Stringham v. Oshkosh & Mississippi Railroad
Stringham v. Oshkosh & Mississippi Railroad
Opinion of the Court
We think the answer does not state facts sufficient in law to bar the plaintiff from a part of the relief demanded in the complaint; and consequently the demurrer to it should have been sustained.
The complaint alleges that the defendant corporation has entered upon and appropriated a strip of plaintiff’s land three hundred feet wide for the use of its road; and that in so doing it has not proceeded according to the provisions of its charter authorizing it to condemn that quantity of land. The charter gives the company the right to take and use any land along and including the line of its road not exceeding two hundred feet in width, upon making compensation. And it further authorizes the company to take and use “ any other lands
It is alleged in the complaint that the company claims and pretends to have caused an appraisement to be made by commissioners of the value of certain lands outside the limits of two hundred feet, which it has taken under and by virtue of a resolution of its board of directors declaring that such lands were necessary for the use of its road; but it is averred that this resolution was passed at a meeting of the board when there were not present a sufficient number of directors to constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, and that such resolution is void and of no effect. It is stated that there are fourteen directors constituting the board, eight of whom make a quorum ; and that the resolution under which the company is proceeding was passed and adopted when there were only seven directors present at the meeting.
It is very evident that the company had no right to. condemn land outside the two hundred feet, except upon the condition that the board of directors, by a resolution, should declare it to be necessary for the use of its road. • Such a resolution was a corporate act, and could only be adopted at a meeting of the board when a quorum was present competent to do business. If there were only seven directors present when the resolution in question was adopted, then it was void, and does not justify the company in proceeding to condemn the land. For the provision in the charter must be strictly complied with before the company can go outside the limit therein fixed.
The answer in the present case sets forth the resolution under which the company justifies the taking of the property, but it fails to allege that this resolution-was adopted at a meeting
The pleadings show that commissioners appointed for that purpose proceeded to act under this resolution, and appraised the value of the entire strip of land three hundred feet in width. The plaintiff claims that this appraisement or award is void, for various reasons. But it appears that the plaintiff has taken an appeal from the award of damages by the commissioners ; and it is now insisted that the appeal operates as a bar to this action. The plaintiff, it is said, has no right at the same time to prosecute his remedy at law by appeal from the award, and to maintain this action to restrain the company from using his land. There would be great force in this objection if the plaintiff could test on the appeal the necessity of the company to have more than a strip two hundred feet wide for the use of its road. Then the appeal would be a full and adequate remedy, and this suit in equity should not be entertained. But this court has held that the necessity of taking more land outside the limits specified in the charter could not be inquired into on an appeal from the award of commissioners. Burns v. Mil. & Miss. Ry Co., 9 Wis., 450. In that case Mr. .Justice Paine says: “ The necessity or propriety of the taking could not be determined on the appeal. The contest was only as to what
Though the question raised in the Burns case was somewhat different from the one presented here, yet these remarks of the learned judge who gave the opinion in that case are strictly applicable, and show that the plaintiff had not an adequate remedy on appeal. For on such appeal he could neither contest the necessity for taking more than two hundred feet wide for the use of the road, nor raise the question whether the resolution under which the company was proceeding was passed at a meeting of the board when a sufficient number of directors attended to transact business, and thus protect his rights. Possibly he might on the appeal overhaul the award of the commissioners so far as the strip ■ of two hundred feet wide was concerned, and have the damages assessed for taking those premises; still there might be difficulty in doing this, and for the reason that the award was entire for the whole three hundred feet in width. But, however this may be, we think it very clear that all the rights of the plaintiff cannot be fully adjudicated on the appeal from the award of the commissioners, and that therefore there is no ground for holding that the appeal is a bar to this suit.
If the company has not proceeded according to the provisions
The other interesting questions discussed in this case will not be considered.
By the Court. — The order of the circuit court overruling the demurrer to the answer is reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Stringham v. The Oshkosh & Mississippi Railroad Company
- Status
- Published