Case ID: or_253/html/0287-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "SLOAN, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Argued April 9,
    affirmed April 30, 1969
    LARSON et ux, Appellants, v. STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION, Respondent.
    
    453 P2d 941
    
      Graham Walker, Portland, argued the cause for appellants. With him on the briefs was Robert Lee Olson, Portland.
    
      Ted E. Barbera, Assistant Attorney General, Salem, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Robert Y. Thornton, Attorney General, G. E. Rohde and Leslie B. Hampton, Assistant Attorneys General, Salem.
    Before Perry, Chief Justice, and Sloan, Goodwin, Holman and Hammond, Justices.
   SLOAN, J.

This is an action to recover for alleged damage to plaintiffs’ property caused by a change in the grade of a highway abutting plaintiffs’ property. The action is permitted by ORS 105.755(2), which reads:

“(2) "Whenever the State Highway Commission changes the grade of any public road from a previously established or maintained grade, the state shall be liable for and shall pay just and reasonable compensation for any legal damage or injury to any real property abutting upon the public road affected by the grade change; except that the state shall not be liable for any damage or injury for any such change whenever the county has requested the State Highway Commission to make such change.”

The case was tried without a jury and the trial court found that in this case the change in grade had been proposed and requested by the Multnomah County Board of County Commissioners. The evidence abundantly supports this finding and, as the statute indicates, it is a complete defense.

Affirmed.