Stefan Auto Body v. State Highway Commission
Stefan Auto Body v. State Highway Commission
Opinion of the Court
This case presents the issue of whether an abutting property owner is entitled to compensation when direct access to the highway which becomes an access-free highway is replaced by a cul-de-sac frontage road which affords access at interchanges. The defendant argues such damage is not compensable because it results from a reasonable exercise of the police power in establishing the highway as a part of the national system of interstate highways. The plaintiff’s position on this appeal is that the cul-de-sac does not give it reasonable access to the express lanes of the highway and the loss of direct access results in a “taking” of its property in a constitutional sense, for which compensation must be paid.
Preliminarily, the plaintiff additionally argues the question of reasonable access is an issue of a material fact which defeats the motion for summary judgment. In some cases this may be so,
In considering the nature of the abutter’s right of access, the nature of loss suffered, and the nature of a frontage road involved in the problem of whether a frontage-road abutter should be compensated for the loss of direct access to a freeway, the courts have come to three different conclusions: (a) Any loss should be compensated and the existence of the frontage road considered in mitigation of the loss, (b) the loss should be compensated only when accompanied by a taking of the land by eminent domain, and (c) any loss resulting from being placed on the frontage road should not be compensated.
The conflict in the decisions ultimately rests in the different views of the nature of the right of access or what constitutes a reasonable exercise of the police power. All decisions recognize a complete denial of access to an existing road is compensable, and it is generally recognized the state under its police power may indirectly affect the abutting
It is true the line between police power and condemnation has not been and perhaps cannot be sharply drawn. The problem is really one of degree. In both, damages may result but if the damage is such as to be suffered by many similarly situated and is in the nature of a restriction on the use to which land may be put and ought to be borne by the individual as a member of society for the good of the public safety, health, or general welfare, it is said to be a reasonable exercise of the police power, but if the damage is so great to the individual that he ought not to bear it under
The right of access or of ingress or egress of an abutting property owner to a public road or street is a property right not separate in itself but incidental to and a part of the ownership of the land and is subject to the superior rights of the traveling public upon the highway and of the state to control that traffic for the common good. In early times, local roads were constructed for the improvement of property and in many instances the land was dedicated for such purpose and the road was paid for by local real-estate taxes or by special assessments. The concept of access rights in that context was not greatly influenced by the needs of the public generally which might clash with an unrestricted use of the property in relation to the abutting street. Covey, supra; Clarke, The Limited-Access Highway, 27 Washington Law Review (1952), 115. But a more-modern concept of the right of access restricts the scope and nature of the right in relation to the needs of contemporary society. Or, as it has been said, we cannot have changeless roads in a changing society. Darnall v. State, supra. Recent concepts of the function of highways have added to the local road and street concept limited-access highways, freeways, and expressways because of the growth of automobile traffic and
It is argued by the defendant that as long as the plaintiff has access to the interstate highway by a system of public roads his right of access is not impaired unreasonably. This argument proceeds on the theory the abutting property owner is merely entitled to some physical access to the public highway system. In this case that is true only to the extent to which the indirect access by the frontage road to the new or existing road is considered reasonable. However, the limited-right-of-way concept finds some basis in prior decisions of this court in what is called the circuity-of-travel doctrine. This idea was advanced in the early case of Chicago & N. W. R. Co. v. Railroad Comm. (1918), 167 Wis.
In the concurring opinion it was stated, page 518, “If by reason of providing a frontage road, or the existence of a previously existing connecting highway, there is reasonable access to the controlled-access highway, no taking requiring compensation should be held to have occurred.” The Nick Case involved the police power under sec. 84.25, Stats., relating to a controlled-access highway; the instant case is concerned with sec. 84.29, relating to the national system of interstate highways. The full scope of the circuity-of-travel
The trial court adopted the modern concept of the nature of the right of access and did not consider the plaintiffs right of access included the right to the flow of traffic or the continuance of that traffic on the highway. We agree.
The plaintiff’s loss of income and the diminution of value, of his property for use as a filling station and automobile service garage result from the characteristics of that particular use. The loss of profit results not so much from the inability of the plaintiff and its employees to reach the highway as from the inability of the public traveling on the highway to directly reach its place of business. But the control of the traffic on the highway is subject to the police power of the state. Considering the purpose of the construction of Interstate Highway 94, the nature of the access rights, that the interchanges are approximately five miles apart and served by frontage roads, we hold that reasonable access to the. interstate highway was given the plaintiff. It is unfortunate the plaintiffs property lies approximately at midpoint between these interchanges.
It is urged the defendant is estopped from asserting the taking of its access rights to State Trunk Highway 30 was
By the Court. — Judgment affirmed.
See Iowa State Highway Comm. v. Smith (1957), 248 Iowa 869, 82 N. W. (2d) 755.
Covey, Frontage Roads: To Compensate or Not to Compensate, 56 Northwestern University Law Review (1961), 587.
