This is apparent from the rule that the original proceeding in eminent domain is not to be referred to in an appeal to the district court from the appraisers’ award. After the whole award has been determined, then it is apportioned among the different interest-holders as each interest has been made to appear. If the owner of an interest has settled with the condemner and has been “paid-off,” it is unlikely that any trial court in this state would allow such interest-holder to collect more than the amount he had been willing to accept in return for his interest.
Kansas authority is plentiful in this field of the law. One of our decisions is Federal Land Bank v. State Highway Comm., 150 Kan. 187, 190, 92 P. 2d 72.
For these reasons, I think any reference to the different interests as set out in the opinion is improper and should be stricken therefrom; otherwise, I concur in the opinion.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting): In my opinion, the decision in Moore v. Kansas Turnpike Authority, 181 Kan. 51, 310 P. 2d 199,
The following statement is made by the court in its opinion:
“. . . It was conceded by the parties to the appeal that the Moore v. Kansas Turnpike Authority, 181 Kan. 51, 310 P. 2d 199, decision on which a motion for rehearing was pending, would be determinative of the case.”
It is incorrect to say that the appellees conceded that a reversal of the position in the Moore case on rehearing would control. At the time counsel for appellees made the statement they were propounding the proposition announced in the original Moore decision. This was long before the Moore decision on rehearing was announced. Furthermore, prior to the argument above advanced the appellees, Georgia B. Jenkins and Kansas Industries, Inc., challenged the appellant’s right to be heard on the ground that an order overruling the motion to consolidate was not a final order within the scope of G. S. 1949, 60-3302, and therefore not appealable. They request dismissal of the appeal by the Kansas Turnpike Authority.
A final order is defined as an order “. . . affecting a substantial right in an action, when such order in effect determines the action and prevents a judgment, . . .” (G. S. 1949, 60-3303.) In the present action there are now claimants left in these proceedings, and it is felt that an order refusing to consolidate all of their cases into one action does not determine the actions nor prevent the rendition of judgments. Where in a condemnation action the trial court sustained a motion to consolidate two cases for trial, this court held that the order was not an appealable order because it was not a final order and did not determine the action or prevent a judgment. (Western Shale Products Co. v. City of Fort Scott, 172 Kan. 336, 239 P. 2d 828; see, also, Cities Service Gas Co. v. Krehbiel, 168 Kan. 69, 211 P. 68, and Western Light & Telephone Co. v. Toland, 177 Kan. 194, 277 P. 2d 584.)
By similar reasoning, an order which overrules an attempt to consolidate is not a final order because it does not determine any action but leaves the actions to be tried and permits the respective claimants to proceed to reduce their claims to judgment.
In the interest of justice and for the guidance of the Bench and Bar of this state, this court should affirmatively rule on appellees’ motions to dismiss. The legislature has seen fit to pass title to the condemned property immediately to the Turnpike upon payment of the appraised value into the clerk of the district court, but to
Even assuming that the Turnpike is before this court with an appealable order, the decision in Moore v. Kansas Turnpike Authority, supra (on rehearing), does not control in the instant case. At this point, it must be conceded that one expressing a dissent in this and the Moore case is confronted with the same dilemma which confronts the trial court and the attorney. Not much has been said on certain points in the opinion of this court on rehearing in Moore v. Kansas Turnpike Authority, supra. If an appeal by any one of the interested parties in a lot or parcel of ground to the district court from an appraisement in an eminent domain proceeding brings to the district court in its entirety the question of the sufficiency of the award to be tried in a single action as to all of the parties, will the court be consistent and say that all of the parties owning an interest in a specific lot or parcel of ground are indispensable parties? If so, then the failure of one of such interested parties in an action is jurisdictional.
Specific reference is made to my dissenting opinion on rehearing in Moore v. Kansas Turnpike Authority, supra.
If the failure of the lower court to consolidate the appeals was jurisdictional to the rendition of a final judgment, then the order was appealable but the court has not said so except inferentially, without even mentioning the fact that appellees have made an attack upon the validity of the appeal by the Turnpike.
If, as tire Turnpike here contends, an appeal by any one owning an interest in the property presents to the district court in its entirety the sufficiency of the award, then why has the Turnpike in the instant case requested in its prayer the exclusion of Glenn H. Price who was one of the owners of an interest in the tract of ground there condemned? As a matter of fact, the Turnpike means what it said when it requested consolidation, thereby recognizing that the statute granted separate appeals and the filing of separate actions.
Furthermore, how does the Turnpike account for its own conduct in the instant case? The record in this court discloses that the Turnpike settled with two of the appellants below, Mike Gregar and Joe Gregar, who had leases on the tract of land condemned operating two separate rock quarries and excavating rock from a portion of the property taken by the Turnpike. Pursuant to settlement for $3,808.80 each, the Turnpike approved an order of the court distributing $3,808.80 to each of said appellants from the total sum paid in to the clerk of the district court by the Turnpike and said appeals were thereupon dismissed.
One of the parties litigant to an action, the Turnpike in the instant case, is not permitted on appeal to this court to take a position in
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Georgia B. Jenkins Et Al., Appellees v. Kansas Turnpike Authority, Appellant
- Cited By
- 9 cases
- Status
- Published