Damon v. Ryan
Damon v. Ryan
Opinion of the Court
— This is an action to determine the right to money paid into the registry of the court by the city of Seattle for the right to damage certain lots by a regrade of the streets upon which they abut. Prior to January 5, 1911, the plaintiff was the owner of an undivided one-half of the lots in question as his separate property. On that date his wife, Lillie A. Damon, procured a decree of divorce and a
Our decision in the recent case in In re Twelfth Avenue South, ante p. 132, 132 Pac. 868, is decisive of this case. We there said:
“Where the conveyance of the land pending condemnation is by deed, without reservation, the only certain and just rule is that the money to be paid for the right to take or damage the property shall be paid to the person or persons owning the property or having an interest therein at the time when the condemnation has reached that point of completion where it is not subject to abandonment and when the right to the
As there pointed out, that stage is reached only at the expiration of sixty days from the entry of the last judgment in the condemnation proceeding, unless compensation be sooner paid into court. North Coast R. Co. v. Gentry, 73 Wash. 188, 131 Pac. 856; Spokane v. Cowles, 67 Wash. 539, 121 Pac. 463; State ex rel. Murray v. Herdlick, 73 Wash. 301, 131 Pac. 1139; State ex rel. Donofrio v. Humes, 34 Wash. 347, 75 Pac. 348; Silverstone v. Harn, 66 Wash. 440, 120 Pac. 109; Price v. Engelking, 58 Ill. App. 547; Chandler v. Morey, 195 Ill. 596, 63 N. E. 512; Chicago v. Barbian, 80 Ill. 482; Schreiber v. Chicago E. R. Co., 115 Ill. 340, 3 N. E. 427; Meginnis v. Nunamaker, 64 Pa. St. 374; Howley v. Pittsburg, 204 Pa. St. 428, 54 Atl. 347; Carli v. Stillwater # St. Paul R. Co., 16 Minn. 260; Magee v. Brooklyn, 144 N. Y. 265, 39 N. E. 87; In re Hamilton Street, 144 App. Div. 702, 129 N. Y. Supp. 317; Roberts v. Northern Pac. R. Co., 158 U. S. 1; Virginia-Carolina R. Co. v. Booker, 99 Va. 633, 39 S. E. 591; Obst v. Covell, 93 Minn. 30, 100 N. W. 650; Kiebler v. Holmes, 58 Mo. App. 119; Clark v. Meyerdirck, 107 Md. 63, 68 Atl. 141; In re Baird, 22 N. Y. Supp. 1021.
While the point is not material, in view of our conclusion, we hold that the clerk’s entry of judgment in his minutes on the verdict is not the final judgment. It is lacking in many of the elements of a final judgment of appropriation. The facts in Wagner v. Northern Life Ins. Co., 70 Wash. 210, 126 Pac. 434, are wide of a parallel.
It is manifest that, if the city had abandoned the condemnation proceedings within the sixty days after judgment, Mrs. Damon and the appellants would have taken the property undamaged. When the money was paid into court, the right to damage the property for the first time attached, and the right to the compensation for the first time became a vested, personal right. The proceeding for condemnation
“A purchaser at judicial sale before the property is taken, who receives a deed afterwards, is to be regarded as owner from the day of sale and is entitled to the compensation.” £ Lewis, Eminent Domain (3d ed.), § 895.
The appellants are clearly entitled to one-half of the award for damaging these lots.
The judgment, so far as it relates to the sum of $311.8£ claimed by the appellants John E. Ryan and wife, is reversed, and the cause is remanded with direction to modify the judgment in accordance with this opinion. The appellants may recover their costs.
Crow, C. J., Main, Eullerton,- and Morris, JJ., concur.
Reference
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- John L. Damon v. John E. Ryan
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- Syllabus
- Eminent Domain — Compensation — Persons Entitled — Loss of Title Pending Proceedings. The purchaser at execution sale of lands damaged by a pending condemnation, after verdict hut prior to entry of judgment, is entitled to the compensation in view of the fact that the condemnation is not completed or the award an enforceable demand until the entry of the last judgment and the expiration of the statutory period for abandonment of the proceedings or waiver thereof; since the purchaser at judicial sale is regarded as the owner from the day of sale, where he afterwards received his sheriff’s deed.