Arkansas State Highway Comm. v. Bingham (1960), 231 Ark. 934, 940, 333 S. W. (2d) 728 — Access to frontage road but not to Interstate Highway where formerly there was uncontrolled access to highway “. . . private enterprise must yield to the public welfare and convenience.” Selig v. State (1961), 10 N. Y. (2d) 34, 39, 217 N. Y. Supp. (2d) 33, 176 N. E. (2d) 59 — -Property owner not entitled to damages for loss of access when throughway was constructed, with change of grade, on street to which he formerly had access, leaving him access at former grade to a one-way service road. “Damages resulting merely from circuity of access are considered as damnum absque injuria.” State ex rel. Merritt v. Linzell (1955), 163 Ohio St. 97, 126 N. E. (2d) 53. Darnall v. State (S. D. 1961), 108 N. W. (2d) 291 — Gas station formerly on highway now on frontage road with access one and one-half miles each way, ap
Blount County v. McPherson (1958), 268 Ala. 133, 105 So. (2d) 117; State v. Thelberg (1960), 87 Ariz. 318, 350 Pac. (2d) 988; People v. Ricciardi (1943), 23 Cal. (2d) 390, 144 Pac. (2d) 799; Clayton County v. Billups Eastern Petroleum Co. (1961), 104 Ga. App. 778, 123 S. E. (2d) 187; Hendrickson v. Minnesota (May 3, 1963)- — Constitution provides for compensation for “damaging” as well as for taking. (20 The Bench and Bar of Minnesota (July, 1963), p. 49.) Hamilton v. Mississippi State Highway Comm. (1961), 240 Miss. 895, 128 So. (2d) 742. McMoran v. State (1959), 55 Wash. (2d) 37, 345 Pac. (2d) 598.
Meloon Bronze Foundry v. State (1959), 18 Misc. (2d) 403, 191 N. Y. Supp. (2d) 3, relied upon by appellant, held creation of cul-de-sac without providing reasonable means for vehicles using premises to turn around, must be compensated. On appeal, however, the appellate division, 200 N. Y. Supp. (2d) 563, modified this stating, at page 564, “The State is not required to respond in damages because claimant’s property does not have direct access to [the road] as reconstructed” or is not on a through street. People v. Sayig (1951), 101 Cal. App. (2d) 890, 226 Pac. (2d) 702, stated property placed on cul-de-sac after improvement entitles owner to compensation. Oklahoma Turnpike Authority v. Chandler (Okla. 1957), 316 Pac. (2d) 828, stated when property is placed on cul-de-sac special damages have occurred and owner can be compensated.
Jones Beach Blvd. Estate, Inc., v. Moses (1935), 268 N. Y. 362, 197 N. E. 313 (median); Anno. Traffic regulations which interfere with or restrict access to and from abutting property, 100 A. L. R. 491; and Anno. Power to restrict or interfere with access of abutter by traffic regulations, 73 A. L. R. (2d) 689; Iowa State Highway Comm. v. Smith, supra, and cases therein cited.
Anno. Right of private citizen to complain of rerouting of highway or removal or change of route or directional signs, 97 A. L. R. 192; Anno. Right of property owner to compensation for diversion of traffic by relocation or rerouting of highway, 118 A. L. R. 921; But see Anno. Abutting owner’s right to damages or other relief for loss of access because of limited-access highway or street, 43 A. L. R. (2d) 1072.
(1955), 269 Wis. 593, 70 N. W. (2d) 208, 71 N. W. (2d) 276. See Notes, Highway Condemnation — Compensation for Limited Highway Access and Diversion of Traffic, 1959 Wisconsin Law Review, 667.
State ex rel. Carter v. Harper (1923), 182 Wis. 148, 196 N. W. 451.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting). I disagree with the principle of law applied by the majority in the instant action that a person, whose means of livelihood is taken away by the state in connection with the removal and construction of a new interstate highway, is precluded from recovering damages under the provisions of sec. 84.29, Stats.
It would seem to me that the first question that is presented by the undisputed facts in the action is whether the plaintiff has been deprived of his property. The United States supreme court in determining the question of whether a person has been deprived of his property rights recognizes
Courts have recognized that a landowner is entitled to compensation where his direct right of access is taken, even though other, but less satisfactory means of access are available. Oklahoma Turnpike Authority v. Chandler (Okla. 1957), 316 Pac. (2d) 828, 832; Blount County v. McPherson (1958), 268 Ala. 133, 135, 105 So. (2d) 117; Mc Moran v. State (1959), 55 Wash. (2d) 37, 40, 345 Pac. (2d) 598; State v. Thelberg (1960), 87 Ariz. 318, 324, 350 Pac. (2d) 988.
Sec. 84.29 (4), Stats., requires that, when an interstate highway is laid out along an existing public highway reasonable provisions must be made for access to abutting property by means of frontage roads. In Iowa State Highway Comm. v. Smith (1957), 248 Iowa 869, 877, 82 N. W. (2d) 755, 760, the Iowa supreme court stated that the question of whether an abutting property owner has been denied reasonable access to a controlled-access highway is a question of fact, not of law. The Iowa court also held that the public cannot deprive abutting landowners from free and convenient access to their properties without just compensation.-
Highway 30, prior to the construction of the new Interstate Highway 94, was a part of the state trunk intrastate highway system. The plaintiffs access rights to Highway 30 in the instant action existed without any prior permit being required, and he established a business which is totally dependent upon some highway traffic. Termination of any
As to what constitutes compensable damage within the meaning of constitutional guaranties, the rule which has received the most support in actual application is that compensation is required not only when there is an injury that would be actionable at common law, but also in all cases in which it appears that there has been some physical disturbance of a right, either public or private, which the owner of a parcel of land enjoys in connection with his property, and which gives to it an additional value, and that by reason of such disturbance he has sustained a special damage with respect to his property in excess of that sustained by the public generally. 18 Am. Jur., Eminent Domain, p. 765, sec. 139. The Colorado court, in reversing the judgment of the trial court based upon a finding of a jury, that the owner of land adjacent to a pre-existing highway suffered no damage when his rights of access were condemned as an incident to the conversion of the highway to a freeway, held that these rights of access constituted property. The court
The motion for summary judgment should have been denied because substantial issues of fact and damages exist which in my opinion cannot be resolved upon affidavits.
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